Welsh Federation of Sea Anglers

News Desk

Keep other WFSA members in touch with what's happening in and around around Wales. Want to advertise a forthcoming match? Email the webmaster

Welsh Home International's. The date for the event has been set at 9th to the 12th July 2009. The venue will be Aberystwyth , Ceridigion.

The next competitions for members of Llandudno Small Boat Sea Angling Club will be on the weekend Saturday / Sunday 21st / 22nd July for the Doherty Cup and the second leg of the Spectrum Windows Boat League. Will members please contact the Secretary on Friday 20th July as to venue and timing.

Rod Adamson. (Welsh Angler) Won the Gold Pin at the EFSA England Boat Championships out of Plymouth over the weekend, 31 May - 1st June. A hearty Well Done from all at the WFSA.

Pictured with EFSA Wales Chairman & Shore Festival Officer and Shore Festival Officer for the Federation as a whole.     Phil Lustig (Left) are (left to Right) the pin winners Dave Lovelock, Brain Booker and Mick Quinn.
The run up to the late May Bank Holiday saw the EFSA British Isles Shore Championships come to the beaches of Carmarthenshire for the first time. Organised by the Welsh section of the European Federation of Sea Anglers the 3 days of matches were fished at Cefn Sidan on Thursday 22nd and Friday 23rd, but at pendine on Saturday 24th. Anglers from England Wales and Scotland arrived at the event's headquarters, the Ivy Bush Hotel in Carmarthen in the evening of Wednesday 23rd for registration, a renewing of old acquaintances and a run down of the rules. Despite the bait supplied by Dragon baits, in the view of all participants, being no less than superb, catches on the first 2 days at Cefn Sidan were very poor, consisting of small Flouders, 13 on Day 1, with many anglers and one complete zone blanking and 19 on Day 2. Why this was is something of a mystery as, according to the locals , it had been fishing very well indeed prior to the competition. Perhaps it was down to that old saying "when the wind is in the East, the fish bite least" as it was on day 1 with a bit of south in it on day 2, or were we given a bum steer, or did we fish the wrong part of the tide? However, on day 3, at Pendine, the wind had backed even more and catches improved with good Bass, bigger Flounder and Dogs turning up numbering 51 recordable fish. So, was this the weather or the venue? What a shame that most of such a magnificent venue as Pendine is unavailable at most times due to health and safety implications resulting from previous behaviour by the idiot speed merchants we have in our society and the military training of the next batch of legalised assassins in the use and development of the next generation the weapons of mass destruction needed to continue pursuing the war against terror. However, at this point I must say I can't praise the officials of Carmarthenshire County Council highly enough for all their help in organising access for the competition in the first place and the Rangers for their help and couteousness on the days that were fished The International team event was won by England from Wales A, who narrowly failed to emulate the trophy holders, last years Welsh B team, in retaining it for the home nation. Third were the Irish. The winner of the individual event and thus the coveted Gold pin was Englishman and the most senior angler competing Brian "Budge" Booker with another English Angler, Dave Lovelock, in second, gaining him the Silver pin and Irishman Mick Quinn in third getting the Bronze pin. Highest placed Welsh Angler was Haydn "howling " Cole in fifth, but only on countback from third with another English regular Reg Clough similarly placed into fourth. However, there was some compensation for Haydn as he won the pairs with Mick Quinn and was third in the team of three event with Andrew Skeels and John O'Connor. Reg was second in the pairs with welshman and former winner, Alan Cheswick with Dave Lovelock and Irishman Warren Doyle in third. Budge also won the team of three event with Welshman Adrian Tucker and Irishman Ken Forsythe from Matthew Lustig (Wales), Brian Flack (England) and Mike Bowden (Scotland). Apart from thanking Carmarthenshire officials again for their unstinting help, as well as Dragon Baits for the quality of the bait they supplied, we must also thank our other sponsors, ABU, Daiwa and K2 Shakespeare, not forgetting the Ivy Bush Hotel and their staff for their warm welcome to all, their friendly hosting and the and their staff for their warm welcome to all, their friendly hosting and the lovely meal on the final night at the presentation. Thanks must also go to all the EFSA Wales section members, they know who they are, without whose help the competition would not have run so smoothly and successfully.

