Angling News:

 The 20^th Wales Air Ambulance Open Beach Fishing Competition, organised by members of Pembroke & District Angling Club and Osprey Sea Angling Club, was held recently on Amroth beach in South Pembrokeshire.

The weather on the day was similar to that which had been experienced locally in the run up to the competition: cold and mainly dry with northerly wind, a bit different to the appalling weather prior to the run up.
 

Weather good and entries steady

So, once again, the weather Gods smiled on us which meant the conditions were very fishable; if not the best for fishing with the sea being very calm with virtually no surf, which did not augur well for a bumper catch.

However, the turnout and support was only one short of the previous event with 64 anglers including four Ladies and two Juniors, (a boy and a girl)and we thank them all very much indeed for their support.

As predicted, the fishing wasn’t great with 18 anglers bringing 21 fish to the scales, 14 Flounders, 2 Dabs, 2 Five Bearded Rockling, 1 Whiting and 2 Lesser Spotted Dogfish, which have recently had a name change to Cat Sharks! There were other fish caught but they were undersize and returned to the sea.

Competition won by Neyland’s Paul

The winning angler who managed to land two cracking Flounder, for a winning 1Kg 495gms was local Neyland club angler Phil Evans, netting him the first prize of £200. Second was another local from the Saundersfoot club, Andy Young, who always supports these events and has done for years with, I must say, some success.

He pulled in a Lesser Spotted Dogfish or Cat Shark of 1KG 85gms netting him the £100 second prize for the heaviest, any single fish. Third prize went to another local, Brian John from Pembroke with a Flounder of 795gms.
 

Saundersfoot anglers win the pairs’ comp

In the pair’s competition, in which both anglers had to weigh in, first were Andy and his partner Franco Attanasio, another regular from Saundersfoot, who added a Flounder to Andy’s Dogfish for a bag of 1Kg 395gms.

Second were Brian and his partner, also from Pembroke and a real stalwart of these events immemorial, Hughie Sweeney who had a Flounder making their bag 1Kg 35gms. Third were another local and one of the organisers Leigh Rogers and his partner Dorian Harries with 2 Flounders for 645gms. Leigh also won the Stewards draw.
 

Great news for Air Ambulance charity

 
However, the most important result on the day was that the event raised £1,115 for the Wales Air Ambulance, pushing the total raised over the 18 years this competition has been running, well in excess of £25,000. To thank for this sterling effort, we must first congratulate the anglers from the organising clubs, together with Mr Ian Wilkinson of the Temple Bar Inn who put his premises and valued support at this event’s disposal as well as providing the prize for the stewards’ draw.
 
Lastly, we must thank sponsors:- Oriel Johnson, Milforge, The Cove, East Llanion, Altrad Engineering Pembroke Dock, Osprey SAC, Darren Jones, Shane Tucker, Dai Fricker, Andrew Skeels, John O’Connor, Liam O’Connor, Leigh Rogers, Peter Kraus, Haydn Cole, Chris Wynn, Kirsty Culley, Alison George.
 
One final thing is that the whole process repeats itself in four weeks on Sunday the 11^th  February with the 15^th RNLI Annual Fishing Open, in aid of the local lifeboat stations at Angle & Tenby, for which we now pray for good weather and at least as good a turnout and catch.





 
Pictured are some of the winners (L to R) Franco Attanasio, Andy Young, Leigh Rogers, Phil Evans, Brian John and Hughie Sweeney