2nd Leg H.O.F.C Xuereb Installations Ltd League 2015.
This Competition was held on the 07/06/2015 at Manoel Island ‘Gzira’. Commenced at 06:45 & finished at 10:45 this was slightly delayed by 15 min due to the pegs were placed on both sides facing Sliema & Valletta & ensuring everyone gets there safely.
Participants started to arrive at 05:30 the usual gathering & talking about what they expect the day will bring a few jokes were not a miss neither. Whilst the pegs where being placed the anglers eagerly awaited the draw to see which spot they were going to fish. Keen to go on the spot 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 6 that was with the possibility to win it , the total Jackpot so far is that of €109.
The weather was very favourable no swell at all the seas were flat calm on both sides of Manoel Island. The signal sounded at 06:45 & the anglers started to ground bait & casting away their first casts. Straight away there was fish biting & a few anglers managed to catch fish with the first casts. It was looking that it was going to be a productive venue as the first hour everyone was landing fish. There was a quite a lot of fish also lost at various different pegs, either snagged on the way up or just cut the line clean when they take the bait. Quite a few different spices were caught on the day with a mixture of bottom fish various types but mainly Parrot Fish which this Venue is well known for. Apart from Parrot Fish there was Annular Bream, Two banded Bream, Wrasse, rockfish, Painted Comber, Derbio, a couple of small Moray eels and one peg managed to catch 2 nice Gurnard. The boxlip mullet was also present on the day but not many were caught they kept coming close in & back out again after a few casts. All the participants kept changing to different techniques to see which one is most effective & just focusing on how to land fish.
In the meantime a Burger Sandwich was offered to all the competitors that was prepped on the spot by the Marshalls present on the day & distributed to all the competitors, which has now become the norm for the club to do so & much awaited by the members.
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 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, sponsored by General Soft Drinks & homemade cakes made by Sandra Agius Darmanin, thanks for the continuous support. There were raffle tickets also being sold with a chance of winning a ‘Tica 1000series Reel’ sponsored by ‘Fishin Fever Rabat’. Raymond 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 Malta Xuereb Installations Singles League 2015 2nd Leg were in 1st place Carmel Spiteri with a substantial weight of 5Kilos 150grams ,in 2nd place Lawrence Pulis with also a good weight of 3 Kilos 190grams & 3rd place David Debono with 2 Kilos 940grams. Total fish caught 40 Kilos & 060grams
Section Wins: Alex Spiteri / John Cardona /Sandro Zammit / Stephen Borg
Biggest Fish; N/A