Snowbee Eastbourne boat comp July 17th

[niggle]

I had an invite from mate Gary to fish this comp on his Rodman 970 which I accepted as it was a great opportunity to catch up with him and other friends from that area.22 boats entered with 79 anglers fishing the comp(some on charters).Most of the private boats come from Brighton or Newhaven and practiced on the trip over on Saturday .

The comp day arrived and all had to squeeze into the 2 locks of the Premier marina/Soverign harbour which was interesting to say the least,then all waited just outside the harbour in one area for the 8 o'clock start.With a start call on the radio every boat shoot off in different directions.....quite a buzz especially when some can do 40knts but they soon backed off to a more comfortable speed after the initial enthusiasm .

Well that was the exciting part of the day because the fishing was very slow after I had a small 3lb pollock on my 3rd wind.We only had one other pollock on the 8 wrecks we tried so we feathered some mackerel and went and tried for some turbot.All we had was a red gurnard dozen or so dogs and a 12lb thornie so tried some more wrecks but still not enough tide so just pout plucks.

Back in the lock all crammed in before 4.30 then to the weigh in ,where everybody got a goodie bag from Snowbee.

All agreed it was a hard day on a tiny tide

Biggest round fish 12lb cod won a Snowbee reel and half the pool money

Biggest flat fish 4.4 lb plaice won the same as above

Great atmosphere just a shame the fish didn't want to play

Glad we don't have a lock on our marinas they are a pain

[niggle]

[Stuie]

Nice report and pics Nigel - Penarth lock is like that on a big competition - but with a much bigger tide drop...

[Mike Fox]

It looks good to fish a comp somewhere else, Well done on catching in unfamiliar waters!

 

Locks are a pain. Biggest I've used was the commercial shipping locks at St. Malo, where the tide can be around 13m at springs.

 

Still, once inside you stay afloat which is much better than going up and down with that tide on a wall, or lying in the mud at low water.

 

Mike