2nd Leg Doubles H.O.F.C 2015 Competition
This Competition was held on the 8th February 2015 at Malta Shipbuilding . Commenced at 07:00 & finished at 11:00. This was a much anticipated venue as this is the first time this has been fished by a club.
We all met up at 06:00 the usual chatting & jokes between all participants, especially for the early birds. There was quite some expectations from the anglers' since our club managed to obtain permission to fish this spot for the first time since no competitions were ever fished in this place, discussing what they expect to find & what type of fish to expect. In the meantime the pegs where being placed with the anglers eagerly awaiting the draw to see which spot they where going to fish. At the same time the 'H.O.F.C Jackpot' was drawn too, again peg number 12 was with the possibility to win it. This was not won on the day which means it has now rolled over to the next leg.
As soon as the signal sounded at 07:00 you could hear the sound of the ground bait hitting the water together with the sounds of the anglers first casts. The fish were not biting , it was a good while after the signal was given and the continuous persistence before there was a few small two banded bream caught together with a few bogue, mackerel & other bottom fish. As the time passed by at the latter part of the competition a species that is not often seen /caught were the 4 good sized striped bream one each on various pegs. Mario Micallef managed to catch a good size mullet that encouraged the rest of the pegs around the possibility of getting one themselves. this was all in vain as there was no more caught elsewhere. In the meantime Clayton Attard lost a very nice sized White sea-bream whilst he was trying to land it in the net , Jonathan Bonnici managed a descant sized Mackerel , whilst in the last minutes a 320 grams striped bream caught by Josef Cassar clinched them 2nd place overall.
During the competition HOFC Caps were distributed to the anglers present which were kindly sponsored by Offshore Resources North Sea .
The weather was quite cold and some swell started to prove difficulties. As there was not so many spots where fish was not biting you could see all the teams trying out all types of techniques to try & achieve results. Unfortunately there was not any around on the day. The Marshall's started the weigh in process as soon as the signal was given to end the fishing session. Anglers started rigging down the gear to follow the Marshall's weigh in process & see what fish was caught eagerly awaiting the results of each section to see how they all done on the day.
Wish to emphasise that all the fish caught where all released. The Club practices catch and release in order to ensure sustainability and to avoid overfishing of fish from our waters.
The usual gathering at the end of the match with everyone discussing what went on that morning, learning from each other knowledge experience & techniques used, refreshments were made available by Raymond Farrugia, and some home made coconut balls made by Danica Farrugia & bread pudding made by Sandra Agius Darmanin. thanks for the continuous support. There was raffle tickets also being sold with a chance to win a fishin fever 8 mtr pole sponsored by ‘Fishin Fever' Rabat, Gareth Farrugia was the winner for this draw.
Winners of the match day where presented with Vouchers from our sponsor ‘Fishin Fever' Rabat
The winners of this H.O.F.C Doubles League 2015 2nd Leg was team Peter Paul Azzopardi & Mario Micallef with 970 grams, in 2nd place team Josef Cassar & Luke Bonnici with 760 grams & 3rd place team Godfrey Mifsud & Hertian Gauci with 640 grams. Total fish caught 14 Kilos & 460 grams
Section Wins : Brian Farrugia & Sandro Zammit / Dorian Formosa & Darren Stafrace / Stephen Borg & Jason Parnis .
Biggest Fish – Miguel Cutajar 0.690 grams (Grouper) From the first Leg