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The
Jersey Spearfishing Club held their 5th International Open competition
at Sands, St Ouens, on Saturday 12th July 2003. 28 competitors enjoyed
perfect conditions with clear blue skies, good underwater visibility and
only a slight swell making for memorable day.
The
schedule began early at 8:30am with formal registration and a run
through of the rules of the competition and safety measures.
The
level of competition promised to be high with several competitors
attending from South Africa, the United Kingdom and France. These
included 13 times UK champion Peter Crawford, Erwan Herveic, winner of
the Brittany round of the 2003 French Championship & Philippe Bunel,
a former member of the French national squad who has won the Jersey Open
for the last 3 years. Many previous Jersey Club champions entered on the
day in a bid to return the Open title to Jersey.
At
9:30am exactly the whistle sounded and the competitors began to make
their way to the water. As always, there was a wide range of opinion as
to where fish would be found, with many competitors walking either
towards La Pulente or Lâ Etacq carrying their marker buoys and
equipment with them. Some competitors endured a walk of over 11/2 miles
in full wetsuits with temperatures of over 20°C before embarking on
many hours of freediving.
A
large RIB patrolled the bay throughout the day as the guard boat to keep
a constant watch over the competitors, ensuring they were both safe and
keeping within the competition boundaries of Corbiere Lighthouse to the
South and Le Pulec Bay to the North.
After
only about 3 of the maximum 6 hours of competition, a few competitors
emerged to hand in their catch and sign out at the shore station
according to the competition rules, which focus on safety. They reported
good visibility in most areas but a rising swell at low tide was proving
to be troublesome in the middle of the bay. By 3pm a good crowd had
assembled around the organisers marquee to see what divers had brought
to the weigh-in. As further catches were weighed, the lead changed many
times, with several competitors who had carried on fishing until the
last possible moment finishing furthest up the points table. Three
competitors demonstrated very cool heads in otherwise soaring
temperatures by returning to sign out with less than 5 minutes to spare.
Chris Isaacs, current club champion, put together a winning catch of
mullet, bass, pollack, mackerel and wrasse in the north of the zone to
narrowly beat last years champion Philippe Bunel who swam a considerable
distance to the south of the zone but failed to find the shoals of
pollack he had located last year.
Several
species were caught including conger, bass, grey and golden grey mullet,
wrasse, bream, pollack, trigger fish, mackerel and ray. Notable captures
were an 18lb conger eel (Gary Roche of South Africa), a 6lb bass (Mike
Shearer, Jersey), a 7.5lb Small Eyed Ray (Alan Bates, Jersey) and a
Trigger fish (Wayne English, Jersey).
Trophies
were awarded to the top five positions, along with prizes including £250.00
cash for first place. The top positions on the day were:
1. Chris Isaacs ( Jersey ) 25,600pts
2. Phillipe Bunel ( France ) 20,300pts
3.Mike Shearer ( Jersey ) 15,600pts
4. Mike Ciarson ( UK ) 12,000pts
5. Pete Crawford ( UK ) 11,750pts
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