Duration:2:15 - 7:15
Tide:5 hours of flood
Weather:North Westerly, easing off as the day went on
Bait:everything
Rigs: mainly 3 hook flappers & assorted
Results:Flounders, Coalies, Whiting, Rockling, Dogs & Bass
Report:
It was a fresh north westerly that greeted the 9 SAI hopefuls at Toberpatrick yesterday. A decent sea running, with plenty of colour in the water and only a little "dirt" made for very favourable conditions.
We kicked off @ 2.15, and from the first cast there was a decent number of coalies & flounder being caught on assorted worm & fish baits. Eric, Boycie & JD on pegs 3, 4 & 5 were having a right old ding dong, trading fish for fish in the first hour or so. Myself & Cormac on pegs 1 & 2 were picking up a few fish but not to the extent of the lads in the middle, meanwhile the lads on the higher numbers were struggling to keep up with the young bucks (and JD
)The coalies switched off and then it became a "flattie battle" & Boycie was now picking up doubles regularly, much to the annoyance of the rest of us. He was in front as the fishing slowed, but I began to locate a few fish a little further out than the rest of the lads who were "dipping" for flats. It got really quiet for about 90 minutes, (for everyone except for me
) and I just kept getting single & double flounders, every cast, using exactly the same traces & baits as everyone else, very strange, but I certainly wasn't complaining!Into darkness and the sea flattened off and tempreture dropped, but thank god the whiting didn't arrive!! The flatties were still eagerly chomping baits along the stretch, but I had built up a decent lead during the quiet spell. I knew it was my day when I got a decent bite and reeled a rockling & doggie double - both hooked on maddies!! The fishing was a little patchy for the last hour but a few dogs came to those on the low pegs, I had another, so did Boycie, Eric & Cormac.
A great days fishing, I had 29 fish to win, and a decent mix of species. Everyone caught, and well done to Conor (D'fella) on his first comp, he certainly seemed to enjoy himself!
Big thanks to Henry of Henry's Tackle for his generous sponsorship (yet again) - http://www.henrystackleshop.com/
Full results below -
Place Peg Name Number Fish Fish Points League Points 1 1 Alby Allan 29 542 30 2 3 Eric Gasparro 19 400 29 3 4 Andy Boyce 18 340 28 4 5 John Diamond 15 336 27 5 2 Cormac Walsh 10 244 26 6 7 Keith Stafford 14 227 25 7 9 Keith Murphy 11 183 24 8 8 Mark Sinnot 4 67 23 9 6 Conor Fuller 7 58 22
everything I thought I knew was out the window! I picked up an undersized Codling and then with a fish in I settled into it.
And on my second last cast I could feel a dead weight on my line and I really thought I had a dog or two. I knew this would lift me off the bottom and began to smile at the thoughts of second last place. I was gutted to find a 19.5cm rockling on the top hook and a foul hooked glove on the bottom hook. It was full of sand and stones so that was the weight I had felt. This really left me gutted and despite my best efforts on my last cast I could not pick up a doggie.
dont ya just love it 
