Results – English Shore Championships 2018

EFSA England Shore Championship 2018

This year’s shore championship was fished over two days at Cogden on Chesil Beach on Friday 6th and Saturday 7th April with 21 anglers entered. Registration took place on the Thursday evening at Weymouth Sea Angling Club’s HQ. Where over a drink or two we caught up with old friends and made some new ones.

Day 1

We met at The National Trust Car park where we were greeted by Andy Selby who let us through the gate to allow us to drive down to the beach, courtesy of the National Trust, saving us the walk down with all our gear. With rain in the air, a strong wind blowing and surf beginning to roll up the beach discussions took place as to whether we should change the venue, but the majority thought it would be fishable so off we went. Stuart (Taff) Jones had arranged for three of his forces lads to peg the beach for us and act as stewards if required. Whilst this was taking place pegs were drawn and bait collected.

It was a hard fish with quite a few anglers not catching or only finding an occasional undersize fish. Back at the car park it was obvious that anyone with 2 or more fish was the likely day winner. In Zone A it was Paul Parsons who came out on top with three fish for 116 points to win the zone. Zone B was also won with three fish, Allan Jones taking the honours with 129 points and top angler on the day. Allan also had the longest round fish of the day, a pollock of 33 cm to win the days pool. The longest and only flatfish caught was a flounder of 29 cm which took the hook of Dave Oliver to give him the pool win.

Day 2

We again met at Cogden but this time in better weather with the wind decreasing and coming from behind us and we even got some sun later in the afternoon. Although the fishing was easier the fish still did not appear in any numbers. At the end of the match all bar three anglers had caught at least one sizeable fish. In Zone A it was close with two anglers having caught three sizeable fish. Allan Jones’ three different species to Alan Porters’ two gave him the edge winning the zone with 137 points. In Zone B it was Reg Clough who was the zone winner with three fish for 109 points. Gary Geoghegan in Zone A had the longest round fish of the day winning the pool with a dogfish of 57 cm. The winner of the flatfish pool also came from Zone A with Vernon Allen catching a flounder of 34cm. The only other flatfish of the day, again a flounder (29 cm), was caught by Keith Skeggs in Zone B.

Presentation

The presentation was held at Weymouth Sea Angling Club’s HQ in the evening where Andy Selby had set everything up and arranged a raffle with proceeds being donated to The National Trust. After the raffle the awards presentation was made by Barrie Senior and Kim Bowden. Allan Jones was presented with the gold pin, Paul Parson with the silver and Dave Lovelock with the bronze.

Barrie Senior thanked the anglers for attending, Andy for arranging the use of Cogden and supplying the bait, Taff’s lads for pegging the beach and Kim, Keith and Jan for their help with organising the event and then got told off later for omitting to thank Billy Short and Weymouth Angling Club for allowing us to use their premises.

Barrie Senior

Results