The meeting point is at 7 am at the Grand Pavois for a breakfast and briefing before the departure. Not surprisingly, it is the fallback zone that is chosen. The 27 boats will concentrate on a small shallow area, a race that promises to be close.
Start at the back of the pack
The kick-off is given at the bridge of the Ile de Ré.
Not surprisingly, most of the boats are shooting ahead of us. The strong point of the Barracuda 7 is not speed, although we are going at 29 knots. This is a respectable speed for a boat of this type, but we are far from the big semi-rigid boats. Whatever, we have a program, we will respect it no matter what.
Direction of the shallows
We paint new oyster beds on the high tide. We spend 30 minutes on the area. Only small sea bass are put on the dry. The bars are too small, we change the zone and go to the shallows. There, many boats passed full ball on the sector and the detections are not there any more. The fishing looks very difficult. We combed the area during long minutes. One hour and a half of concentration, of change of lures, of search with the sounder, to finally take out some fish not meshed.
Bastian pulls out 3 bars consecutively on a small slug. We are now at two bars of 41 cm, one point away from entering the score. I apply this pattern and we don't get another hit. There are fish, but our score is still at zero. The atmosphere becomes tense.
A first slug bar
I take out a big slug for contrast. Third cast and bim, a nice touch. A first bass of 44 cm is recorded, we are saved, in other words, we get out of the bottom of the ranking.
Despite repeated efforts, we no longer see a mesh bar.
Direction of the oyster beds
The sea has gone down well, we have one hour left, we are heading towards the oyster beds to finish the run. We enter slowly with the air of the boat not to make noise. The wind pushes us towards the outside. It's perfect, the drifts are safe and we can concentrate more on fishing. Fred takes a hit and dries a second sea bass with a 9 cm swimmer.
On my side, I recorded a refusal on the surface on the same daggerboard. I go to replace the boat, but another competitor places himself on our starboard side upstream of our daggerboard. I go around him to enter more in the park or I stop in front of him... Finally, I say to myself that it is better for everyone to be discreet, I stop the engine. And there, the neighbor takes a mesh bar in front of our eyes, where Fred touched his. Sure, there is a bit of frustration, but I am delighted to see my friend Nicolas Pineau, cane bent in his wheelchair at the front of the RIB. He has an impressive temperament and richly deserves this nice fish. The fish is in the net, it is well meshed.
5th in the provisional ranking
We don't manage to go any further and are convinced that we are not too ridiculous. The classification falls, we are fifth, not far from the first, with a bar close! The team is motivated, we have the opportunity to spend an evening in La Rochelle thanks to the second round two days later.
It is a very good idea to organize, for the following years, the competition on two separate days. This allows us to better enjoy the moment and the show, to stock up on lures between the two rounds. That's what we do, by completing our collection of swimming fish at the local store.
