Longer, Stronger, Conger
This weekend it was the British Conger Club annual 2 day festival and despite the fact that I've already landed a Conger I still had a plan to try and sneak out another species. Last year I had come second in the biggest Eel competition with a Conger of 51lb and our team had come second in the team competition for the second year in a row. This year we wanted to win the team event and take the crown from the Gouriet brothers team, a super pair of guys who have been awesome in their Conger wrangling. Our team was Steve Hollyer, Sam James, John Locker and I, bit of a strange old mix and friend Steve Hollyer is not only an inspirational angler but is totally blind. Sam is deaf but manages with the use of hearing aids and I guess as I don't say much I must be dumb! Clearly I haven't mentioned the whole team as there is also the small matter of John the fish locker, who appears to be the perfect specimen getting his guns out at the slightest sign of sun. Yes I used to think John was faultless but I'm glad to say that when his wife Hannah posted a video of the interview, following his historic capture of the record Bass I knew he was indeed human and could look as stupid as the rest of us. So that's our team and we have done okay over the last few years, this year however we had pre comp team talks, and bounced a few ideas around in the hope that this would be our year.
This year the club had decided to have the AGM on the Friday night following the signing on process in the hope that more members would attend. I managed to extend my accommodation to include the extra night and travelled down Friday afternoon arriving at the George Guest house around 16.30. Like every other city, as soon as you stop for more than 5 minutes you start paying and Plymouth City Council are just as effective as the rest, with parking meters on every section of road. The accommodation was very impressive, as I had a huge room with two single beds and a double, nice ensuite shower and all for £60 cant complain. I met up with John, Hannah and Tom, Johns friend Tom had just made an epic 8hr journey from up north, to fish the competition for the first time. We all had a bite to eat then headed off to the registration and AGM, the barbican was packed as the good weather drew people of all ages to be by the sea. The AGM went fairly well although there was a few issues with hearing the speakers above the music being played in the other bar. Sam James had made a proposal that I had seconded, that referred to the confusion created by associate and full membership and suggested that we just have membership of the club without the need to catch a large eel. The thought was that with dwindling membership, could we afford to turn away potential members dissuaded by the impression of elitism that the present two tier system created. This idea was agreed by the membership which surprised both Sam and I but shows how much the existing membership want the club to survive.
The other big issue at the AGM was the standing down of Conger Club legend and President Mike Millman, Mike has been involved with the club for more than 50 years and I remember watching his conger video when video was a thing! Mike delivered a great speech highlighting the difference in numbers attending tonight's meeting compared to the 300 plus that attended the dinner and dance in 1997, once again highlighting the demise of the single species clubs. The club presented Mike an engraved bowl and his supportive wife a bouquet of flowers that clearly moved them and for once Mike was short of words.
Following the AGM was the raffle, and I had actually bought a few strips for a fiver which turned out to be my first bit of luck of the weekend as my number was pulled out first, resulting in £50 in cash. Now with a wedge of cash burning a hole in my pocket I decided to make a b-line for my room as I had an early start planned in the morning, part of my plan to get another species. I had decided as the club had agreed an early start of 6am in the morning to make the most of the tides that I would get up at 4am drive down to Elphinstone carpark, cook sausages, and chuck out my LRF rod for a mini species or two, genius! I got back to the hotel around 10pm and straight away realised that my room was virtually above the pub next door, the revellers outside were having fun and making a lot of noise, but I just needed to move to the single bed away from the window. I must have dozed off but was woken by the couple upstairs directly above my single bed, seemingly playing a noisy game of hopscotch, but they were having fun and all I had to do was move to the other single bed which was not directly below them. It was at this point I realised why there was 3 beds in the room and eventually I fell asleep, but it seemed unfairly short as the flippin alarm cheerily burst into life. I dragged myself out of bed and made as much noise as possible making my morning brew in the hope the hopscotchers would be disturbed. The sun was already starting to rise as I arrived at the carpark and despite the rigid lines of the urban landscape it was still strangely beautiful.
The ridge monkey was loaded with sausages and the little stove roared to life in the chill morning light, the LRF rod was flicked out with a small piece of ragworm dangling enticingly, we could all eat well this morning.
