European Species Championship 2011. Flatfish
29th October-1st November 2011
Langeland, Denmark
The 2011 European Species was hosted by EFSA German and fished from Spodsbjerg on the Danish Island of Langeland on 30th and 31st October 2011. The target being flatfish: – Flounder, Plaice, Dab and possible Brill or Turbot. 12 English entries were included in the total of 48 entries from 6 sections
On 2 days prior to the event 5 from England ventured out to dip a toe or rather a line in the water to try and gain an insight to the venue and what to expect the following week, and armed with this knowledge they ventured forth on the Sunday morning full of hope and anticipation.
Day 1 Sunday 30th and the 5 boats departed the quay and gracefully made the 35 minute run to the fishing ground, the boats were either ex commercial fishing boats or 1 ex pilot boat, not the fast purpose boats we are used to but a very gentle ride out except when the boat Fie hit the big wave from a cargo ship, ask Andy Smith about the advantages of putting on waterproofs before leaving port and how to stow your bait so half of it is not washed out of the scupper!
So to the fishing, all done on the drift. There was a steady catch of flounder and dab with an occasional plaice to all anglers but with the 30cm size limit the average seemed about 1 scoring fish for every 4 fish caught!
Back on shore and the fish had to be all measured to give the anglers total score, but before this it was realised that we had not fared so well when England’s average catch was about 9 or 10 fish while a couple of the local Danish anglers came in with 20 fish and 1 of them with 32. So needless to say top honours on day 1 went to the Danish.
Day 2 was the same as day 1, the only difference today was light winds so a slow drift, the previous day was too fast, somewhere in between would have been ideal according to the skipper I talked to. Today when returning to the scales all of the England competitors returned with improved catches of up to 16 fish sizeable but not enough to challenge the Danish who again recorded numbers up to 20 fish each.
The Monday evening after the fishing the presentation took place after very tasty and plentiful buffet. The top 3 and pin winners were all from Denmark with Martin Hubert Jensen winning with a total of 51 fish for 1974 points. The best England individual being Barry Senior in 6th place. with 1082 points. England B managed a commendable 3rd position in the international teams, Germany were 2nd and as you may of expected by now Denmark were 1st and in a different league to the rest of us when catching flounder and dab in home waters, but if we return things will be different! Fish of note I have to mention is the only Brill of the competition, which was caught by your author Kim Bowden and the largest Plaice by Pete Bailey.. On that the largest Flounder 4 people had one of 42cm including Mike Smith and Pete Bailey
It was a good competition with plenty of flat fish. Most really enjoyed the fishing despite not having a bucket full of scoring fish at the end of the day. Several of us commented on the similarity with the EFSA England flounder catches in Poole each January! It was suggested that we hold our AGM and Flounder comp in Denmark next year, though I would expect attendance to be worse than usual despite the abundance of flounders.
INDIVIDUAL SCORES
Placing Name Fish Points
6 Barrie Senior 29 1082
12 Ray Barron 25 942
14 Richard Russell 24 889
15 Matt Osborne 24 888
16 Pete Bailey 23 879
18 Neil Bryant 24 871
19 Mike Smith 23 864
24 Kim Bowden 21 794
28 David Clark 21 786
30 Jerry Knight 19 705
31 Andrew Smith 19 704
32 Gary Gailbraith 19 698
NATIONAL TEAMS
1ST Denmark A
2nd Germany A
3rd England B of Mike Smith, Pete Bailey, Dave Clark, Matt Osborne and Barrie Senior
BIGGEST FISH
NAME SECTION BIGGEST FISH SPECIES
Kim Bowden England 47cm Brill
Pete Bailey England 43cm Plaice
Martin Hubert Jensen Denmark 42cm Flounder also Mike Smith and Pete Bailey
Abubakir Shamuzov Russia 40cm Dab
In the pairs Barrie Senior and Pete Bailey were 3rd.
A full set of results are available if required, just ask.
Report by Kim Bowden
Results
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