Liverpool, the river Mersey was the venue for the 2025 EFSA England Species Championship held over the 28th and 29th November with Cod and Thornback Rays the nominated species.
The evening of Thursday 27th saw the anglers taking part in the match arriving at the Liverpool Yacht Club to register for the event and catch up with old friends. Andy Selby went over the arrangements and clarified the few points that were raised.
Day 1.
The anglers met outside the Yacht Club for a 5 a.m. start. The early start was to ensure there was enough water to get over the lock sill. With a forecast for the day of some rain showers and a moderate but cool breeze waterproofs were the order of the day. The three boats left the Coburg Dock and headed across the river to anchor off the Birkenhead side. Fishing was very slow with just the occasional whiting and dab taking our large baits. Despite moves to marks on the Liverpool side of the river there was no improvement in the fishing. At the end of the day only two Thornback Rays had been caught and no Cod. Martin Bobbet on the boat Jensen had a 55cm fish and Mark Smith on Kraken had a 50cm fish. This was very disappointing as on our last visit to the Mersey in 2019 we had 80+ fish on the first day and a similar number on the second day.
Day 2.
At 6.a.m. anglers boarded the boats and again headed off across the river. The weather forecast was for rain all day, however the sun came out and the rain held off until the evening. Fishing was a repeat of Day 1 but with four scoring fish. Andy Smith on Jensen had two rays, Richard Russell on Suveran one and Gary Geoghegan on Kraken one.
With his two fish Andy Smith was the gold pin winner with 103 points. The silver pin went to Martin Bobbett with 55 points and the bronze pin to Mark Smith with 50 points. Richard Russell had 48 points and Gary Geoghegan 43 points.
Andy Smith was top Senior.
The two-man team winners were Andy Smith and Barrie Senior.
Top four-man team were Andy Smith, Richard Russell, Kim Bowden and Barrie Senior.
The four-man drawn team winners were Billy Cann, Andy Smith, Paul Roper and Phil Clarke.
Biggest fish Martin Bobbett.
Top skipper was Tony Parry, Jensen.
Full Results
Gallery
