Rules and organization
Like the vast majority of bass fishing competitions, Crouesty Fishing takes place over two days, and competitors must, if possible, validate their 5 longest bass on the first day and their 5 longest on the second.
As is often the case, a double quota guarantees you a top 5 finish or even a podium finish!
What sets it apart from other competitions is that Crouesty Fishing takes place in two different areas on Saturday and Sunday, chosen from 3 pre-defined zones. This requires anglers to have a broader knowledge of the area, as well as versatility in terms of approaches.
The day's zone is announced in the morning at the briefing, so it's compulsory to work on all 3 sectors beforehand.
Another special point: to comply with the law, only 3 bass are allowed in the livewell, which means you need to have the right strategy for measuring your fish when you find an active area!
First day on the islands
On the first day, fishing conditions were ideal, with sunshine and a ridiculous wind. The organizers therefore chose the Hoëdic area, which stretches from the Grand Cardinal to the Ile aux chevaux, via the Sisters and the Trolley.
In this sector, 3 strategies can be implemented:
- Head for the Cardinaux, where hunting often breaks out at this time of year
- Focus on the south and its deep heads
- Prospect the water veins and shallow rocks of the sister passage.
Marvin and Bruno and I decided on the third option!
We set off at 8.15am for our first stone to do a quick surface run in search of active fish. "Quick" because slack water is at 9:30 a.m. and we want to get some fish in quickly! After 15-20 mins we realize that the rock is empty and head for a stone in the middle of a plateau where we know the bass are present, but so are the boats! 4 other boats are already in the area and we queue up to place a nice drift!
Fine fishing with 7-8 g finesse in 10 meters of water will allow us to validate our quota before the spill, but these are small fish that will have to be replaced during the day.
Once we'd got the dip underway, we alternated between flat and rock fishing in search of bigger fish. We landed a 63 and 57 cm, but despite our numerous catches, it was difficult to hook bass over 50 cm.
We then decided to look for the big ones to aim for the win and prospect our pebbles in the hope of a posted fish!
Suffice it to say that until 2 p.m. the expected result wasn't there, and we couldn't find the grail, even though we knew that two teams (les dodus and Rodhouse 2) already had quotas close to 300.
It is then on a vein of water slightly more marked than the others and by fishing bigger with Crazy 180 and Black minnows 140 that we will find quality fishing.
We then went on to land a 64 cm, 72 cm and 59 cm fish, giving us a quota of 315 points and placing us second on this first day.
2 ème day in the Gulf
On Sunday, conditions changed completely. The northeasterly wind had set in and the weather was gray; the organizers therefore decided to choose the Gulf area for this second round, which finished at 2 p.m.
We're now 9 points behind the leaders and 19 ahead of the third-placed team. Our plan was to catch a big fish at the start, as we were convinced that there would be big quotas that day... This strategy almost cost us the podium, as changing weather conditions combined with low coefficients to nail the fish!
We then headed straight for a large stone where we caught a fish... 42 cm long!
As we already know, we're going to have to make up our quota before we can think of anything else, so we head for the landfill, where there are around 15 boats and already many sea bass have been caught. The biggest fish in this area were caught in the first few minutes, and we're all catching a huge number of fish between 35 and 41 cm!
Fortunately, in the midst of it all, we still managed to catch two mesh bass.
We're still 2 fish short of our target, and it's going to be a lot harder than we thought! In the Gulf, we came up empty, and outside, it was just as complicated to find a 42 cm. It was on the edge of the area, on a rock we knew well, that we ended up hooking 3 fish just shy of the minimum size.
By this stage we were convinced we'd lost second place, as the Dodus had caught 57 and 54 cm bass on the first drift, and we set off in search of bigger fish. It was to be a wild goose chase! None of the spots brought us the success we'd hoped for, and we returned to port at 2 p.m. with little confidence!
As we passed Rodhouse 2 and Les Dodus, we realized that fishing had been difficult for everyone. The former, like us, realize a tiny quota and Les Dodus have not managed to complete their first 3 bass of the first drift!
In the end, we finished second, 2 points behind Rodhouse 2, with an average of 2 mm out of 10 fish!
A 3 ème publishing in perspective
This second edition of Crouesty Fishing was a real success. The organizers had to turn down a large number of entries, and are planning to increase the number of boats for the 2026 edition if they can.
Given the quality of the fishing, the variety of the area and the meticulous organization, Crouesty Fishing is sure to become a must-attend sea bass fishing event in the years to come.
The level was already very high this year, but it's a safe bet that this competition will attract many experienced anglers next year. We're already looking forward to it!
