Matkah taught him to follow the cod and the halibut along the under-sea banks and wrench the
rockling out of his hole among the weeds; how to skirt the wrecks lying a hundred fathoms below water and dart like a rifle bullet in at one porthole and out at another as the fishes ran; how to dance on the top of the waves when the lightning was racing all over the sky, and wave his flipper politely to the stumpy-tailed Albatross and the Man-of-war Hawk as they went down the wind; how to jump three or four feet clear of the water like a dolphin, flippers close to the side and tail curved; to leave the flying fish alone because they are all bony; to take the shoulder-piece out of a cod at full speed ten fathoms deep, and never to stop and look at a boat or a ship, but particularly a row-boat.
His first cast he landed a superb three bearded
rockling weighing in at 3lb 10ozs beating the existing Welsh record by a country mile.
They had SEVEN species between them - cockoo ray, thornback, dogfish, ling spurdog, conger and
rockling.
Second was Roy Tapper with a nice
rockling giving him 15 points and PS40.
The second match featured 25 entrants, with 11 weighing in four codling, three flounder, three sand dabs, two
rockling, two coalfish and one pollack.
Cardiff member Mike Mather was second with one weighing 0.43kg and Neil Evans third with a 0.20kg
rockling.
In total 13 flounders a
rockling and an eelpout were weighed in, all of them coming from Whitby harbour and piers.
Ivor Smith, from Rogerstone, was the most successful traveller when Gwent and District SAC held a roving competition as he returned to the weigh in to put two dog fish and a
rockling weighing 1.34kg on the scales.
Chris Woods, from Cowbar Jetty, was runnerup with one tadpole fish and one
rockling for 1lb 6.5oz.
Craig Maddox caught two
rockling and a pouting and with a combined weight of 0.35kg they were enough to give him first prize.
ROCKLING were the dominant species in the latest St Mary's match, fished by 17 with 14 weighing in.
He beached two dogfish, two
rockling and a cod to put 2.47kg on his card.