The second ‘Blood Bikes Wales Open Beach Fishing Competition’, organised by members of Pembroke & District Angling Club and Osprey Sea Angling Club, was recently held on Amroth beach in South Pembrokeshire.

The weather on the day was again balmy, warm and dry, which meant the conditions weren’t far away from perfect, with a gentle surf building as the tide flooded in with just a few rollers as can be seen in the picture.

This should have augured well for a good catch and indeed it was. The turnout and support was not as good as for the inaugural one in 2019 with 48 anglers including four  ladies turning up and we thank them all very much indeed for their support. 13 anglers, including one lady, managed to weigh in sizeable fish with 13 flounders along with five dabs and eight lesser spotted dogfish, now to be referred to as cat sharks, a very much undersized dover sole, along with other cat sharks, dabs, bass and flounders being caught but not weighed in.

The conditions on the day (Picture by John O’Connor)

The winning angler, who managed to land three decent-sized flounder, for 1Kg 435gms was Andy Young (Llanelli), netting him the £200 first prize. The winner of the second prize for the heaviest any fish was Peter Taylor with a cat shark of 860gms netting him the £100 prize. Third prize of £50 with the second heaviest bag of flatfish was the only lady to weigh in, Kirsty Culley (Llanycefn), with two flounder for 900gms. The pair’s competition, in which both anglers had to weigh in, was won by Andy and his partner Franco Attanasio with four  dabs, three flounder and a cat shark for 2Kg 810gms. Second with two cat sharks and one dab for 1Kg 715gms were Peter Evans and Kevin Hughes.
 

Great sum raised for a worthy cause

 
However, the most important result on the day was that the event has raised £652.93 for Blood Bikes Wales, including  the collection made during the day by Blood Bike Wales members who leant their support to the competition on the day.
 
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.
 

Thanks to the eager sponsors

 
Lastly, we must again thank the generous sponsors of the event, who donated cash, together with those donating prizes for the raffle which will hopefully ensure the continuation of the event.
 
These were Andy Young, Ian Wilkinson of the Temple Bar Inn, Shane Tucker, Chris Wynn, John O’Connor, Leigh Rogers, Malcolm Greenish, North Road Garage, Milford Haven. Peter Kraus, who also came armed with a myriad of prizes he collected and we thank you all for your continued support.





 
Pictured outside the Temple Bar Inn are Blood Bikes Wales who kindly turned up in support, on the day. (Picture by John O’Connor)

 
One final thing is that there will be another fantastic competition in the New Year on Sunday the 16^th January with the 19^th Annual Wales Air Ambulance Open, for which we now pray for at least the equivalent or better weather and as good or better turnout and catch of fish.