The last day of the boat show is the second and last round of the Grand Pavois Fishing competition. We took advantage of this break between the two rounds to check the fluorocarbons and to add lures adapted to the conditions.
Round 2 in the fallback zone
The south-westerly wind of the night, which is expected to continue and even strengthen in the morning, has raised a head sea. The withdrawal zone was again chosen by the organizer. We left again at the foot of the bridge of the Ile de Ré. As in the first race, a good number of boats started in the lead.
We are at the end of the race with, as usual, a program in mind: the oyster beds.
Some drifts on the hunts
However, we were stopped by flights of birds that were undoubtedly looking for food on the surface. We scanned in the air, but also on the water since some boats were also turning. We fished the area with swimming fish and soft lures. The fish are stealthy, they move quickly in search of food. The comings and goings of the boats on the area do not arrange anything.
We manage to catch two unmeshed bass and a gurnard that I catch under the boat on a Crazy eel.
First bass mesh with soft lure
We are getting closer to the coast where the birds are biting the surface. Bastian opens the score with a mesh bass. Yes! We are on the descent in the middle of the round, this fish is good, especially as we do not see any boat validating fishes with the stewards present.
We insist on soft lures, especially Eel shad tails and small shads of 9 or 10 cm. But the bass are still not meshed. We take again a fish of 40,5 cm, that it is hard!
Power-fishing on the parks
Our program was parasitized by the hunts. From now on we stick to it and finish the run on the oyster beds. There, we cast with the wind at our backs to throw the small swimming fish as far as possible. Quite quickly, I take a cartridge.
I hook and fight with authority to get the fish out of the pens. It's a 46 cm bass that counts! What a joy on board. The following minutes become interminable. At first, we take some non-meshed bass and do not find a spot and a regular technique.
Until a drift where I see a bass following my lure. There is a lot of wind and I decide to make more noise. I cast a white surface lure, a white silent Espetit 110 for the curious. First cast, huge splash on the surface! And that's it, the fish are there, this fish was pretty, but they remain beak closed! The next drift, at the same place, I cast a Flashminnow 110 SP SW. On the 4th or 5th cast, I am stopped dead in my tracks, and I make contact for two seconds and record a clean break. The fluorocarbon breaks cleanly on an oyster. We are 30 minutes from the end, I am crazy!
At the foot of the podium
We return with a taste of missing, but aware that we will not be ridiculous. Then came the ranking: we were fourth overall. I didn't expect to be so well ranked considering our modest scores. I then learn that 48 points separate us from the first one and think bitterly about the broken bar on the park. But that's the game, other competitors certainly had their disappointments too.
It was an exciting competition that gave the opportunity to take out the swimmer fish to fish in little water. A fishery that I particularly like.
I thank the organization, including Pierrick and Marie-Pierre, as well as all the partners and competitors that I hope to see again at the next edition. I will be there, I promise!
