Alderney 24 Hour Lure Comp 2014 Results and Report

Do you know what I love about our sport? In the face of adversity it is not always about the fishing. It can be about the camaraderie, spirit, the just ‘being there’ and doing it. Despite a difficult weekend it was great to have virtually every competitor say in some form how much they enjoyed the second Alderney 24 Hour Lure Only Species Hunt. Although some anglers do miss the point it was inspiring to see the spirit, the sharing of information and the help our visiting anglers received as to where the marks are to fish and tactics to use, it’s something I love to see. However, to beat local knowledge is always going to be tough, a good angler will always have the edge as he will know when to change and what to change to, credit to those that recognise that. That was how this weekend turned out.
All week the forecast never looked very inspirational, at worst it was going to be a force 4 to 5 and always going to be from the NE. The worst possible direction for our little island. As it turned out we had wind speeds between 20 to 28 mph from that direction. The water was very coloured and from seeing schools of Scad and Garfish just 7 days ago we were faced with water with virtually no visibility in, not ideal to say the least. However in an era where lures are more than balsa wood these help you overcome difficult conditions and in hindsight several of us agreed that maybe scented lures were not used enough as most persisted with targeting Gars, Mackerel, Scad and Bass. However it is the same playing field for all and it is after all still a competition.
One thing several of us did learn, and many of you reading this may already know, is that Thick Lipped Mullet will take Isome worm, I caught the largest in that category at 59cm. Darren Braby and James Clarke managed the same too. With todays lures so many species can be targeted which makes this format incredibly interesting and the field of competitors were naturally by their skill set split in to two categories, those that target predatory fish like Gars, Pollack, Wrasse etc and then those that target the mini species. With perfect conditions I would love to see how many could be caught competitively if this years standard was anything to go by. The eventual winner was Ross Johnson who has a pedigree of species hunting but even he had to dig deep to find fish, luckily he achieved this sooner rather than later and I actually think it inspired others to focus as most of us (surely all of us!) were really struggling but when you see someone else do it you always think you can too. Ross was always ahead of the field but a great second half by Dicky Smith ran Ross close at the end which no doubt would have caused him some fluttery moments. Ross finished on 11 species, Dicky on 10 and top visiting angler was Adam Kirby on 8, only just though as that was decided on a tie break of measuring the length of fish registered. In all 17 species were recorded, a great result given the conditions and credit to all the anglers. These were Pollack, Garfish, Ballan Wrasse, Rock Goby, Dragonet, Bass, Mackerel, Shanny, Long Spined Sea Scorpion, Tompot Blenny, Corkwing Wrasse, Thick Lipped Mullet, Leopard Spotted Goby, Pout, Giant Goby, Sand Smelt and Goldsinny Wrasse.

Most Species
1. Ross Johnson 11 - £300 Cash, £150 tackle voucher, LRF rod, bag of tackle!
2. Dicky Smith 10 - £200 Cash, £100 tackle voucher, LRF rod, bag of tackle!
3. Adam Kirby 8 - £100 Cash, £50 tackle voucher, LRF rod, bag of tackle!

Longest Length of Species registered – Gary Maurice 208cm
Longest Length of Species registered by visitor – Laurie Brown 147cm
Longest Bass – John Copeland 50cm
Longest Pollack – Spencer Hunt/Laurie Brown 43cm
Longest Thick Lipped Mullet – Mark Harding 59cm
Longest Ballan Wrasse – Dicky Smith 41cm
Least Species – Derrick Thatcher (2nd year running!) 
Longest Round Fish – Laurie Brown 74cm
Special Prize – Laurie Brown (presented with a replica Aurigny plane!!) Laurie holds the record for the most missed flights in one day – 2!!