Well it's all over for another year, and at last I've got time to get in front of the PC.
My week started brilliantly with a black bream of 3-1-10 falling to floatfished bread, not at all uncommon here.
Soon after I had a Couch's bream on the bottom rod of 1-4-0, that fell to legered verm (a type of ragworm only found in the C.I.)
So at the first weigh in I had 2 species on the leader board
That night my angling partner Puffin (from this forum) went for a combination of conger on one rod and legered worm on the other to see what was about. My luck had obviously run out as I blanked but Puffin's conger rod suddenly registered a cracking run. His live pout bait had been snaffled and I soon had to swap the gaff for a landing net when I saw a cracking bass thrashing on the surface
Puffin was over the moon when it turned out to be a PB of 9-9
Not only that he repeated the feat soon after with another of 6-5, on the same pout too!! Tight arse
So after one day we were flying, 3 fish on the board (only allowed one fish per category) and looking forward to the rest of the week.
Thats when it started going wrong Its all a bit of a blur of fishing and snatching a few hours kip when you can. Eating becomes an afterthought too, drinking a nono
About midweek I had a golden grey mullet which was half an ounce under the qualifying weight, the Puffin had one of 1-13-6 which made it 2 on the board for him . The pairs prize was looking good for us!
The next to last day, Friday, saw me stalking the golden greys and I was rewarded with a corker of 2-8-0 which made it another fish for me
That afternoon we were mulleting and Puffin had one of about 3lb, one of many during the week for him, when I decided to ring the changes and go wrassing a bit further along the rocks.
After a quiet hour I had the bite which you know is the one, just a slight tremble then the crab is engulfed and the rod arches over. Fish on!
She went 6-5-0 and I kept her alive until the weigh in to be returned.
That made 4 fish for me and 2 for Puffin, the pairs look safe
The last morning saw us at it again, Puffin still after the elusive mullet (to 3-12 this time) and me after a garfish over 1lb. Suffice to say we failed but we had some good news that our team member in the 4's had a Couch's bream of 2-7-10 worth 127%, so now the team prize looked promising.
The Festival finished at midday and I found out I had done enough to lift the best CI angler trophy :
Later at the presentation our efforts were rewarded with best pairs for Puffin and me plus best team of 4 for our team
The drinking wansn't a nono that night
A great but totally exhausting week we had