The fourth Blood Bikes Wales Open fishing competition, organised by members from Pembroke & District Angling Club and Osprey Sea Angling Club, was held on Amroth beach last weekend – raising £700 for the charity.
With only a gentle breeze but with very little surf, a total of 42 anglers – including two ladies and one junior girl – turned out and are greatly thanked for their support.
Seventeen anglers, including one lady and the junior, managed to weigh in a lot of sizeable fish. Among them were 46 flounders, along with one sole and seven lesser spotted dogfish – or cat sharks as they are now known.
The winning angler was competition regular Kevin Hughes (Neath), who managed to land five decent sized flounder above the minimum size of 28cm, for 2kg, 155g and netting him the £200 first prize.
Meanwhile taking away the £100 runners-up prize for the heaviest any fish was the angler who travels with Kevin, Peter Evans, with a cat shark of 990g.
The third prize of £50 with the second heaviest bag of flatfish was local angler Rob Beynon with four flounder for 1kg, 995g.
The ladies’ prize went to another local, Kirsty Culley, with a sole and two flounder for 985g. She also was instrumental in collecting raffle prizes from many sponsors. The only junior who fished – despite there being a free-to-enter prize table – also weighed in with a flounder of 400g, securing first
place.
The pairs competition, in which both anglers had to weigh in, was won, not unnaturally, by Kevin & Peter with their cat shark and five flounder for 3kg, 145g.
Second were third placed Rob and his co-angler Simon Torr with six flounder, one cat shark for 2kg, 990g. The Steward’s draw was won by another regular, Franco Attanasio, for a bottle of gin as a thank you for signing in fish on the beach – kindly donated by host Ian Wilkinson at the Temple Bar Inn.
However, the most important result on the day was that the event raised £700 for Blood Bikes Wales, some of whom turned up and helped during the day and brought one of their magnificent bikes with them.
Thanks for this sterling effort go to the anglers from the organising clubs, Ian Wilkinson of the Temple Bar Inn, who put his premises and valued support at this event’s disposal, and the multitude of generous event sponsors, who kindly donated cash and raffle prizes: Mike Rowe of J & M Tackle, Pembroke Dock; Pembroke & District Angling Club; Darren Jones, PPC Wales, Pembroke Dock; Millforge, Pembroke Dock; Ron Skinner & Sons, Neyland; The Stone Crab, Saundersfoot; The Giltar Hotel, Tenby; Jewsons, Pembroke; The Highgate Inn, Hundleton; The Longhouse, Freshwater East; The Vibe, Milford Haven; The Hope Inn, Pembroke; The 3 Mariners, Tenby; The Dennis Café, Tenby; The Prince of Wales, Pembroke Dock; The Lamphey Court Hotel; The Penally Abbey Hotel; Temple Bar Inn; John O’Connor; Leigh Rogers; Andrew Skeels; Haydn Cole; Kirsty Culley; Andrew Jamieson; John Davies; Alison George and Peter Kraus – who is due a big thanks on the day for all his help, also coming armed with a myriad of prizes he collected from various contacts of his.
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