Poole species comp

[Deep Sea Dean]

Some of you may be aware that this coming Friday the annual species competition is held out of Poole on local charter boats.

 

Our club has a team booked in but due to unforseen circumstances we need two more members to fill the team. I am told it is a good event and it would be good to fill the spaces and have a good show from the club.

 

Appreciate it is a friday, work commitments etc but if anybody is available and would like to fish please either send me a PM or post here.

[codless]

put me done for a plaice phone 07964678280 clive.

[Deep Sea Dean]

Hi Clive,

 

Will give you a call tommorrow.

 

Dean

[great white]

Hi Dean

 

I have just spoken to Rich Swain he has asked me to post that he will definatly be available, and he will call you later.

 

Charlie

[Swainiac]

Dean/Neal, will deffo be there........what are the chances of crashing overnight in poole after the club meeting??? Will ring you at work today Dean.

 

Rich

[Mike Fox]

Am really looking forwards to this, but to help the PBSBAC teams, can anyone advise what's the best "generic" rig to use for this?

 

I was thinking tiny 3-hook paternoster, but I experimented with a 2 up / one-down rig at the weekend which seemed to offer the prospect of a large bait as well on the bottom hook.

 

What do you think is best?

 

Mike

[great white]

I think BB recent advice is very sound, you can catch big fish on small hooks

 

but will struggle to catch small fish on big hooks

 

it sounds like a scratching type comp, so a choice of premade multi hook rigs to small tough hooks sounds the way to go.

 

Cut down feather / Hokia rigs will be a good starter, baited for many species bare and worked bass,gar,mackeral scad

 

but your idea of two up one down is also a good one, maybe use the hokai/feathers as the two up.

 

If you use clips to hold the rigs on,

a second rig can be prepared and baited. If fish are caught and landed, unclip the rig, clip on the new one and get it down. then sort out the first one. [Double Patting we used to call it}

 

Tight lines

Charlie

[Mike Fox]

Wow! What a fascinating experience!

 

Thrashed on our home patch by pretty well every other team! We caught fish, but just lots of old faithfuls (but not all!) and almost none of the mini-species.

 

Where did we go wrong?

 

Chaps I was fishing next to had done this before - lots. Things they did we didn't included:

- using 3 No 14 hooks on a flowing rig (a.k.a. 3 down?), from a single paternoster boom for mini-species - almost tangle proof!

- bait preparation - loads of different small baits, pre-prepared in trays/compartments

- use of tiny white rag and maddies as bait (half inch long max)

- they targetted each major species individually

- they targetted minispecies by careful use of baits and presentation

- they typically had 3 identical tiny baits at a time

- they worked as a team better, with each trying for different species on different parts of the boat

- once they caught a target species, they changed tactics to reduce the chance of catching that one again

- long telescopic rods with quiver tips to keep away from hull etc

- fixed spools to flick lightweight rigs away from the noise zone

- experience and knowledge of mini-species that gave them several more species than us (black goby, baillon's wrasse, goldsinny wrasse, etc)

 

Am sure the others could add more!

 

What can we as a club do differently in future, if the club is interested in doing well at this type of event?

 

My first suggestion would be to open up our species comps to ALL species - minis as well. How about a bonus 5 points for EVERY unlisted species on our current list (to max of 4 as per current rules). It might help us get to know the small stuff, and learn how to win these big prestigious events, and get the club name out there!

 

My second suggestion would be to have team species comps, with up to 4 anglers on the same boat. We don't do this. Others do. It seems to work!

 

My third suggestion is that generally, we don't fish species comps and specimen comps together. Why not? The event yesterday also had a specimen element (won by a huge tub gurnard on our boat of 3lb 4.5oz), and the two don't clash. If we ran these in parallel, then it might add a separate fun element for those who can't catch a big one!

 

Otherwise, a great day out with some great blokes, and a good laugh - even though it was incredibly frustrating at times. Thanks for Neal for organising, John for the lift and sorting the bait, Alun for giving us all hope, and Rich for all of the tips and hints!

 

Mike

Edited June 7, 2008 by Mike Fox

[Paul D]

I think the problem including mini species in species comps is one of identification. We have enough trouble getting rays identified, let alone weird coloured Wrasse and gobies/blennies etc

 

I guess the reason we do not have comps with up to 4 anglers fishing on the same boat is most of our boats are small. ( i.e 2 or 3 if lucky ) ?

