First Forum Trolling Fishing Competition - 12th July

[skip]

That heavy swell in the morning coming down from the North, may have pushed the bait fish elsewhere or down and perhaps even the alungi as well were staying well down.

The strange thing is that for most people the Fishfinders werent spotting them either, almost like they simply weren't in the area. Moon phase does affect things although I am not familiar with the in's and out's of it.

We fished in the central part, both close and  a bit further out but would be very interesting to hear from those who were further north and those alot further south.

I think Shanook and co were further up north, but would like to see who was SE of B'Bugia and out to see if the fish had moved down there. We would have to ask around.

[shanook]

departing from B'BUGIA we headed 224 degrees for about 8 miles.then from filfla 221 deg about 5 miles out. then from filfla 198 degrees 12 miles out and again from filfla 168 degrees 13 miles out. we trolled in that area.
We left B'Bugia port at about 5.00 am. Was on the fishing grounds at about 6 am and immediately one of the rods (kens new trolling rod) doubled up and the reel screaming. GOOD START EH....... WRONG..... line was straight behind and keeping to the surface (a pastardella or swordfish mmmmmm looks like it) after retrieving some line we noticed a wave on the surface where the fish should be this was a bad indication and the probability of snagging some UFO (unidentified floating object). yep u guessed right it was a tangle of nylon netting and lines (better on the line than round the props eh).
We trolled till around 11.30 but we didnt manage to get anything else, so we headed straight to port feeling sleepy, dizzy and with a sense of disgust...no not really it was worse than that.....
we had a look at the catch numbers that others had manages and thats when we made a sigh of relief and got out pride and dignity back. So we relished in the bad luck of others (shame on us, but thats life).
I hope that someone learns something from this. I suppose the morality of this short report is that:.........

Can you please draw your own conclusion do i have to do that as well.....
Well done to Gaffer, Djs, Pauline tuna and Jonathan.... dont know if there was someone else

[shanook]

Nick my friends fished the SE from 15 to the 25 mile mark and they didnt do so good either. the fish seemed to bite very early in the morning and then stopped.We usually get hit in the 9 to 10 am bracket but this Sunday it seems they just werent there...........

[benri]

Being Sunday they must have went to church at that time Shanook! 
Better luck next time mate. Speaking of next time, until when are alungi usually in, mid-August?

[skip]

I think in any kind of abundance, that's it Benri, but you will continue to find smaller shoals here and there and then, as Alungi get bigger they no longer hang around in shoals but as individual fish. From around now till around 20th August I have caught Alungi, usually around 9-10kgs but never any double hookups, just single fish.

With current fuel prices I don't think its worth going out trying to catch singles. If you're targetting something else and catch alungi as a by-catch then that's fine.

I doubt I will be trolling again until late August when I will start looking for the schoolie size bluefin.

[benri]

wow.... all that waiting for them to come in and they're out so early! I think I'll give it my last shot on Monday then weather permitting.

[DJS]

From what I heard the current suddenly changed in the morning, though it's not something you really notice when you're trolling. I can understand how currents can effect the way in which the bait is presented when bottom fishing but didn't realise that they could also affect the feeding behaviour of pelagic fish.

Just of out interest, does anybody know how much the winning team caught in the competition?

[camkev]

I think 5.

[shanook]

confirm at 2pm just before i left for home it was a count of 5 but thats another half hout to go.

[The_Gaffer]

I received the official result this morning. The winning team from marsascala caught 5. The agregate shield was won by marsascala, 2nd was marsamxett and 3rd b'bugia. Team the_gaffer placed 4th with 2 albies, the 3rd placing also had 2 but was about 800g heavier then us in total.
I noticed that the current changed direction suddenly in the morning, and also alerted the team to this. My reasoning is that it just wasn't our day. From a total of 29 teams, 1 team caught 5, 1 team caught 4, 3 teams caught 3, 4 teams caught 2, 10 teams caught just 1 and the rest nil.So,in total only 36 alungi were caught, and 1 26kg BFT. The 29 boats covered a very wide area, some close to the 2nd and 3rd ridge, while others were out 20 to 25 miles out. Bait activity was minimal, bird activity was nil. It just wasn't a good day!

[DJS]

Yes, a total of 5 fish is pretty dismal considering the number of boats and the number of alungi caught in previous weeks. It's funny how there has been little surface activity from albacore this year, usually you see alot of seagulls and occasional shoals of fish breaking the water. The only thing I saw this year was a kitchen table-sized turtle a couple of weeks ago.

I guess this weekend will probably mark the end of the alungi season as small lampuki are already being spotted in places.

Skip do you fish in the same area in the south for BFT?

[skip]

No Dave, never been down south for BFT, always West of Comino around 20-30 miles out is where we've found them each year.

[DJS]

That's too far out for me from Msida, I'm afraid. Will try and get some closer coordinates of BFT feeding grounds hopefully on the north east side.

[ramio]

from my past years experience, at about this time of year, albacore hit only very early mornings and vanishing as soon as it was light. I used to be on the spot way before sunrise about 3miles off filfla, and get a bite at early dawn, still too dark to see what you'r doing. Half hour after that all gone. I used to be back in port by 8am. This happened to me about 90% of the times I've been out this time of year.

[skip]

If you do let me know! Not come across any and used to go trolling on the North East coast quite alot!