Llandudno Small Boat Sea Angling Club.  The recent bad weather abated sufficiently for members of Llandudno Small Boat Sea Angling Club to hold their first competetive matches of the season last Sunday. After launching from The Beacons the boats spread out into the Conwy estuary and returned for the weigh-in at 8.0 p.m. The "Kerridge Trophy" was won by Phil Ironside with a 6lbs bass which was duly returned to the sea after capture. In the Spectrum Windows Boat League the father and son team of John and 13 yrs old Sam emerged the winners in "Stella 2" with Phil Ironside and David Jones in second place with "Cinatit" in third.   The next club competitions will be on the weekend of 31st May / 1st June, further details to follow...

C I P's News... Please take note that we have extended the term for registration to this 1st FIPS-M World Boat Angling Championships for Clubs, which will be held on the 29th June to 6th July, 2008, in CASTROPOL (ASTURIAS) - SPAIN. The new last date for registration it is the 25th May, 2008. We encourage to the members that have not yet applied for registration to do it right now.

Welsh Ladies Shore Team fundraiser. Twenty six anglers braved the elements on Sunday the 6th February ay Ferryside in the hope of bagging up on Flounder's in the latest of the Welsh Ladies Shore Team fundraiser organised by Helen Pearce the ladies team member and Manager. The match was to be fished on a measure and release system, this type of match is becoming more and more popular now and a greater emphasis is now placed on conservation. They had to contend with gale force winds, rain and hail to fish the four hour match. Still spirits were high in the hope of the Flounder; they never showed in the numbers expected but still the anglers fished on. There were some very wet anglers when it came to the weigh in and top of the tree was Mr. I Parfitt from Neath with a good fish of 36cm. The full results,   1st, Mr. I Parfitt 36cm Flounder, Neath (pictured) 2nd, Mal George, 33cm Flounder, Llanelli 3rd, Mark Cottrell 32cm Flounder, Llanelli 4th, Craig Thompson 27cm Flounder, Carmarthen.

Welsh Shore Championships 2007. EFSA Wales's first event of 2008 was actually meant to be the last event of 2007, the Welsh Shore Championships, but it could not be fitted in to such a busy match schedule at that time of year. So, this was fished on 12th & 13th January 2008 at Freshwater East, 5PM to 10PM, on the Saturday night and Tenby North Beach, 2:30 to 7PM on the Sunday. Conditions could only be described as appalling with incessant wind and rain, so much so that Tenby North Beach was the only fishable venue on the Sunday, probably in the whole of South Wales! The planned venues had been Broad Haven on the Saturday & Freshwater East on the Sunday. Unfortunately, for various reasons, mainly winter illness, only 12 anglers, including 1 Lady, took part. This was an overall length competition, fished to a 20cm minimum size, but with 35cm given as standard for dogs & rays, on a catch and release basis. This gave everyone a chance even if one of the days proved to be disastrous. At Freshwater East, quite a few fish were caught but mainly by Anglers away from the stream in the higher numbered pegs. Fish were mainly Dogfish & Whiting. Hopes, by some of the anglers in less favoured pegs, that it could turn around on the second day at Tenby were dashed when the venue fished its head off and everyone caught good bags of fish, again mainly Dogs & Whiting, which meant that it was virtually impossible to play catch up successfully. Thus, it was all between the overnight leaders as to who would eventually emerge as the champion. So, with two good bags of fish to secure the Gold Pin, his first ever pin, it was Andrew 'Ike' Skeels (Lamphey) (Pictured), from Steve 'Peanut' Davies (Pennar, Pembroke Dock) who took the Silver Pin with Steve Tucker (Skewen, Neath) taking the Bronze Pin. Thanks are due to Chairman Phil Lustig for organising the event, Stan Kucyj for organising the bait and Shane & Adrian Tucker for pegging the beaches. Report by, Dr. John A. O'Connor, (Pembrokeshire)

Every year the WFSA send a Junior Team to fish in the Home International. 2006/7 were very good years for the team as they won gold on both occasions. This year we will be fishing in England on the 1st week in July. As you know I try to take these juniors to this event free of expense so far I have succeeded but without your help I could not do it. This year I am running an auction on April 4th in Newport Leisure Centre. To run an auction we require a lot of items last year I raised £1600. We would be grateful if you or your club would donate an item/s or cash towards this event. We got to raise over £2600 to cover this event. If you got any items we can arrange a pick up. We need fishing gear new or second hand Bottles (not empty) or any item that can be auctioned Hoping to hear from you and thank you for taking the time to read this letter. Regards Joe Crowley.xxxxxxxxxx( joe.crowley@ntlworld.com