 

 

[Maverick Martin]

Competition anglers are a species of their own and probably worth several points A totally seperate breed from the rest of us with most being very skillfull in what they do. I did it for years on the shore side of things (unsuccesfully) but have not bothered since owning boats.

 

It takes allsorts to make up a world but bashing out mini species is not my thing so would not take part in events based on that formatt. I can however see the benefit for the club should others wish to represent us on that front.

 

Martin

[large fries]

If we held the mini species comp before the bass comp we could save a lot of time bait catching.Seriously though Mike,the guys you were fishing against are good mates of mine,ive known Ed for 25 years and they have been doing that as long as i can remember.They are also accomplished specimen hunters, this they have also practiced for a long time.They spend a lot of hours planning their match including working out their likely points score depending on which boat they are on.For the club to shine in this sort of event the level of practice is beyond what most individuals can justify so i wish you good luck.They totalled nearly 200 miles just getting the bait to catch what we use as bait.One last question,what size hook is required for the black goby?.

Rup

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Swainiac]

Rup, fine wire freshwater hooks around a size 12 made up the buisiness end of the rigs for these guys, switching from two up one down, to two down one up whenever mini's were showing. They fish together as a team often, which showed in their results.

 

I enjoyed it, but mini species is not my ticket, I would have preferred a single fish of main species, with points differing on harder to catch speicies.

 

Was interesting to see maggots being used as bait also!

 

Rich

[Neal]

 

The concept of match fishing is not one that sits confortable with me either - even though I attend / compete in around 10 species competitions each year with members of the constabulary.

 

What I have found is that certain anglers will be able to take almost any location and catch more fish than the rest - Luck! - certainly not.

 

They will change rigs, baits and anything else required to catch whatever can be caught, and this includes specimen fish.

 

If the thought of using small hooks puts you off - I have seen 20lb plus, cod, congers and rays caught on size 2 hooks and it takes some degree of skill on light tackle to bring these fish in.

 

The Poole Species hunt is interesting in that it is both challenging to anglers and skippers alike - the skippers need to know what can be caught where and at what state of tides (skippers from further afield usually struggle in this particular competition due to lack of specific local knowledge). Plus you get taken to all the local marks which produce fish by people who have to make a living from doing so!

 

More local marks provided in one day than you will find in a seasons fishing!

 

It is then down to the individual anglers and working as a team to catch as many different species as possible. This is then set against another team trying to do the same. That is the competion bit - and it is very frustrating for people who are normally very competitive to be thrashed by more skilfull anglers.

 

This is what takes us out of our usual comfort zone, where we just steam off to a mark and sit / drift using pre-determined baits and pre-determined tactics to catch our target species.

 

I have taken one of my match fishing friends out to a blonde ray mark - where he caught his PB blonde of 25lb - once he had done that, rather than "chucking" another chunk of mackerel over the side and waiting for another - he changed tactics and proceeded to catch fish after fish of a variety of different species on the same mark. Whereas I would have pulled up either an untouched or mangled bait and never even known whatelse was down there.

 

I have to confess I would prefer to sit and wait (hopefully)for a specimen fish to appear, than catch any number of mini species. But especially for the bass fishermen amongst you / us, these mini species make excelent bass baits when joey mackeral are scarce - or difficult to get to.

 

This competition is a challenge and it is frustrating and doesn't suit everybody but it represents a massive learning opportunity - and more often than not, you have a good bunch of people out for a good time on a boat - with prizes on offer if you do well. It is not obligatory to take it too seriously either.

 

 

Neal

 

[great white]

Hi All

 

well to start let me say that like Martin, mini species have no interest to me, and I would find it hard to motivate myself to spending a day scratching for such fish.

So we would probably just give it a miss.

 

That said I have fished a lot of charter boat competitions in the Mob and Conger Club.

 

The most succesfull anglers seem to be those that put the effort and preperation in.

They have done their homework, bring a huge selection of rigs tackle bait and tactics and swap from one to another at the slightest hint of a differant species showing.

 

Having fished with James P he uses these tactics even on a pleasure trip, which is probably why he was so hard to beat in our Club comps and won the BFM national comp a few years ago.

 

I believe there is no need to adopt these guys competition rules, it would be better to adopt their ethos to our comps, better preperation and more flexable tactics and chase the fish that are there not just sit it out for what we hope to catch

 

Glad you all enjoyed the comp

 

Charlie