The RNRMAA boat championships were held a Plymouth this year. Although initial numbers showed that 26 members were interested in this match only 14 anglers made it on the day. The weather was surprisingly mild with moderate cloud, little wind and a small sea, just what we like. During the morning the skies opened up and we all had to don our waterproofs, except for mad dog Murdoch who had forgotten his and had to make do with a gash bag as a smock. Fortunately the afternoon proved much better with a rare couple hours of the sun.

The draw for boat positions took place on the jetty beside the embarkation point. Scorpion and Tiburon were to be the boats for the competition; Dave pett was senior skipper and the competition Commodore. Both boats left Sutton harbour at 0740 and apart from stopping for baitfish, the destination was the Eddystone reef and the venue for the match. Mackerel at the drop off outside the harbour was plentiful and we soon filled our bait boxes.

The Commodore started the Competition at 0940, the intention was to remain within the vicinity of the stone and fish the surrounding reefs until all lines up at 1600.

Scorpion Report

The first fish that come onboard was shortly after game start, this was a Ballan Wrasse to Tom Worthy. As the drift continued Whiting started to come in from Jim Lamb initially, then most rods were into them. When we had finished drifting for whiting a total of 23 were caught, plus a Pollack from Colin Shearsby. Colin got off to a flying start and had four species with his first four fish.

We then went off and did a bit of Pollacking and Jim Lamb dragged his Sandeel no more than 10 turns off the bottom to produce 3 fish and catapult him into top spot on the boat. The rest of the rods started picking off the odd Pollock here and there including a ten pounder by Tom, only ten Pollack were caught all day on Scorpion.

We spent one and a half hours at anchor during slack water and managed to pull out six congers to around 25-30lb, for some this was their first ever Conger eel. The latter part of the afternoon saw the sun eventually shine a bit and the rain finally stop. We dragged the reef again and a bit over the sand for a dog to no avail. Trying to find another species forced Jim Lamb to try all different rigs and bait for the ever elusive Ballan, as this was a comp we never had the heart to tell him the water was far too deep. Arthur Daly was the best newcomer and the final results were:

Tiburon Report

The skipper of Tiburon never anchored the boat at all during the day which meant the chance of getting the eel species points were very slim. Scotty had come all the way from Gib for this match and a chance to fish in the inter services team. He gave a good account for himself all during the day and after a bit of a ding dong battle with Steve Redding and Taff Thomas he managed second place on the boat. Steve Redding's local experience on the Stone showed as he too fished well as he won the boat on not the amount of fish he caught but the number of species caught. Taff Thomas new to the boat match scene came in third on the boat giving the top two a bit of a run for their money; he was best newcomer on Tiburon.

Final Scores