CSSC Midlands Boat Angling Qualifier 2011

CSSC Midlands Sea Angling Boat Competition.

Friday 27 May 2011

Langstone Harbour, Portsmouth.

This year’s sea angling boat qualifier was held in the shallow waters of Langstone Harbour on the south coast and at 08-30 on a bright and slightly windy day, the competitors took to the water aboard Valkyrie, a 40foot catamaran skippered by Glen Cairns.

With wind against tide for the first few hours, we started in fairly shallow water in the shelter of the Isle of Wight. Points were awarded for both numbers of fish and different species, so it was important to keep changing tackle and bait to keep up with the conditions.

Bob Poole struck first with a small pouting, which was somewhat unexpected, causing several anglers to change tackle to hunt for smaller species.

Mitch Johnson then had a Common Smoothound, which put up a good fight on light tackle, but it was the smaller fish that were scoring best. Roger Lovell was picking up small Bream and Dave Hutchings kept his score ticking over with a steady selection of fish including a very nice Undulate Ray.

Mike Paine and Phil Dolan, both newcomers to this competition, also caught steadily throughout the day.

Later on, the wind dropped and we moved out into deeper water in search of bigger fish. Maggie Kelly boated the best fish of the day, winning the sweep with a fine 13lb 4ozs Starry Smoothound. Bob then surprised everyone with a beautifully coloured Ballan Wrasse.

All too soon it was time to head back to port, where in the local pub, the scores were added up.1st with 221 pts was Bob Poole, 2nd with 215 pts was Mitch Johnson and 3rd with 182 pts was Dave Hutchings.

Everyone agreed what an excellent boat and venue it was and we are all looking forward to coming back again next year.

Mitch Johnson
Organiser