13 of us fished a species hunt for the Trevor Davies cup earlier today on Holyhead Breakwater in wet and windy conditions.
The match was fished on a measure and release format, with each different species scoring 100 points plus their length in centimetres.
Everybody had their own ideas of what to target. We were fishing 3 up and 3 down and our plan was to head to Corkwing Corner and start off targeting the minis.
Dave, brother Ad, Terry and I got busy with the minis and Dave and Terry put out big baits at distance. Terry was fortunate enough to catch a strap Conger on his distance rod, which at 82cms didn’t do his bag any harm! 182 points!
The minis were coming in thick and fast.
I had a small Ballan, then a Corkwing which is number 25 for the year for me.
Terry had his Corkwing and picked up a Goldsinney.
After Dan had some Coalies on the end last month, I decided to brave the elements and see if there were any still around off the end near the lighthouse. I also set up another rod to fish a crab bait into the rough stuff for a Rockling.
Things started looking up for me, I managed a Coalie on the shrimp rig, small but they all count.
Then second cast into the rough, I pulled out a Shore Rockling which at 61/4 ounces is over club specimen weight and these were both new species for the year!
I dropped back down to Corkwing corner for the remainder of the match. Dave and brother Ad both caught Rock Cook Wrasse right next to me which was a tad annoying.
Terry had another species with a Long Spined Sea Scorpion.
Adam found one too amongst the Tompots he was now catching, his 32nd species this year,
…and I had my second fish over specimen weight of the day with this monster which was 18cms long and weighed 31/2 ounces.
There was a bit of excitment when Terry hooked into something heavy on his size 6. He had hooked into the rope of a lost bait net and while he got fishing again, i pulled it in and photographed the catch. God knows how long it had been there but the beasties were all still alive!
There were plenty of Velvet swimmers.
A nice Eddy and a Lobster.
A Goldsinney,
and a nice Rock Goby,
..... which all went back bar the Eddy and the Lobster which went to Daves house for tea.
The fishing began to slow down and the weather deteriorated for the last hour. Norman and Janet moved up to the end from where they had started with the news that Norman and JJ were both on 7 species. This gave a boost as I was on 6 so I went out and out for a Tompot and Rock Cook, but all I managed were Sea Scorpions for the rest of the match. Dave moved to where Norm and Jan had come from because Norman had a Dog before he moved, and Adam let the weather and his hangover get the better of him and he headed home early, satisfied with his 2 new species for the year.
Before too long, we had packed the soaking wet gear into the car and had made it back to the start of the Breakwater. We added and checked the points and the final results are,
Winner, with 10 species and 1223 points, John Jones. He had fished the last part of the match on the outside and had added Pout, Poor Cod and Pollack to his bag to take the cup.
Second was Norman Dorling with 7 species and 851 points and I took third with 6 species and 711 points.
Janet Dorling won the ladies Prize and Jack Peters was top junior on the day.
13 fished and 11 submitted their cards with 14 different species recorded. There were no dead fish at the weigh in and apart from the weather, it was a very enjoyable day.
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