3rd Leg H.O.F.C Xuereb Installations Ltd League 2015.
This Competition was held on the 28th June 2015 at St Pauls Islands. Due to we had to board a Maltese traditional boat ‘Luzzu’ we all met up at 05:15 with & commenced at 07:15 & finished at 11:15 as we needed to get to the Islands & the time taken to ensure that the fishing spots were convenient to get too & safely. Participants started to arrive at 05:15 talking about what they expect this venue was going to be like as most of the competitors this was the first time fishing here.
At 05:45 the Boat arrived & everyone started preparing the gear to load onto the boat. There were a few members that got on the boat first & started taking on the other competitors gear on to which made the loading process very quick. You could not help but notice the bond & respect all the competitors have for each other at the ‘Club’ when seeing such gestures & good sportsmanship. On our way on the boat there were the usual few jokes made between members a there was a couple of competitors that do not like boat rides were being teased to try & take their mind off the trip. The seas were very calm & the trip literally took just minutes we were there in no time. As soon as everyone disembarked the boat, the Marshall’s started looking where they will allocate the suitable fishing spots. In the meantime the rest of the Competitors were eagerly awaiting to see which spot was going to be assigned to them by means of a draw. 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 7 that was with the possibility to win it, the total Jackpot so far is that of €132.
The weather was very favourable no swell at all, the seas were flat calm around St Paul’s Islands that was an advantage in a way although the sea was very clear. The signal sounded at 07:15 & 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 due to the fish as you could see all the spots were catching & the fish just kept going for the bait. There was a quite a lot of fish also lost at various different pegs, either getting snagged on the ledges or just cut the line clean when they take the bait especially when most of the anglers were using light tackle it made it more challenging to land the good sized Parrot Fish. On the day there was quite a lot of fish landed as mentioned already the Parrot Fish was one of the consistent fish caught together with quite a variety of other species salema , Bogue , Boxlip mullet ,annular bream, mackerel, wrasse , two banded sea bream, painted wrasse & painted Comber. You could not help but notice that 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 was offered to all the competitors that was prepped on the spot by the Marshalls present on the day John Cardona, Jamie Bonnici, Alexander Spiteri, Michael Godfrey & distributed to all the competitors, you can say that this went down a treat with the competitors, this has now become the norm for our Club.
The Marshall's started the weigh in process as soon as the signal was given to end the fishing session at 11:15hrs. Anglers started rigging down the gear eagerly awaiting the results of each section to see how they all done & lessons learnt from this new Venue fished for the first time by the Club. Refreshments were made available, sponsored by General Soft Drinks & homemade cakes made by Sandra Agius Darmanin & Danica Farrugia whom we thank for the continuous support. There were raffle tickets also being sold with a chance of winning a Fishing Rod sponsored by ‘Tubertini Malta’. Luwk Borg was the winner for this draw.
Wish to emphasise that all the fish caught were 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. 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 3rd Leg were in 1st place Luwk Borg with a substantial weight of 5Kilos, in 2nd place Miguel Grech with also a good weight of 4 Kilos 150grams & 3rd place Josef Cassar with 3 Kilos 580grams. Total fish caught 46 Kilos & 320grams
Section Wins: Luke Bonnici / James Mamo / Jonathan Bonnici / Angelo Romano
Biggest Fish : Miguel Grech 980 grams (Parrot Fish)