SHANE Bentley has won the Specimen Fish Hunt, but as expected it was a close and exciting finish. hree anglers finished on nine species and had to be separated on their percentage scores.

Paul McLaren, who was on six species after the first leg, was the first to make his move.

He came to the first weigh-in on Saturday morning and weighed in three qualifiers, a 6-6-7 grey mullet, 9-5-15 bull huss and a 2-2-2 sole. Those put him into the lead, a position he was going to hold until the last weigh-in on Sunday evening.

His main rivals slowly chipped away at that lead. Up to and including the Sunday morning weigh-in Bentley increased his total up to eight by landing a 2-2-12 sole and a 2-0-14 lesser-spotted dogfish.

Marc Eppelein, who had started the weekend on five species, added a 1-3-13 three-bearded rockling, a 1-15-15 golden-grey mullet and a 4-0-4 ballan wrasse to his total.

Other anglers had also got up to eight species: Dave Saunders, Andy Le Lerre, Stuart Tostevin and Tim Cotterill.

It would all come down to the last weigh-in. Only two of the main contenders came back with fish. Bentley had a 1-15-2 golden grey mullet and Eppelein a 6-7-1 ballan wrasse.

There were now three on nine species. When their percentage scores were calculated, Bentley had 441.76, Eppelein 426.31 and McLaren 424.86.

The team prize went to McLaren, Simon Fletcher, Mark Gillson and Bentley.

Over the weekend the competitors landed 56 qualifiers covering 15 different species.

There were some great specimens. Steven Torode topped the eight black bream that were caught with a 3-14-14 fish, while Gillson had one of 3-10-9.

There were five ballan wrasse over 6-0-0, the catches being topped by Eppelein’s 6-7-1 specimen.

Four flatfish were caught, three sole topped by Bentley’s 2-2-12 fish and a plaice of 2-7-1 by Caleb Zunino.

The biggest fish of the weekend was Dave Saunders’s 27-2-0 conger. The most prolific species was lesser-spotted dogfish with 10, the best being a 2-10-7 by Tim Froome.

The surprise was a complete lack of Couch’s sea bream.

Only one qualifier was caught over the whole three weekends of the competition.

THE mess left by anglers at both the White Rock and the Castle Breakwater has got so bad that harbour staff equipped with power cleaners have had to be employed to clean up the two areas.

The main problem was discarded squid bait which gives off an awful stench as it decomposes. On the White Rock it attracted the rats, which forced the closure of the pier until it could be cleaned.

The harbour master does not want to close these very popular angling venues but he really is at the end of his tether.

The situation cannot be allowed to continue and unless anglers are prepared to toe the line, drastic measures which they hoped to avoid will have to be taken by the harbour authorities.

Anglers, it’s been said before, it’s all down to you. Clear up before you leave. Place all rubbish, including unwanted bait, food and drink containers and discarded tackle, into the bins provided, or take it away with you.

Encourage other anglers to do the same, for it will need a united combined effort by all who fish the piers to resolve this very real and unpleasant problem.

Ideally a group of anglers could periodically get together to clean up the areas concerned. This has been done before on a couple of occasions with success.

Perhaps one or more of the angling clubs could take the lead in this matter.