Few fish but huge sums
raised for the Lifeboat
The 2nd Felinfoel Brewery Double Dragon RNLI Annual Fishing Open, organised by members from Pembroke & District Angling Club, Osprey Sea Angling Club, Haven Angling Group and West Wales Match Anglers, was held on 25th January 2009 at Amroth Beach in Pembrokeshire.
Unlike the previous year, the weather prior to the event was dreadful, with rough seas and high winds from the east, never any good for finding the fish, although on the day it soon calmed down to give quite sunny, if not a bit cold conditions, but still with too much east in the wind for anglers’ liking. These conditions were almost certainly the reason, along with the poor catch two weeks previously at the Air Ambulance Open, that entries were limited to 48 anglers, which included two juniors and four ladies.
Bad weather equals low catch…
With the weather being against them, only three anglers, managed to weigh in four eligible fish between them in this heaviest bag, flounder only, competition. The biggest was 455gms or 1 gram over 1lb in old money. This was caught by Llanelli angler Phil Evans who added another small one of just 155gms to land him the first prize. The other two catchers were local anglers from Haverfordwest & Milford Haven respectively, in second place with a flounder of 375gms was Deri Roberts and in third place was Chris Daines with a fish of just 180gms. Naturally enough with such few fish being caught, it was not a surprise when the Pairs competition went the same way as the overall competition with Andrew John, also of Llanelli, partnering Phil Evans, and Neil Sharp of Pembroke Dock paired with Deri Roberts
…but huge sum raised for the RNLI
However, the most important result on the day was that the event raised £895 for the RNLI which together with the £1,121 from last year makes over £2000 in two years, not bad considering the number of participants. We must first congratulate the anglers from the organising clubs, together with Roger Harris of the Amroth Arms who continues to allow us to use his premises and always gives valued support at events such as these, plus the Felinfoel Brewery and their representative, Jamie Owen, for their main sponsorship of the event and all the other generous sponsors who donated cash, made collections and donated prizes for the mega raffle which all helped to ensure the event’s success.
These were Martin and Sandra Thompson of Angler’s Corner, Milford Haven, for the first prize in the raffle, then Pembroke Angling, Roger Harries (Amroth Arms), Haven Angling Group, Dale Sailing, Mark Bentley, Andrew Skeels, Keith of Tenby Angling, Alex Nicholas, Pembrokeshire Terminal Tackle, John O’Connor, Shane Tucker, Leigh Rogers, The Victoria Hotel and Sir Charles Wetham, both in Milford Haven
