Merit 1 had the usual crew of skipper Gary Bridson, Lee Graham, Paul Graham and myself. Gary was still feeling the effects of a high speed ‘crash’ during TT week which resulted in him suffering a painful arm injury so we were almost a man down, but little did the lads know the way I fished today we may as well have been 2 men down !!!!

After a very tough pre-comp bait collecting session around the back of Douglas head where I failed to even catch a solitary mackerel and Lee only caught 4 it was time to head in to book in for the competition.

At just before 10am the 3 boats set off for their chosen 1st mark and for all of the boats it was a short trip to the Dolphin at the end of the breakwater to see whether the ballan were starting to show yet.

Lee in the foreground with Trampie to the left and Wicked Hen to the right :



Wicked Hen fishing hard :



Scummer adopting the position he loves best :



Paul with a ballan, me still waiting for a bite, Trampie to the left and Wicked Hen just tucked round the dolphin to the right:



Initially it looked like this had been a bad move as there wasn’t much showing but after a few minutes the bites started to come and Merit 1 left the area having registered a ballan, coalie and calig.

Ballan:



Calig:



Coalie:



Next stop was the paddle wheel which again proved to be a bit of a struggle. Whiting were plentiful but apart from that we struggled to register any further sizeable fish but eventually we came good (well all apart from me to be fair !!) and left the mark having caught whiting, mackerel, dogfish, poor cod and pouting.

Whiting :



Dogfish :



Mackerel :



Poor Cod :



Pouting :



Off to the Ballinaa now and if I thought my day couldn’t get any worse, well I was wrong. 3 consecutive drops with 3 nice new traces resulted in me anchoring us to the wreck and eventually losing the end tackle without so much as a fish

This is where the one armed bandit Bridson really came good as firstly he spawned a decent calig which proved to be a pool winner and then ‘fluked’ a herring. Comically as he lifted the herring onto the boat it dropped off the hook, bounced on the gunnel and landed in the boat.

Gary’s herring :



We then moved to Laxey in search of a ray, but we feared the worst when we arrived and witnessed the offputting sight of a certain angler on Wicked Hen with their belly on full view. No wonder the skate didn’t show up !!!

Gary had stopped fishing by this stage with his arm giving him jip so we persevered with the 3 of us.

A variety of different tactics were adopted and within minutes Paul had a tub gurnard on board. Having fished the same spot last week we knew the smuts were about so Lee was tasked with targeting these and he soon landed a lovely common smoothound of 7lb. This was potentially a new Isle of Man record (I think Emmo has it with 6lb 14.5oz) but as Manx Boat Fishing is the home of catch and release (and Lee isn’t a pot hunter ;-) ) it was safely released unharmed.

Lee’s ‘Manx Record’ common smoothound ;-) :



Tub Gurnard :


We also sneaked out a couple of sandeels and a few small grey gurnards :

Sandeel :



Grey Gurnard :



The dab has been a nemisis of ours but we laid this to rest as 4 came on board in quick succession :





Lee then landed a tope whilst I eventually joined the party with a spurdog.

Tope :



Spurdog :



Trampie on her way to the Laxey mark :







Paul with a nice tub gurnard :



There was still time for me to spawn a starry smoothound :



Despite fishing hard we couldn’t find a thornback or a bull huss which was disappointing but time was up and we returned to port with a respectable 17 species.

Cheers Michael a cracking report, many thanks to all those who fished today, a big Thanks to our sponsors W.J BOOTH MAITINANCE SERVICES and TOTAL OUTDOORS FOR THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS in making the comp a success.

Admin316

Here are the wicked Hen photos

That's either the smallest huss I've ever seen or someone has shovel hands

Small Huss me thinks.

Small husslet AND shovel hands! Prompted a debate as to whether it was a Huss or a dog? 100% Huss say I

I agree its a Huss just a Very small one

Admin

Trampie would like to post their pictures but we first of all have to learn how to catch a respectable number to compete with you smart asses then we will learn how to download them .

Thanks John, thats just put a great big smile on my face, your humour is brill, but any report no matter who writes it


Admin316

Well done guys, looks like a huge success!