TAKING ON THE BIG ONE
Dave Barham fishes the Barracuda Tour.
The Barracuda Tour is a huge bass fishing competition, with more than 300 competitors representing 15 countries fishing the final event in France. It’s quite simple to enter - anyone who owns a Beneteau Barracuda boat is eligible for the three-day Amateur Challenge. This event is immediately followed by the three-day Grand Final where the winner of the Amateur Challenge, registered Barracuda boat owners and winners of the Selections Tour take part in the competition for three sensational days. The team that catches the five largest total length of bass during the event are crowned the winners of the Barracuda Tour 2018.
When it comes to UK teams, there is a selection process that is organised by the network of Beneteau dealers with competitions from ports including Chichester, Torbay, Plymouth and Poole.
I was invited to fish the Poole ‘Selection’ competition out of Cobbs Quay Marina, which was a rather exciting species competition.
Here’s the account of how I got on…
RING RUSTY
I think the last time I fished a species event was over in Ireland, some five years ago, so I knew I was going to be a tad rusty. Nevertheless, I was quite excited at the prospect of fishing as part of a team in this prestigious event. A quick call to event organiser, David Wilson, soon had my place on one of the local boats secured. I was asked to fish on board Kingfisher with skipper Chris Witheford and his mate Mal Thomas, two local chaps with excellent knowledge of the area.
With my bags packed it was an early start as I hit the road to Poole Harbour.
The format for this event is brilliant. On the morning of the event the boat skippers can pick up their special fishing pack from the marina office from 7.30am. Fishing can begin as soon as the boat has its pack on board. However, all boats must return to their berths and the team captain must be at the fish verification point between 5pm and 5.30pm. Anyone arriving after 5.35pm is disqualified.
Inside each fishing pack is a complete set of rules, points sheet and a laminated match card. This is a catch-and-release format competition, so each species has to be photographed on or next to the match card then returned. It’s a great way to run a competition, and one that a lot of clubs have now adopted.
For this event, points are awarded depending on type of species (no points given for more than one of any species). In the event of a draw a countback system is used, starting with the most 25-point fish then 20, 15 and so on. There was also a section for unlisted species, such as the smaller wrasse, poor cod and other mini species, which were all worth just one point.
Each species is allocated set points before the event, with bass being worth five, brill and turbot worth 15, ling 25 and so on. Rays were worth 10 points each, so they were going to play a huge part in our final score.
GREAT START
Chris was really keen to get some decent points on the board, so we headed straight off to one of his ray marks. I was into an undulate ray within 10 minutes, while Chris followed with a thornback. I then boated a spotted ray and we had 30 points on the board in a matter of minutes. The key now was to try for a small-eyed and a blonde.
Then we moved a few hundred yards to a small-eyed mark, but we kept catching more of the same and not the two rays we needed, so we moved again to pick up a bream and wrasse.
The bream came easy, but could we catch a ballan wrasse – could we hell! Try as we might, we just couldn’t catch one, and to make matters worse, I had put out a float for a garfish and I missed no fewer than six really good bites. I just couldn’t get the hook to stick, no matter what I did. At one point I had a gar taking line from the drag, but as soon as I picked the rod up it all went slack. Talk about frustration.
With a few more species under our belt, it was time to head back to the ray mark before venturing off further. This time it came good and I was into a small-eyed ray straight away, followed by the much-needed blonde by Chris.
Now it was time to search out some other species. I managed to catch a small bass on a tiny 7g lure that I had intended for mackerel or garfish, while Mal set about catching all manner of different wrasse, including Baillon’s, rock cook and corkwing – but still no ballan. I also managed to add a goby to the tally, plus a goldsinny, while fishing tiny pieces of ragworm on a cut-down TronixPro micro rig.
We tried for some flatties, but couldn’t buy a plaice, dab or flounder. Neither could we find a bull huss or conger eel. We were really running out of options as we approached the end of the competition. It was decided that we would head back to the marina with plenty of time for the fish registration, and try for a mullet or eel off the berth. Again we failed, but we had ended the day with an impressive 16 different species.
GAME OVER
We knew we’d done okay, and after speaking to some of the other competitors, it turned out that the fishing had been quite hard and a lot of folk had struggled to connect with relatively easy species, just as we had. It also became apparent that not many anglers had managed the grand slam of rays, so that filled us with hope too.
Alas, we didn’t win the competition, but we did finish a very respectable fourth. First place went to Fred and Pete Smith on their boat Seawolf. They managed to catch 20 species worth a total of 127 points, an impressive tally indeed.
In all 14 boats took part with 45 anglers and there were 28 different species caught during the event – proof that Poole Harbour and the surrounding area is one of the UK’s best venues for species competition angling.
I had a fantastic time, and it really got me thinking about entering more species events. The atmosphere was brilliant, the organisation was perfect and the buzz of coming fourth had me on a high all the way home.
Massive thanks to David Wilson and, of course, Chris and Mal for putting up with me and feeding me constantly throughout the day. Also thanks to the event sponsors, Bates Wharf Marine, Navionics and Fiiish.