By Ben Bassett & Rich Salter

This article was written in July 2023.

Our third ever one day charity event took place on Saturday 8th July on Mount Batten Breakwater, Plymouth. This time we were raising money for the mental health cause, Tackling Minds. After months of build up, and hard work behind the scenes, we had made it and the weather was kind to us too, with only a short bout of rain before it kicked off, then improving as the day went on. It was another event full of friendly competition, good vibes and ending with a dramatic ‘Golden Fish Off’!

Despite us giving all junior anglers free entry this year, we still managed to raise an incredible £1540. That amount was due to a record number of anglers getting involved, 93 altogether, with 17 of those being juniors. On the day we only had 13 who couldn’t make it, so the attendance on the day was an astonishing 79, plus our youngest Lerfer, Ronnie, the two year old son of Charlie Sebbage and Andrea Hegedus, who both took turns to fish on the day.

Charlie, Andrea and their son Ronnie wearing the official event t shirts. 

All who joined us got a free Big Lerf t-shirt, provided by one of our sponsors, Not Guilty Press, from Bristol. We also had a huge variety of prizes on offer from Majorcraft, Keitech, IMA, HTO, Savage Gear, Penn, Berkley, Streetfishing London, Osborne And Cragg, CAN Fishing Lures, Jonny Lerfer and TanagoMax. 

The prize categories were:
Most species overall (Prizes for 1st 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th place)

1st Majorcraft Aji-Do Rod RRP £249.99 – Provided by Majorcraft UK 
& HTO Nebula 2000 Reel – RRP £104.99 – Provided by HTO

2nd Majorcraft, Keitech and IMA box and lure bundle – Provided by Majorcraft, Keitech and IMA UK & HTO Aikido 1-5g – £72.99 – Provided by HTO

3rd Majorcraft, Keitech and IMA box and lure bundle – Provided by Majorcraft, Keitech and IMA
UK & HTO Aikido 1000 Reel – £48.99 – Provided by HTO

4th – HTO Rockfish UL 1-7g – £39.99

5th – HTO Hip Bag – £32.99

Longest fish
Prize was a lure/tackle bundle from Streetfishing London
& HTO Sling Bag – £39.99 – Provided by HTO

Smallest fish
Prize was a HTO Sling Bag – £39.99 – provided by HTO 
& Microfishing selection including Mini Isome, Tanago Hooks and clips provided by Tanagomax 

Most species by a junior angler (17 and under)
1st Savage Gear SGS6 UL Game rod RRP £229.99
Savage Gear SG4 1000 reel £64.99
Berkley Nautil 6lb x8 PE Braid £27.99

2nd Penn Conflict 0-5g LRF rod RRP £109.99
Savage Gear Flatline Tungsten UV Sardine 5g metal jig RRP £11.99

3rd Berkley URBN Sling Bag RRP £43.99
Berkley URBN sunglasses Crystal Red RRP £27.99

4th Savage Gear Flatline Tungsten 5g UV Pink Glow metal jig RRP £11.99
Savage Gear Flatline Tungsten 5g UV Sardine metal jig RRP £11.99
Savage Gear Pencil Micro 8g Holo White Glow £8.99
Savage Gear 3D Needle Jig 7g 6cm Mackerel Ayu £7.99

5th Savage Gear Pencil Micro 5g Holo Green RRP 7.99
Savage Gear Pencil Micro 5g Holo Pink Glow RRP £7.99
Savage Gear Flatline Tungsten UV White Glow 5g RRP £11.99

Coolest catch / rarest species

Prizes were
Ron Thompson 3m Manitoba Street Net – provided by Osborne and Cragg Tackle Shop, Plymouth & HTO Light Game Bag – £19.99 – Provided by HTO

The Topknot Prize
Prizes were
2 x HTO Light Game Boxes – RRP £18 – Provided by HTO
& Lure Bundle from C.A.N. Fishing Lures
& LSD Designs Shoulder Bag, Spool of Seaguar PE Braid and Fluorocarbon, Meiho J Case and Valley Hill Case – Provided by Jonny Lerfer. 

