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2006 APND Round 6 La Mata or La Marina or Garrucha or Cabo De Gata
Round 6 of the APND Fishing Club of Puerto De Mazarron Surfcasting Championship was without doubt a lottery, not just regarding who won it but where it was to be held. After weeks of planning this all night round I was assured that La Marina was to be the venue, indeed as I featured in last weeks Round Town News preview. I did try to ring as many people as possible but am sorry if you turned up and could not find us. The two all night matches of the year are held in June before the summer break and the following round at the end of September. The weather is usually shirt sleeves all night and pleasant fishing. Unfortunately this year, the weather, as you know has been rather unseasonable of late and high winds plus high seas were the reason for abandoning La Marina at the last minute. A phone call from Luigi Mateos instructed me that the venue had changed, at four o’clock on Saturday afternoon, to Garrucha just south of Vera Playa. A coach awaited most of the competitors to provide transport from the club house in Puerto De Mazarron. I was still at home as I had been chosen to travel ahead to La Marina and peg the beach as I had a thirty minute head start north. Luigi then rang again and said the venue was now Cabo De Gata near Almeria. This is two hundred and seventy kilometres south of La Marina! The competition was to start at nine in the evening and finish at seven on Sunday morning. At five on Saturday afternoon myself and fellow competitor Peter Birch left my house with instructions from Luigi to catch the bus up on the motorway at Lorca as it headed south. After further frantic calls from Luigi shouting down the phone “follow the bus, follow the bus” we caught them up in a service area near Nijar. We all then arrived at a very windswept beach in the middle of nowhere and set up just in time for the nine o’clock start.
This was never going to be a good night and although the sea was flat, with the wind blowing from behind, it was very cold and within an hour I had four layers and a ski hat on. Fish were being caught and it was turning out to be the right decision to come to this venue, known in Spanish surfcasting circles as a gem. No one had warned us about the fox though. Yes, a fox! In fact two foxes that sneak up in the dark and try and steal the fish from your bucket. The first I knew of it was when some of my fellow competitors seemed to have gone mad, screaming and jumping about, chasing shadows up the beach. Then I had a visit. Luckily my fish were well protected and they went away hungry. The only problem was as the ten hours went on they had a well rehearsed plan and one would run down the beach near the surf under the rods so you watched that one whilst the other came from behind and took your catch. By daylight they had eaten a portion of my sandwich but not touched my fish so we were all happy. Lots of fish were caught and everyone was tired but happy. We headed off back to the service area for a welcome coffee and a breather before the long drive home. All ended happily then……not really, the axle broke on my six month old 4x4 just before the service area. We limped in and had to have it recovered. Luigi and clan left on the coach and Peter and myself had a two hundred kilometre taxi ride courtesy of Nissan. I think next year we will just stay in Puerto De Mazarron. It has to be a lot easier!!!
The results which became an afterthought for me to be honest were.
1 Juan Acosta Mazarron
2 Jesus Carrillo Murcia
3 Luigi Mateos Pto Mazarron
4 Antonio Rebollo Mazarron
Now the summer break and time to reflect or have nightmares. I don’t know which!!!
Copyright © Gary Smith & Luigi Mateos
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