The LRF rod was bouncing wildly as some little critter feasted on the hapless worm, juggling sausages, rolls and conger rods wasn't the best way of connecting with these tiny fish and I missed fish after fish, who were no doubt getting fat on the worms. More importantly the sausages were ready and it was my time to have a nibble so the little fish would have to wait until later.
I was really glad I made the effort as there was something quite poetic about watching the sunrise over a city while enjoying a freshly cooked sausage bap! I then had a phone call from John telling me to get myself over to the pontoon as everyone was arriving, I finished the rolls and grabbed the conger stuff for the 5 minute yomp to the ferry pontoon. As per usual on the first day of a festival everyone was full of anticipation and hoping for a monster, the one thing that was for sure was there would be no fresh mackerel for bait. Like the previous year the Mackerel were noticeable by their absence and the club had advised us all to bring plenty of bait, we had brought, cuttlefish, octopus and frozen mackerel so were covered.
We sat on the pontoon ready for the 6am start and one by one the other boats loaded up and set off out to sea, around 6.15 Paul Maris rang the skipper of our boat for day one Tamesis, Roy answered and explained he hadn't been told of a 6am start and would be there at 7am!
The 8 of us sat there and remained good humoured and pondered the rumours of possible foul play, we knew the skipper would still give us our designated fishing time it was just annoying about the early start. Before long the sea lock opened and Tamesis appeared like a very welcome white chariot, we loaded up and were on our way as some of the other boats dropped anchor.
We steamed straight to our first wreck and skipper Roy explained how to fish it and what size it was, a bit of knowledge can help greatly, the hook and chain thundered over the rail and 20 minutes later we made a start. John baited up with a bait good enough to eat and what self respecting conger could resist such a feast!
The eels started biting and we all quickly noticed just how finicky they were with slow pulls and tugs very non committal, eventually one slipped up and was being pumped steadily to the surface when the rod sprung back and the eel was gone. The club had decided to insist on barbless hooks for the first time on this festival and this decision was made for the right reasons but turned out to possibly be a mistake. I lost my first eel after a minute of playing it during a series of violent head shakes, John hooked his annual standard Ling, which he followed up with a chubby pouting, why don't they come off? Eventually eels were starting to get to the surface and I managed to get my first one on-board, I had a problem with the dense red algae building up on the leader knot, which can be seen in the picture below as the eel approached the boat.
This had the effect of jamming the knot in the top eye of the rod preventing the line being retrieved, fortunately in this case the eel was landed but several others were lost because of this exact reason. The knot cant pass through the eye the angler tries to clear the gunk off, giving a moment of slack line combined with a barbless hook, left the angler looking at a trail of bubbles as the eel returned to the wreck.
We really seemed to be up against it this weekend with the barbless hooks, algae, lack of bait and finicky eels but at least we were all in the same boat so to speak. Fortunately both John and I were slowly scraping out a result and the last hour on a new wreck, I managed to land 4 fish giving me 6 for day one and John ended with 7, several fish of 30lb were landed but Paul Maris on our boat had the only weigher that went 42lb on the scales at sea. We had several multiple hook ups when the eels finally came on the feed, but sadly both the fish below threw the hooks on their journey to the surface.
We headed in a little deflated thinking largely about all the fish that were lost and how we could improve the next day. It had been a tough day and the hour steam home, soon had me crashed on the deck dreaming of a smaller species of fish.
We found out from team mates Steve and Sam that they had managed 11 eels between them so all looked good for our team after day one. Once we reached dock I thanked the skipper and his mate and headed straight over to the carpark to settle some unfinished business with the gang of worm robbers. We hadn't got back until 5.15 and Steve's wife Helen had booked a table at an Indian for us at 7pm so I was on the clock, I figured I would spend 30 minutes to try and winkle out another species. It took me about 5 minutes to get some reward for the persistence with the little species, as the first nibble connected with a Goldsinny Wrasse and species 45, it was strange spending the day heaving up Conger Eels to now find myself chuffed by something my conger bait could have eaten.