The day was a real mixed bag. The first hour was a blur of excitement as anglers spread out across the breakwater, with early catches including an unusually high number of shore rockling, which were making the most of the overcast conditions and high tide. The early run included the usual blennies, but also a nice sized mackerel for one of the favourites, Will Pender. But as the day went on, the fishing slowed on the ebbing tide, especially as the conditions brightened. 

We were joined on the day by Ben Francis and Will Cooper, who were filming John Locker, aka The Fish Locker, learning all about The Big Lerf and LRF. Ben joined them for most of the day and managed to pull out a nice sized tub gurnard, one that would have been a strong contender for longest fish had he been able to take part. It was clear John and The Big Lerf trio have a lot of shared values, the main difference only being the scale that we go about our fishing.

Plymouth is a big place and many anglers spread out, fishing from the rockpools to the south east of Mount Batten to Mutton Cove over in the west. Plenty also found their way into Osborne and Cragg tackle shop, one of our sponsors for the day. In difficult times, it is important we support our local businesses, and our Lerfers on the day didn’t let us down there. 

Species were trickling in, with even two ringneck blennies being logged, In fact we had as many ringnecks caught as we had mackerel, which shows you how difficult it was to find any pelagic species, which has been a theme of our Fundraiser events over the years. Thankfully, a few bass were caught to keep the variety up. 

Despite everyone spreading out, the most exciting catches were mostly made at Mount Batten towards the end. Matt Barnsley caught a rare daytime leopard spot goby, making him a shoe in for the coolest catch category. And right at the very end, almost bang on the 6pm deadline, Nathan Patrick caught the only topknot of the day. Which was a great result, and in dramatic circumstances. 

By the time the finish had arrived, our anglers were cooked from the sun, but full of smiles and stories of the day. We worked out the totals, and there were a few anglers tied. To break the ties, we worked out who had caught the rarer fish, and that put them above the other angler. For the very top prize though, that had to be settled by ‘Golden Fish Off’, a head to head battle where the next fish wins. In 2022 we had a fish off between our junior anglers, and in 2023, we got what everyone wanted, a fish off between our most successful two anglers, Lucas Theocharides and Will Pender. 

So, just like the previous year, we had nearly 50 anglers watching two, ready to fish. We gave the count down and they were off. It was like watching two herons next to the water, fixed on their target. House music pumped in the background from a day rave happening across the Sound, the building music only serving to increase the tension. Pender struck first and watched as his fish agonisingly slipped the hook. Then the moment came, as Lucas lifted his common blenny from the water, Will pumped his fist in celebration with him. It was a beautiful moment of respect, and an image we felt summed up the day perfectly. We had our winner, for the second year running, Lucas Theocharides. 

Thank you everyone who bought a ticket and to our sponsors for supporting us so generously.
Here are the final results – 

Top 5 saltwater
Lucas Theocharides 12 – won by Golden Fish Off
Will Pender 12
Nathan Patrick 11
Dan Cooper 10
Matt Amos 8 – higher place due to rarer catch on the day 

Top 5 junior
Tom Baron 7
Reuben Judge 6 – higher place due to rarer catch on the day 
Will Birch 6
Aaron Chambers 4 – higher place due to rarer catch on the day 
Roscoe Dolbear 4

Coolest fish
Leopard spot goby – Matt Barnsley 

Longest fish
Don Midasoni – Bass 35cm

Smallest fish 
Shane House- common goby >3cm

Topknot prize – Nathan patrick

And some stats from the event:
79 anglers participated this year, our highest ever turnout with 267 individual catches recorded, that’s an average of 3.379 species per participant.

Below is a list of the 23 species caught and how many times they were registered. Unsurprisingly, common blennies were the most frequently recorded species, but corkwing wrasse and tompots were not far behind.

Common Blenny 41
Corkwing Wrasse 37
Tompot Blenny 36
Goldsinny Wrasse 31
Poor Cod 19
Pollack 18
Rock Goby 18
Ballan Wrasse 12
Black Goby 10
Pout 8
Shore Rockling 8
Sand Goby 7
Bass 4
Common Goby 3
Two Spotted Goby 3
Dragonet 2
Long Spined Sea Scorpion 2
Mackerel 2
Ringneck Blenny 2
Black Bream 1
Leopard Spotted Goby 1
Sand Smelt 1
Topknot 1