Poole Flounder Festival of Fun Jan 15th
There were 4 boats in this year’s contest with 30 boat anglers and two shore anglers, three of the boats ( Our gemma, Aries & Danny Boy) headed to the west side of the harbour, Ooker decided to opt for the East side. The 2 shore anglers headed for the Baiter Park. The East side was obviously the place to be as Ooker managed a very respectable 12 Flounder, Jerry Knight had the only other boat caught Flattie onboard Aries however this was caught after they had crossed to the East side of the harbour. Although Our Gemma did cross over after 2 flounder less hours, only a small Bass was added to the Rockling and Sea Scorpion.
Report from Ooker
We fished to the East of the harbour when the other three boats went to the West side. We were anchored up 50mtrs inside the channel buoys and there for were fishing from 6 foot deep to 15 feet off the stern. In the morning we were fishing the last of the flood tide and the fish were caught reasonable close to the boat to start with. Tristan Spencer caught the first fish of 2lb 4oz’s within the first few minutes and then Neil Cottington had a few casting away from the boat and occasionally twitching and drawing the bait back towards the boat. I indeed copied this method and managed to land one also using the same red glass beads that were given to me by Steve and Neil…Nice Chaps.
We then moved a little further along the buoys and re anchored. The boat lay better so I then proceeded to get my float rig out….well, a Paul River’s delta spoon with a few 5mm red/yellow beads and a size 1 hook. I casted slightly up tide and then the wind dragged the float back across the side of the boat. Within the first ten minutes I had another fish much to the crew’s astonishment. Then in the last hour Neil caught another two dragging and I thought I was out of it, then I had one almost the same time on the float followed by another the next cast. When lines up was called the three Spencer’s all had a fish on, must have been there all the time but it was a fun moment on the boat. It showed that a moving bait worked the best, on the flood but I am sure the float worked well on the ebb but you had to be fishing shallow.
Report from the shore
We set up fishing facing into the wind, our thinking that the waves and coloured water might encourage a few fish in to feed. As the tide was making right from the start it was important that the first 3 hours we caught fish as normally this is the best time. Reg captured a small flounder very first cast so we were encouraged that maybe the plan was good! He added a better flounder about an hour later.
The 3 hours of flood were gone and I was starting to think that this competition was going to be a “Coconut” for me (blank) but kept fishing hard and banged the bait out into the wind and success a massive bite. Reg and I were convinced that a very good flounder had taken the bait as the slack line bites and hard pulls on the rod were very aggressive. So all smiles picked up the rod and leant into a massive 5 oz of lead!! No fish. This repeated itself again about 30 minutes later with same result! I couldn’t believe it 2 good bites and no fish. I decided to change the bait presentation and reduced the size of the bait and did not have any tails hanging. This seemed to work as within 30 minutes I had 2 fish in the bucket.
The best rig that caught all our fish was 2 hooks up 1 down rig with 5oz plain lead.
Paull
Result
At the end of the day it was disappointing to see that one of the boats had the lion’s share of fish but also pleasing to see that the two shore anglers both had a two each. The prize giving was done and all were on their way home by 4pm.
Neil Cottington 4 fish 4lb 12oz Ooker
Neil Bryant 4 fish 4lb 8oz Ooker
Tristan Spencer 2 fish 4lb 1oz Ooker junior 10
Reg Clough 2 fish 2lb 10oz shore
Paull Curtice 2 fish 2lb 5oz shore
Hayden Spencer 1 fish 1lb 14oz Ooker junior 12
Steve Spencer 1 fish 1lb 6oz Ooker
Jerry Knight 1 fish 1lb 4oz Aries
Top Shore Angler Reg Clough 2lb 10oz
Best Fish Tristan Spencer 2lb 4oz
Top junior Tristan Spencer 10 years old 4lb 1oz
Martin
