EFSA European Shore Championship 2019, Akureyri, Iceland
Wednesday May 1st was the day for the opening ceremony for this shore championship. Though most of the anglers had arrived at the HQ hotel a couple of days or more before the championship in order to try out different shore venues to see what they could catch. Those that travelled further North to the top of the fjord were rewarded with good catches of dab and cod with a few other species with some of the nearer venues producing some fine dabs and a couple of large scorpion fish.
Many of the anglers had fished at this venue the last time it was held in Iceland in 2012, though in the month of September so it was not fully known what to expect at this time of year.
In the evening of 1st May the opening ceremony was held at the HQ hotel, the Kjarnalundur in Akureyri. Section Iceland welcomed all anglers and partners to this the 2019 EFSA Shore Championship. This was followed by the drawing of the anglers fishing zones for the 3 days of the championship, peg position in the zone to be drawn each day at the venue.
Day 1
Thursday 2nd May and at 10 o’clock all anglers departed for the first venue which was to be the piers in the town of Akureyri. Pegs were drawn at 11 o’clock which left plenty of time before the 12 o’clock start, time to set up and prepare the bait which was mackerel and bluey. Hopes were high but it soon became apparent that it was going to be a challenge to catch a fish in some of the zones. At lines up after the 5 hours of competition some anglers had failed to catch, and many had catches of less than five fish. Zones A and B which were fished from a pier at the Northern end of town were won with 17 and 31 fish respectively. Zones C, D and E were fished off the same pier at the southern end of town the highest number of fish caught by one angler was 8. This set a pattern for the two days to come with a large difference between catches in each zone. Congratulations to Dave Lovelock in zone E who had the only zone win for England. Fish caught were mainly dabs with some cod and scorpion fish. Paull Curtice landed a fine wolf fish.
Day 2
It was a longer drive further up the fjord to fish a beach lined with boulders as a breakwater. As had been hoped this was a better venue with most people catching. Again, a great difference in zones with A, B being won with 12 and 10 fish respectively. In zones C, D and E several anglers recorded in excess of 30 fish with the zone E winner having 57 fish. It was mainly dabs with cod featuring in A and D zones. It was Kim Bowden’s turn to get a zone win for England.
Day 3
This was fished on the way into town just 5 minutes from the HQ hotel, and as expected this was the toughest venue with anglers relieved to catch just 1 fish, though many caught none. Four of the five zones were won with just 2 fish, so there was a total change round in the top three individual positions. Both Dave Clark and Barrie Senior secured zone wins.
In the evening the Gala dinner and presentation was held at the HQ hotel. The results were good for England with Kim Bowden being just out of the glory in 4th place for the individuals. In the National Teams it was the Netherlands A who took the gold, but the England B team of Barrie Senior, Allan Jones, Kim Bowden, Jerry Knight and Tony Porritt moved from 4th the previous day to take silver with Germany who were top the previous day getting bronze. On looking at the England B team it was realised they were all Seniors.
As for the Senior category itself in which a third of the anglers competing qualified it was a clean sweep at the top for England with Kim Bowden 1st Dave Clark 2nd Barrie Senior 3rd. In the team events, which were all drawn by the organisers prior to the championship, the England anglers featured well with Allan Jones and Paul Parsons being drawn together and taking the bronze medal in the 2 Man Team. In the 4 Man Team event gold went to the team of Kim Bowden, Dave Clark, Paul Tyndall, Ireland and Steve Mason, Iceland. Paul Parsons was in the team taking silver and Jerry Knight the team taking bronze. In the Executive Teams of Three England were again represented with Allan Jones in the team taking gold and Dave Lovelock with silver.
The three pin winners in the individual event were Stephen Glynn from Ireland gold; Bjorn Hansen from Germany silver and Nils Grunwald also from Germany bronze.
The presentation of awards was held in between the buffet gala dinner which was a good choice of well-prepared food of Icelandic dishes. Though the fishing for many was not as hoped for in Iceland we were well looked after, it was a well organised and arranged championship and a credit to the Iceland Section hosting it.
Kim Bowden and Barrie Senior
English Results
4th Kim Bowden
6th Paul Parsons
8th Stuart Jones
11th Dave Clark
12th Barrie Senior
13th Allan Jones
25th Dave Lovelock
27th Jerry Knight
47th Paull Curtice
50th Reg Clough
53rd Tony Porritt
EFSA European Shore 2019 – Full Results
