1st 'Trofeo Mediterranio' 2015 Hooked on Fishing Club participation
1st 'Trofeo Mediterranio' 2015 Hooked on Fishing Club participation
Held at 'Marina Di Ragusa' in Sicily
I am convinced that most of you know already how hard the club works for its members & to give pleasant experiences to its members. After quite allot of work we managed to arrange for any interested Club members to compete in Sicily at 'Marina Di Ragusa'
This all became possible when our Clubs President Peter Paul Azzopardi started discussions with a Fipsas Ragusa Representative & President of a Sicilian club C&P Modica. Talks ended up with the idea of creating a Competition with the name ' Trofeo Mediterranio' & to make this a yearly event. At that point we started to look at all the requirements as we needed to go over to Sicily for 3 days from Friday the 2nd till Sunday the 4th. Started off checking out how many people were interested to come along for this experience. Although it was short notice still managed to gather 8 anglers & another good friend that wished to come & support us. Started contacting Virtu Ferries whom we thank & appreciate allot the advantageous rates they gave us. We had to organise accommodation & came across this nice bed & breakfast with the name of 'Mothug' , obviously next requirement was transport which was decided to hire a big Van from Sicily which meant in a few days all the logistical matters were in hand & managed the best prices. With regards to food that was not an issue as you can eat very good there with no need to sped allot if money.
The following members decided to take on these experiences whom were Peter Paul Azzopardi, Raymond Farrugia, John Cardona, Christian Cefai, Miguel Grech, Josef Cassar, Bjorn Brincat Brady Sammut u Ganni Borg. Prior to going away we all met up to discuss what we were going to take with us & what techniques we would be using & as we usually do help each other as this gives the club much satisfaction. During the meeting we also discussed place and time we were to meet on Friday at 05:00 near the Virtu Ferries departure. The day had arrived and you could see all the participants were exited and very keen to start with the trip with all the tackle & gear we all had to take with us. Everyone was punctual and assisted each other to take the gear on board, we got on the vessel and at 06:30 we left our beautiful port to the port of ‘Pozzallo’. As soon as we disembarked in Sicily we found the heavy rain greeting us. We ended up soaking wet but did not stop us from going to meet our Sicilian friends. After wards we went to the accommodation to settle down & unload all the fishing gear and went for a bite to eat with some of the team done some shopping too.
The next morning Saturday a few of the team decided they wanted to go and fish for a while to get the feel for fishing in Sicilian waters and others stayed in making up rigs and preparing bait 'Farka' for the next morning. In the evening we all gathered up as one big family and went out for a meal, were everyone was discussing the last few checks and methods they will be using the next morning.
On Sunday morning everyone was awake early as we were being picked up for 5:00 to take us over to the venue 'Marina di Ragusa’. We were all excited and keen to fish this very nice venue and could not wait to start fishing. When we arrived there you could already see that there was the local competitors that came to welcome us. It was a pleasure meeting everyone else and the way they welcomed us made us feel very comfortable. Soon enough it was time to draw everyone’s pegs were we would be fishing, which left us with an hour to start preparing everything. Due to this being the first time fishing here and unsure what species of we were expecting to catch we started rigging up various different rod set ups with a few different ground baits. The start signal sounded at 08:30 and the end of the competition was till 11:30. As this was the first time we fished this venue we were unsure what species and noticed that all the 60 participants which included our 8 man team started to try fishing for Mullet but it was all in vain. The problem was that we were not aware the Mullet is normally fished for around 10:00 as that is when they normally bite. As soon as we started seeing the other competitors starting to catch smaller fish, we all started to target them too and were catching quite a few smaller fish. Still kept trying for Mullet in between casts between messaging each other & speaking amongst ourselves we decided to start fishing for Mullet later in the Tournament stage. It was proving difficult to manage to hook the Mullet as over there they do not bite the same way we are used to over here, although there was still a few caught by our members, John Cardona was one of the Members that managed to land one that weighed in at 1.200 kg. when the Tournament came to an end they started with weigh in process and they started working on the classification results were Raymond Farrugia placed 6th followed by John Cardona at 7th out of the 60 competitors out of which 52 where Sicilian Locals that the venue was not new to them. our other club members also managed to perform and also managed a prize with Bjorn Brincat for the youngest participant. The President of the Sicilian Club also presented A pennant to Our club president Peter Paul Azzopardi. When the presentation finished we were taken to one of the Sicilian member’s house where we found ourselves eating a very nice mixed grill that they prepped for us with appetisers, drink and never the less 'limoncello' afterwards.
This was a very nice experience for us were we have learnt and taken on board any lessons learnt. It has also given us the opportunity to get to know other contacts and organisers which of other clubs, in-fact we have been invited by another club in December to go over to Sicily & compete in another Tournament which we obviously accepted.