6th Annual Wales Air Ambulance Open Amroth 6th January 2008 Wonderful weather, dry with a light breeze and long low lazy tables of surf lapping the shoreline, as opposed to last years horrendous conditions, greeted the organisers of, and competitors in, the 6th Wales Air Ambulance Open, as they arrived at Amroth on Sunday 6th January 2008. The gods were smiling on this fund raising event for one of the Anglers most worthwhile charities, as the day before was wet & windy and a storm blew in around an hour after the match had finished. It was a good turnout this year and we owe a big thank you to all 91 anglers, including 7 Ladies & 6 Juniors, who supported this annual event and fished, with a bumper 39 of them, including 4 Juniors and 4 Ladies, managing also weighed in a goodly number of Flounders, though some who caught decided not to weigh theirs as they had no chance of making into the prizes. 1st with the Heaviest Bag of 11 flounders for 4.505Kg was Mike Mathers from Porthcawl. 2nd was Paul Gammer from Pembroke Dock with 8 flounders for 4.030Kg. 3rd was Peter Sharples from Roch near Haverfordwest, his first time fishing for flounders, he told me, under the tutelage of last years winner Craig Thompson, also from Haverfordwest, again with 8 flounders for 2.920Kg. The winning Lady Angler was Sally Owen from Cardiff with 3 flounders for 1.155Kg and the winning Junior was local rod Dan Thomas from Tenby with 4 flounders for 1.595Kg. Heaviest Fish pool winner was another local rod, Mel Matthews from Saundersfoot, with a flounder of 835 gms. The Pairs pool winners were 2nd placed Paul & his angling buddy Steve Davies, also from Pembroke Dock, with 13 flounders for 5.830Kg from the previously mentioned pair of Peter & Craig with 11 flounders for 5.205Kg. All in all it was a very successful day with over £1400 being raised for the Wales Air Ambulance, with more money promised yet to come in, making a total over the 6 years of over £7200. This years funds were greatly increased thanks to the generosity of HSBC banking through their employee Angela Rogers, wife of one of the organisers Leigh, who provided matched funding pound for pound on raffle tickets sold up to as limit of £500. We owe them a big thank you, as we do to the anglers present and the sponsors for providing such a good raffle that this limit was actually exceeded guaranteeing the maximum donation. We must say a big thank you to all these sponsors, who were: Bill of Pembroke Angling, Roger Harries (Amroth Arms), Peter Kraus, Pembroke & District Angling Club, Osprey Sea Angling Club, West Wales Match Anglers, Pembroke Haven Motor Boat Angling Club, Keith of Tenby Angling, Shane Tucker, Haven Angling Group, Leigh Rogers, John Lloyd Davies, Sports Fishing International, Andrew Skeels, Steve Davies, Haydn Cole, Sandra & Martin Thompson of Anglers Corner, Milford, John O'Connor & Denis Nicholas. Congratulations to the winner Mike Mather.

(Left to Right back row) Tomos Hughes, Bangor. Ben Price, Saundersfoot. Nathan Croft, Holyhead. Zac Williams, Gwent. Peter Garrod, Holyhead Front Row, Carwen Wheeler, Cardigan The Welsh team pushed England into 2nd place, the weather and fishing was very poor. Wales have now taken gold in 2006 and 2007. The 2008 home internationals are in England and any junior who would like to fish for Wales and will be 16yr or under on 1-1-08 please contact Joe Crowley.

Members of Llandudno Small Boat Sea Angling club recently enjoyed two days fishing aboard the charter boat "Hafaled," skippered by Jason Owen,out of Pwllheli. After steaming well out into St George`s Channel the targeted specie was the pollack and they competed for the Paul Chapman Memorial Salver in memory of a friend and good club member who passed away almost exactly twelve months ago. After two days fishing local dentist Gordon Downes was found to have extracted the largest fish which pulled the scales down to 13 lbs 2 ozs and he will hold the trophy for the next twelve months. All members enjoyed two good day`s fishing. One club member, David Jones, had an unusual and unlucky experience. Whilst fishing Dave hooked what would have been a 5 lbs pollack only for a shark to attack the fish as it was being played into the boat. After a short but savage struggle the shark made off with half the fish and Dave was left with the other half. The next club competitions will be on Sunday 22nd July, fishing from 8,30 a.m. out of Colwyn Bay.

Monthly fish award The WFSA is to introduce a monthly fish award sceme for all WFSA affiliated members and Personal members. For further details contact Helen Pearce (Fish Recorder). The application forms can be downloaded from this section of the WFSA website. Why not download it and carry it in your tackle box, you just dont know when yo might catch it?