The two stalwarts of boatfishing Merit 1 and Kirsty 111 took to the seas today in the first head to head of 2011. This was a species hunt and bearing the time of year double figures was going to be a hard a hard task.Merit 1 headed straight south from the off whilst Kirsty 111 headed out to the north east .We on Kirsty 111 went tyo the Paddle wheel with little success ,so headed south to the Liverpool wreck ,coalies and calig here . Next stop was Castletown bay where both Cam sayle and i were into the ballan Wrasse,we got some nice fish here with the heaviest on the day around the 3lb mark .

On a new drift to us i then got a Cuckoo wrasse which was the single fish pool for the dayand with this we moved onto another south spot and we were in search of a launce .Wilst here we got a phone call from Merit 1 asking how we were getting on ,they were told not to clever and they said it was hard work but had managed to catch a Bull huss (sorry no picture of it ). They moved off from this spot in search of a Cuckoo Wrasse on one of there marks . Micheal and Cam were catching Dabs whilst iwas left with the task of trying to get a launce . Whiting made a welcome appeearance here aswel and just on the point of moving off i came up with the solitary launce that we needed .

We moved off to our southern haddock mark which was a waste of time ,but did produce a single Red Gurnard for Micheal.Onwards we went to the Cod mark heading towards home . nothing but a few calig showed here although Cam did star to go through some traces as the rough ground took its toll . Micheal did however Catch a Poor Cod here which meant that we had made it into double figures.Time was now up in this six hour comp so we had to make our way back to Douglas to see how Merit1 had faired with the rest of their day .

Back in Douglas Harbour we tied up along side the Current island champs to be met with the news that they had only managed a total of eight fish and none of those was a Cuckoo Wrasse so we also took the pool money aswell,(paid for the diesel for the day ).

Many thanks to the crew of Merit 1 for putting up a good fight and congrats to Kirsty 111 for their 1st victoryof the new year.
Of the 10species caught on Kirsty 111,Cam caught 5,Micheal caught 6 and I caught 7 ,isay this only because Micheal and i normally have a side bet on which we didn't today ,so i just wanted to tell him he would have lost a £1 .

Happy new year to all and if weather permits we might put another winter comp on by the end of January ,tight lines

Not the best picture of our ten heaviest species brought back to the scales ,BALLAN WRASSE,CALIG (POLLOCK),COALFISH,CUCKOO WRASSE,DAB,LAUNCE (LARGE SAND EEL),POOR COD ,POUTING,RED GURNARD and WHITING.
Jamie316

well done folks ,sack the CAMera man

would of caught more than him but while spent all my time cooking !

Lee's bull huss :

good fishing lad s,,,,,,,