1st Leg H.O.F.C Xuereb Installations Ltd league 2015.
This Competition was held on the 31/05/2015 at Qawra which kicked off the 2015 Singles League. For this years League which consists of 6 matches & every participant will be fishing 5 matches as each angler will be covering 1 match as Marshall ,there are 31 anglers competing. Commenced at 06:45 & finished at 10:45 this was slightly delayed by 15 min due to the awkwardness of getting to the fishing pegs & ensuring everyone gets there safely.
We all met up at 05:30 the usual chatting & joke between all participants, especially for the early birds. There was quite a few anglers that never had fished this venue before hence everyone was speculating what type of fish they could come across. In the meantime the pegs where being placed with the anglers eagerly awaited the draw to see which spot they where going to fish at and start rigging up the gear , prep of ground-bait and other little tweaks that you might have to do to adopt to the fishing spot which normally would take up to 30 min. At the same time the 'H.O.F.C Jackpot was drawn and it was peg number 5 that was with the possibility to win it. This was a much awaited venue as it us known that this is a productive area due to not many people fish this area from shore as mentioned previously it is quite awkward with all the sharp rock. Unfortunately can not say the same when it comes to fishing this spot out on boats, it is frequently fished by means of trammel nets. This venue was scouted by the keen Club's committee whilst they continue searching for Venues were the competitors can have a descent day's fishing.
The weather was very favorable no swell at all the seas were flat calm. As soon as the signal sounded at 06:45 you could hear the first cast landing & all the splashes of the ground-bait hitting the calm surface. It was from the very start that you could see this was going to be a productive venue as everyone was landing fish from the very first casts. Quite a few different spices were being caught with a mixture of bottom fish various type of Bream, Wrasse, parrot fish , rockfish, The boxlip mullet was also present on the day , there was various swims that managed to attract them in but they were not planning on staying they kept coming close in & back out again after a few casts. We also had one of the anglers catch a good sized octopus, however it is not entitled to get weighed inn. As the time went on you could see everyone trying out different techniques & changing to thinner traces even down to 10 & 12 to try & catch as many descent sized fish possible. This was the same all the way through of the 4 hrs competition just focusing on how to land fish. In the meantime a hot dog was offered to all the competitors that was prepped on the spot by Raymond Farrugia & distributed by the Marshalls on the day.
The Marshall's started the weigh in process as soon as the signal was given to end the fishing session at 10:45hrs. 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.
Wish to emphasize 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 , sponsored by General Soft Drinks & home made cakes made by one of our members Joe Magri & the daughter of another member Stephen Borg, thanks for the continuous support. There was raffle tickets also being sold with a chance of winning a Fishing Rod 'Killer Trout II' sponsored by ‘Tubertini Malta' . Jonathan Bonnici 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 Xuereb Installations Singles League 2015 1st Leg was Michael Godfrey with a substantial weight of 4 Kilos 130 grams ,in 2nd place James Mamo with also a good weight of 3 Kilos 390 grams & 3rd place Josef Cassar with 3 Kilos 010 grams. Total fish caught 44 Kilos & 640 grams
Section Wins : Luke Bonnici / Sandro Zammit / Luwk Borg / Mark Zarb .
Biggest Fish ; N/A