screeming reels rosslare report 2008

Well, what can i say, we still have not come to terms with whats happened. Yes we have won the small boats comp held annually at Rosslare.
We entered this comp this year for a bit of practice pre Cork, with only the target of a top ten finish considering the talent entered into this comp with years of knowledge in the area.
Not in our wildest dreams did we think we could win it.
I will attempt to give a brief report of the weeks events.
Sunday was the first day of the comp, and the weather forecast was pretty good, but no one had told that to mother nature, and though the day started with a nice 3-4 breeze, it soon picked up to a 5, and with a big spring tide, this made conditions VERY lumpy, and hence fishing difficult.
Of course each day we have a plan of attack, but this soon was rather pear shaped due to one reason, Trying to predict where the tide is moving around the saltees is a b....y nightmare!!
One side of the islands could be movings/w at 2-3 knots, and on the other side of tthe island, east at 2 knots, and then near the harbour total slack tide!!
This made chosing a spot to anchour very difficult
Anyway ,it was the same for everyone, and we came in with eleven species on day one.
Day two saw less wind, but by early am it rained , and boy did it rain!!, we had a slightly better day, picking up 14 species, but were all soaked to the skin at the end of the day, though washing the boat was not required.
We manged to only add 4 new species on day two which was a big letdown, as conditions were not too bad, and certain "bankers" were allouding us like cod, ling, huss, launce, scad etc.
Day three saw a wonderful day, and after a lot of planning and a wee tip from a local fisherman, we hatched a plan.
This involved starting by trying for our Bass, what followed is what every fisherman dreams about.
On arrival at the spot, before i could even get my line in the water, "Fish On" was the cry from Neville, follwed by the same from Seirt!!
My prep was abandoned for the net, and nev soon had a lovely bass onboard, followed by another from seirt!! and still i had'nt wet a line!
A very quick, ( and unanamouse ) desision was made to continue the bass fishing for a bit of fun, and to try and get a big one as weight is important in comp.
12 Bass later in a frantic 30 mins fishing, we i managed a nice 6lb'er and we reluctantly called it a day to continue the plan!
( all bar three fish were returned)
We hit the next mark, and we had ling , cod, and conger onboard pretty quickly, and we were on a roll, but things slowed down in the last hour, again because of our poor tide knowledge of the area.
We finshed 2 nd on the day with 15 species, we were happy with that.
The leader borad on day three was Sonic blue on 25 species, and we were in 11th place with 19
So, Day four, we knew we had a lot to do, and we knew we had to get at least six to equal the leader, and we had a plan for a max of five if we were lucky. Well lady luck was on our side, trying for the mackerel, Seirt pick up three launce, all undersized!!!
But they were there and eventullay we got one in size, we then headed to a huss mark, which as in the past couple of days was producing a steady stream of dogs.
I knew we had to get minis to do well, and with my second rod, i started mini fishing, and boy it produced, second drop i pulled up a tompot blenny, i was calling for the net, and was totally ignored by my team mates thinking i was rising them!!!!
When nev looked round, he said, "where did you get that!!!!!!" need i say more.
no huss turned up. so we decided to try for flats, which had really deserted us in the first three days.
What followed could not have been dreamed of, In one short drift, Nev, picked up Flounder, in size, next drop, plaice, in size, and next drop Dab in size , we looked at each other, and it was dawning we had a chance!!!
Seirt then picked up a turbot! but it was undersized, along with a coule more we caught.
Well we had 4 hours left to go and had picked up 5 new species, so it was decided Huss or bust, with a dragonet as back up if no joy.
Well, we went to another huss mark and set anchour, seirt had an agressive bite and set into a good fish, it had to be a huss, it appeared near the back of the boat, and yes it was a huss, you could cut the atmosphere with a knife onboard, then ,( As they do) then it came loose aghhhhhh,
Seirt was distrought, but we knew there was huss around, and whilst he was trying to calm down, i got a nod, picked up the rod, and , huss on, i had to be carefull as it was a mini species rig, with size 8's, but it appreared at the surface, and was netted ,
6, and we still had two hours left!
after a lot of debate we headed for a dragonet mark, as we had previously picked up 6 undersized fish there, but they were there.
time ticked on, and we picked up a few more undersized fish, then i got a rattle with ten mins left, i gingerly retieved , without saying a thing to the others, in the depths a large brown shape appeared, damn another grey gurnard i thought, then, s..t its a large dargonet!!! NETTTTTTTT, its the fastest i have seen Nev and seirt move, and it was boated, amoungst a lot of high fives, we had hit seven new species on the day, a major achievement on the final day of a comp.
After having been in many comps at cork, i knew it would be hard for sonic to increase his total, and especially when the winning boat got 29 last year, so we had hopes for a top five finish, but that was it, it was only that night that we went to the bar, and i said to the lads you look, i will get the drinks, well they came back to the Bar and looked at me, with Rabbit in the Headlights looks, " We won" nev said to me, and seirt just nodded!, i thought they were trying a very bad joke on me! so i went to look, and sure enougth we were at the top of the list!!!!
Well, we fished with 26 species, tied with Sonic Blue, but we had 0.5kg more weight so finished first. we also won the day with 15 species, just to prove that when its your day, the daily specimen prize was drawn as a dab, and we had the biggest on the day!!!!
I am currently knackered, but V happy, the prize giving is tomorrow night.
Cork is not far away, a totally different venue, to which we are looking forward to the challenge again, its going to be just as tough, and hopefully, little lady luck may just keep with us for the week.
regards
screeming

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well done martyn and a great report and well done to seirt and nev.
as a matter of interest what wre the prizes??

brian

Very well done lads. Great result.
Great report too.

Wow- 26 species , most anglers, including myself won't get that in full season
Great job guys

We'll Done Martyn and the guys... Fantastic result.... You make your own luck over 4 days Mate...

ENJOY.

Super fishing lads warmest congrats Report made great reading, really well done on pulling it out of the bag on the last day with a cracking species count