Despite the stinking weather (a main course of 30 mph winds and a side order of cold, wet rain), and many other comps organised for the Sunday having already been cancelled, we bucked the trend and chose to man it out on the end of a'rather breezy' Breakwater for a good 7 hours. A decision which, in the end, served us well!
Mike, Len, Steve, Ace, Bob, Josh and myself met in the carpark at the end of Brixham Breakwater at 10am (Sun 1st Nov 2009), exchanged greetings - and the odd bit of sh*t stemming from last month’s competition at Slapton - looked at each other in complete disbelief that we’d all actually turned out, and headed off down to the end of the breakwater to get set up for the comp.
Essentially, the shore competition for Oct/Nov 2009 was to be a catch and release species hunt. Mike had weighted the points to encourage anglers to show their skills by catching as many different species as possible between lines down at 10:30 and lines up at 17:30. 10 points would be awarded for the first fish of each species and 1 point thereafter. Great thinking on Mike’s behalf since it meant all fish could be released if not for the table and it would deter anglers from ‘bashing’ one single species all day.
With a stiff nor’ easterly whipping across the Breakwater, most of the action was being seen on the outside. The inside was more or less limited to a bit of scratching around at short distance, and for Len ‘big bait’ Bennet & Co to do what they do so well: to throw bigger lumps of fish into the water than I generally pull out.
Since the conger known to lurk around the old fuel jetty chose not to make an appearance, however, the focus slowly turned toward what we could find on the outside.
We were soon off the mark with a tiny Pollack for yours truly followed by Steve and Josh with 2 better Ballans. Scratching around the rocks within 50 yards of the Breakwater was proving heavy on the terminal tackle but we were starting to pick up a few more fish on the rising tide.
Ace was next to get off the mark with a flurry of fish in quick succession – a pair of Mackerel on baited feathers, a spawny Garfish (c’mon, admit it mate ;) ) and then a good few Pollack. Ace was in his stride and slowly beginning to open the gap between first place and the rest of us.
In contrast, a little further down the breakwater things weren’t going quite so well. Bob, Len and Mike were still waiting for their first fish to come in, although in fairness, Mike was keeping pretty busy snapping expensive rods and clearing the harbour of old plastic bags. Oh, and providing Ace with ragworm to help him further increase his lead – now that’s sportsmanship! Apparently, I heard that in addition to supplying Ace’s bait for him at the next comp, Mike’s also kindly offered to make his sandwiches for him too...BLT or Cheese and Pickle, Ace?
On reflection, that was the main theme of the whole day – not frustration, but good sportsmanship and friendly banter. Despite the weather, it made the day an absolute corker.
Mid afternoon, tactics began to change a little. With Ballan, Pollack and Mackerel already on the scorecards for the current leaders, a few shinier rigs started to get thrown about. I headed up to the end of the breakwater and trotted a float out hoping for a Gar and popped a couple of feathers on the other rod in the hope of my first mackerel. But it wasn’t to be, despite Josh, Ace and Steve still getting amongst them!
As the wind dropped later in the afternoon, the fishing continued to improve. Josh and Ace were keeping busy finding Pollack on the float, Steve, just a little further down, had managed to get a respectable Ballan of 1lb 11Oz – way bigger than everything else we had seen so far that day – and the big bait boys were now off the mark and making back some ground. Mike had found his forte with the Ballans, pulling in several in quick succession, Bob was looking for something sizeable on the plug, and Len was holding out for best specimen of the day – a fish that would see one angler take half the pot. After brief discussion, we also decided that the huge seal patrolling up and down the breakwater wouldn’t count if inadvertently caught.
With about 1 hour of the competition left, and the sun dropping fast, there was little separating the top 3 on points. Ace was just managing to maintain his lead with some excellent Pollack fishing and Steve and Josh weren’t far behind. Steve’s recent Mackerel and Blenny almost doubled his score, and Josh’s score was also steadily increasing again with some good Pollack fishing. I continued to faff about on the end of the break water trying in vain for my first mackerel! I finally managed to get back in the race with my own spawny Garfish and a couple of Corkwings on the inside of the breakwater to add to the Ballans and small Pollack.
On paper it looked like a four horse race, although in reality the competition was still wide open. We all knew that it’s well within the realms of possibility to catch 5 species in 45 minutes – especially with darkness almost upon us.
Ace was still maintaining his lead with the Pollack, but was (i think) holding out for a Doggie on his other rod. Unfortunately for him, the one time he wanted a doggie it didn’t make an appearance. We did see a Flaming Zebu though, although not fishing today, Si rocked up to cheer us along and see how we were doing – thankfully he left is pom poms in the car though. Good to meet you mate.
In a last gasp attempt to claw back some points I decided to give up on the Mackie and bottom fish instead. Now, in semi darkness, we had a fair chance of bumping up the species tally.
By 17:15 it looked as though Ace had worked his magic yet again, it appeared he was destined to win the second competition in a row. Fair play to him though, after a slow start, he fished his socks off and overtook the lot of us with some sound skill (and a spawny garfish)...
With about 10 minutes left, with Ace leading, myself and Josh a close second and third, and Steve only a couple of fish away from Josh, one new species would have clinched victory for any of us.
Talk about down to the wire. A couple of minutes later, I managed to summon a Pout from somewhere - which pretty much put 2 of us neck and neck for the top spot – and then smurfed a lastminute.com Poor Cod! Fortunately it had pretty much thawed out before I placed it on the hook and dropped it in ;)
17:30 came and went, we packed up and met down in the car park to check scorecards and compare notes on our day’s fishing. The two prizes for the day were for Best Specimen and Most Points.
With everything toted up, Steve won Best Specimen convincingly with his Ballan – not only the best specimen of the day but, in fact, the biggest fish of the competition. Congratulations mate.
Although the match rigging inquiry is still ongoing, I managed to take first place for the most points of the day (75) with Ace coming in second (59), Josh third (51), Steve fourth (47), Mike fifth (24). Well done chaps.
I’m not totally sure of Len and Bob’s final score as I think they are still manning it out down there, 2 days later, fishing hard for that record breaking Bass and Conger...good luck, but make sure you get back in time for the next competition!!
Well done to everyone who supported this month’s competition and who made it a thoroughly enjoyable days fishing.
A big thank you also to Mike and Len who took the time to organise and run our Breakwater Comp and make it such a success. Thanks guys.
Ok, diary alert for our next competition – some of you may already have seen a post on this on the forum, but Si has kindly offered to organise our next friendly shore competition. Some of the detail has yet to be confirmed, but it’s looking like another south Devon venue, accessible to all, and taking place on the 22nd Nov 2009. If you want to enter this competition, please help Si get an idea of numbers by putting your name down in this competition thread
Once all details are confirmed I’ll be sure to get another note up on the site too.
Until next time, tight lines!
