Day 1 and the 18 anglers on 3 boats braved the coldest temperatures of this winter in the hope of getting a tug on their line from one or more of the double figure cod that are a regular winter feature in the waters around the Isle of Wight. The forecast was unsuitable to head too far south so the boats stayed closer inshore. 2 or 3 moves for most boats but it was only Dawn Venture that found 3 cod for 3 individuals with Pete Bailey having the longest, obviously trying to improve on last years second place.
Day 2 still a stiffish breeze forecast so it was head out and see where it was suitable to fish. Dawn Venture stayed in the vicinity of the Nab Tower where he had success yesterday and found 3 more cod, consistent, though not shared this time as your Chairman Neil Bryant took the lot giving him a length of 238cm Wight Huntress Headed for the Culver rock area where they managed to find 3 cod to 2 anglers. Predator headed past the Nab Tower into some deeper water and this was the boat to be on! Kim Bowden started the day with a small codling and followed this shortly with a double shot on the pennell rig of another codling and one of 79cm about 16lb so that put him in the running, Colin Searles caught a good size cod to add to yesterdays one, but Kim had another at 88cm to put the pressure on. On the other side of the boat Vernon Allen after loosing one earlier caught a magnificent cod of 99cm estimated at 25lb (the skippers scales only went up to 22lb!) This took the prize for ‘longest cod’; he followed this with a 78cm cod to put the pressure on. Cod also came to the other anglers on the boat but it was a 3 horse race by now. Kim caught another 2 to take the lead and just to finish had a bite with 2 minutes to go which he let develop so that when lines up was called he lifted into another cod with the cry of ‘fish on’ to bring his tally to 6 cod. The final count on the boat was 15 cod which other than the 2 codling were all over15lb, a memorable day for all on board including the skipper who had not seen that many cod on a Langstone boat in one days fishing for many a year!
Results
| Position | Competitor | No of cod | Length | |||
| 1st | Kim Bowden | 6 | 424cm | |||
| 2nd | Vernon Allen | 3 | 73cm | |||
| 3rd | Richard Russell | 3 | 241cm | |||
| 4th | Neil Bryant | 3 | 238cm | |||
| 5th | Colin Searles | 3 | 234cm | |||
| 6th | Dick Prosser | 2 | 158cm | |||
| 7th | Andy Smith | 1 | 88cm | |||
| 8th | Pete Bailey | 1 | 86cm | |||
| 9th | Mick Toomer | 1 | 67cm |
There were 9 other competitors but they failed to locate a cod so will not list them!
Life members: – Richard Russell was in 1st place.
Longest cod was Vernon Allen with a 99cm cod estimated at 25lb
Top boat was Predator with that one day catch of 15 cod.
