Yesterday was set for the re-scheduled squid competition in aid of the RNLI organised by Fishyrob and to be held at Brighton Marina, so I arrived at the ‘Tackle Box‘ at 9am ready for pre match get together prior to the 10am start. Unfortunately, because of the new date, the number attendees was somewhat reduced to the 10 or so of us. After making sure all was set and entrance money was handed over, George from Tronix generously handed out some complementary jigs to everyone before we set off over to the East arm.

The wall was pretty busy with quite a few people taking up many of the bays and it wasn’t until we had got up near the end and we were in the higher numbered bays that we got enough space for us all to fish reasonably near to each other. Fishing started at 10am and we were all hopeful of a good result even though conditions didn’t appear absolutely perfect.

From then on, it was non-stop inaction with nothing remotely interested in our jigs. I tried pink, green and blue, baited and non baited but nothing could be enticed into snapping them up. The only things I managed to land were a starfish and a Masked crab. It wasn’t until quite late on into the match that Matt, who was fishing just along from me, landed a nice looking Cuttlefish. I should add here that although a Cuttle isn’t a squid, the competition was for all Cephalopods. Spurred on by the first critter to be landed, we carried on forever hopeful. Alas it was not be and at 3pm, the competition closed.

Now Matt was fully entitled to be crowned as the champion and take the spoils but he was so sporting, he elected to decline the trophy and agree to the competition to being re-run in two weeks time in the hope that there would be more action than just one being landed. I personally applaud him for his sportsmanship. Now I know this was just a bit of fun and not being taken seriously but all the same it was a great gesture.

I decided to fish on after the competition as the weather had dramatically improved and it was a lovely afternoon to be out in the fresh air. I continued to fish the jig in the hope of a squid for tea and carried on with the baited ‘flyer’ above the jig which is essentially a spur of line coming off the main line above the jig with a baited hook and offers the opportunity of catching other fish while still jigging. I was standing watching my float, when it suddenly dipped down and hovered just under the surface. I reeled in slowly hoping to connect with whatever was grabbing at the bait, and I could feel a slight quivering through the line and I knew immediately it wasn’t a squid. I retrieved the jig only to find a Lesser weever had taken the mackerel baited flyer. It was carefully unhooked using forceps and shaken back into the sea.

I fished on until about 5.30pm letting the floated jig work itself while I thrashed around with a set of Sabikis in the hope of  mackerel or few. This seemed a fruitless waste of time with nothing showing any interest,  so decided to cut short the intended time and head for home.