Sea bass fishing enthusiasts
The Open Labrax PSL de Morlaix was held on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 September 2024, attracting a large number of sea bass fishing enthusiasts. The event, the second organized by the Pêcheurs Sportifs Léonards (PSL), was an opportunity to bring together anglers from different backgrounds in a friendly, competitive setting.
The Open Labrax PSL takes place in the magnificent Bay of Morlaix, located in North Finistère, Brittany. This area offers a great diversity of fishing spots, allowing participants to vary their techniques. Fishing spots include :
- The foreshores, which are exposed at low tide
- Oyster beds
- Small, shallow current veins
- Offshore plateaus
The period chosen for the 2024 edition, September 7 and 8, is ideal for bass fishing. Indeed, as autumn approaches, the behavior of this fish changes and generally offers great fishing opportunities.
Last year, no fewer than 155 sea bass over 42 cm in length were measured and released by the 23 participating teams.
This year, with 47 teams taking part over 21 days, the figures should be much higher.
Our pre-fishing
This stage is often essential if you want to arrive in the best possible condition. It consists of scouting the area in the days leading up to the competition, in order to understand it and locate the fish. The challenge is to manage to fish without putting pressure on the fish. The aim is to catch them on the weekend.
We did just one day of pre-fishing, the day before the competition. This enabled us to understand that bass react much better on small, natural-coloured lures. A few localized areas and 2-3 good drifts enabled us to land around 15 fish.
The activity seems to be found in shallow areas, below 15 meters. This is not our usual style of fishing, preferring current veins at 20 meters depth. But we'll adapt.
Equipment selection
To accompany us this weekend, we have selected the Rodhouse cane bundle, of which here are a few examples:
- PPS 73ml: a 2.21 m rod, 5-17 g in power. Highly resonant and exceptionally light, it's perfect for the lightest lures such as Black Minnow size 2.2.
- NFC SJ 803 Im: 2.43 m rod, 5-15 g power. Like the PPS 73 ml, it's designed for small soft lures with a longer length, if you need to go for longer casting distances. I like it for small shads, its length being an advantage when fishing on the pull.
- NFC MB 739 Im: a much more powerful rod (2.21 m, power 25/80 g). It will be mainly used to cast surface lures (Asturie 130/150) or larger soft lures such as the Black Minnow 140 40 g head and the Crazy Sand Eel 180 35 g head.
- Rainshadow 68 mx: for fly fishing with lures weighing less than 25 grams.
- NFC X-Ray 736 (2.21 m, 15/40 g): a versatile rod with excellent resonance. Designed for lures weighing around 20 grams such as the Crazy Sand Eel 150 20 g head or the Black Minnow 120 25 g head.
A successful Saturday round
Departure at 08:00 and heading for the area identified the day before.
The pre-fishing was a success as we managed to reach the quota in record time. By 9.20am, we had 5 fish on board. The rest of the day will be spent trying to improve the quota and prospecting for the next day.
In the evening, no fewer than 21 quotas were achieved on 37 teams, with a total of 197 fish measured, for an average of 46.6 cm. The Big Fish of the day measured 65.6 cm.
Sunday, another day...
As seasoned competitors, we know that the key to doing well on Sunday evening is to ensure consistency between the two rounds, i.e. to manage to string together two quotas.
Sunday's conditions turned out to be quite different: a steady westerly wind and continuous driving rain. This prompted the organizers to reduce the zone, not only by banning the most exposed offshore areas, but also by shortening the race by two hours. We can only applaud this wise decision, as safety is paramount.
We had a very complicated round for us with a zero score. No fish meshed. We tested everything, everything we knew and that had worked the day before, but also new areas. But nothing worked. We totally missed out.
Congratulations to the winners
Following this unsuccessful round, our position in the final rankings couldn't have been any better than it was the day before. And so, quite logically, we finished 28th, a long way from where we'd hoped to be, but what the hell! We had an excellent weekend, and we'd like to pay tribute to the faultless organization of all the volunteers who made it possible.
This second edition was a success, with some 300 fish measured over the weekend. One thing's for sure: we'll be there for the third edition in 2025.