The next problem I had was finding someone to do a photograph, a rather skinny guy approached clearly under the influence of some type of narcotics, I reluctantly scanned the carpark for anyone else, even a kid or wobbly granny, but no it was Trainspotter guy or nothing. He agreed to take a picture and as he stood there, I really considered if he legged it with the camera could I catch him or not, I surmised that I probably could over a distance of about 20 feet, any further and I would probably collapse. You really shouldn't judge a book by its cover, and the guy was very nice and done a pretty good picture, even better, he passed the camera back, I just had to deal with the awkward minute or so where he thought we were now mates.
Finally shaky joe ambled off picking up a dog end on the way, and as I thanked him for his help , he shouted I will be back later to see how you have done, I went on to catch 3 Goldsinny's and a token Corkwing, it was then a rush to shower and make the Indian. We had a great evening Steve, Helen, Sam and I but the others didn't want to risk spicy food before a day afloat. I was back at the hotel by 9.30 and asleep 15 minutes later, tomorrow was another day. The alarm didn't wake me up but hopscotch girl did at 3.30am, as she had forgotten her key, returned to the hotel, and kept her finger on the bell until the owner Nigel let her in. I could clearly hear her giving some drunken excuse then every stair she climbed, sounded like two builders taking turns to thump a car bonnet with a sledge hammer. Then she set about rowing with someone on the phone for 30 minutes while simultaneously chucking her shoes around the room, I was really going off her! I couldn't get back to sleep and besides I was worried she may come through the floor with the amount of stomping and hopscotch that had been going on. I decided to get up and check out early, another early start would allow me to cook more sausages and get some traces ready.
The second day we were on Sea Angler and skipper Malcom had us loaded and under way just before 6am and first out of the blocks, the plan was to feather the wreck for a bit of bait prior to starting. John and Tom were situated at the back hatching a plan, they were going to target a Ling while we drifted for bait, I managed to snap their little meeting on film, as it happended their baits were both taken, johns fish got to the wreck and Toms bit clean through the 200lb trace!
I stuck with the simple Sabiki feathers and managed several nice pouting for bait before randomly catching a stunning female Cuckoo Wrasse I have already had a nice male cuckoo wrasse for the challenge but can add the female under the same number. The really good news was this lovely little fish shot off down to the seabed something they can struggle with in really deep water.
With the tide starting to run the skipper anchored us over the wreck and we once again dropped our baits in the hope of a longer, stronger, conger. We were honoured today with our fellow anglers being the Essex boys Paul, & Dave, Paul Sweetman, Dave Ball and his son little balls, Tom, John and I, a real motely crew.
This was another tough day with lots of lost eels and also a bit of discarded net draped over the wreck that would catch your rigs or eels halfway up, very frustrating. I've been diagnosed with carpal tunnel and by the second day even the splint wasn't really helping but that's a sign of getting old and just another one for the list of defects.
Team mate John was grinding out a few fish and by the end of the day he had amassed 9 Eels to 42lb, I had lost 3 and boated 3 to 40lb and on a hard weekend I cant complain. Team mates Sam and Steve however had really had a tough one with Steve losing a really big eel that just threw the hook during the fight leaving them with one fish a piece, they were on the boat with the other half of our rivals team who had only had one fish. It was all going to be down to how Andy and Matt had done it was now in the lap of the gods as we up anchored and headed for port. With all the results in we got the news we had been hoping for and our team had finally done it, we won the team event, BCC tankard, and a super Greys boat rod each.
John who had done really well on the second day won the Trophy for the most eels caught, so the icing on the cake.
Our team Longer, Stronger Conger landed 38 Eels which were all released safe and well, and it was a triple winning weekend for me, winning the raffle, winning the team event and catching species 45. I feel fortunate to be part of a team of truly inspirational guys, all for their own reasons and I am looking forward to defending our crown next year. We have been told the festival is moving to Weymouth, this is sad for Plymouth but maybe a change is as good as a rest. Blue sharks next, hopefully my first trip of the year with skipper of Force 10, Pete Davis, I seem to have a little bit of luck when fishing with him.
