The Crousety Fishing competition by Rodhouse

The Crouesty Fishing took on a new dimension this year for its 2nd edition by doubling the number of participants. On this occasion, Rodhouse entered two teams that simply finished on the two highest steps of the podium. While these were locals who know the area very well, it is interesting to note that the approaches that led both teams to this performance are quite different.

Local Teams

You don’t achieve success in a competition by chance, and it requires a good knowledge of the fishing grounds. Like many teams, those entered by Rodhouse in the Crouesty Fishing were made up of locals who have been fishing the area more or less regularly for many years and are used to competition.

Morgan, Mickaël and Fred make up Team Rodhouse 2, the winner of the edition, and the runners-up, Rodhouse 1, were represented by Bruno, Marvin and Thierry.

A Good Preparation

Knowing the area is not enough; it is also very important to prepare for the competition in the days and weeks beforehand to understand the positioning of the bass and, if possible, their feeding preferences and the most effective lure presentations.

What is special about competitions is that you can often find several different patterns at the same time in the same sector. Let’s recall that a pattern is the combination of a spot typology, a variety of lures, and a presentation/animation; therefore, different effective combinations can exist, as well as others that are ineffective despite the presence of fish.

Team Rodhouse 2 had an advantage on this point, having pre-fished regularly for a month and knowing exactly where the bass were—and, more importantly, where they were not—on Zone 1 around Hoëdic and Zone 2 around the Teignouse. The other team, for its part, lacked time to conduct multiple scouting trips but had also located concentrations of bass in the two mentioned zones.

The common mistake of both teams was not setting foot in the gulf this season…

The observation was therefore identical in terms of fish concentrations: the passage of the Sœurs was the most productive in the days before the competition; although the 3rd-place team, the Dodus, found a good catch in the south of Hoëdic. It should be noted that the two teams did not cross paths on any spots during the day, one operating more in the north and the other in the south.

Nevertheless—and this point is interesting and conditioned the choice of lures and the approach of both teams for the competition—the identified patterns varied, even if they were equally effective.

Different Approaches on the Islands

While Team Rodhouse had clearly found an effective fishery using smaller finesse, blue, and planer baits, the winners performed much better with a linear presentation in the water column using the Crazy Paddle Tail 150 Kaki and the Black Minnow 120 at 25 g.

On this first day of competition, two interesting facts emerge:

- First, the linear approach with medium-sized lures was less restrictive and allowed catching fish of all sizes, whereas in the first case the average remained quite low. However, during the day, by keeping the same presentation but using larger lures on exactly the same spots, much bigger catches were made.

- Second, the linear fishing with small lures that Team Rodhouse 1 tested remained ineffective. Apparently, lure size was decisive in enticing the bass up into the water column.

Finally, also very interesting, both teams determined that fishing behind the boat at a slight angle to the drift triggered more bites.

An Identical Strategy on Sunday

Both teams suffered from a severe lack of preparation and information to confidently approach this second round but nevertheless knew they would find active bass on the gulf’s “décharge” due to the low tide coefficients. While the goal is always to achieve a double quota, the shared ambition was to catch big fish and, unlike many teams, both opted at the start and end of the round for remote areas, deep rocky structures, or beach edges, hoping to hook unpressured and undisturbed bass… Since the risky moves did not always pay off, they shared their drifts with an empty livewell on the strong currents at the gulf’s exit.

Again, an identical pattern was identified, namely light scratching fishing with small and rather flashy lures (yellow or pink) in the direction of the drift.

Their Lure Selections

For Team Rodhouse 2, most of the fishing was done with Crazy Paddle Tail 150 Kaki weighted at 20 and 30 g, Black Minnow 120 at 25 g, and Blaster Shad 100.

Team Rodhouse 1 had, for its part, opted for blue pintails (Shad Impact) and finesse baits with a bifid tail (Zoom Fluke) weighted between 7 and 10 g to plane above the bottom, Nitros Shad 90, and finally, to target large fish, the Crazy Eel 180 at 20 g and the Black Minnow 140 at 20 and 40 g proved most effective.

The Blanks Used

Unsurprisingly, the set-ups of both teams are extremely close and include essentials for bass fishing!

Rodbuilder’s Républic blanks, of course, especially the Statement 766 and 724. But also North Fork Composite blanks, namely the 705, 706, and 807 HM, as well as the SJ 804 Delta.

Finally, a Phenix K2 764 blank completed the selection.

To explore them perfectly, both teams had chosen Prodigy braid in PE1 and PE1.2, as well as Seaguar Neox fluorocarbon in sizes ranging from 23.5 to 32/100.