PHOTOS:
Junior winner Daniel Tucker pictured with EFSA Shore Festival Officer and Welsh Section Chairman, Philip Lustig. (Photo courtesy of Ken Gainfort)
What a difference on the last day, compared to the previous two! (Photo courtesy John O’Connor)
Dutch anglers swept virtually everything before them in the European Federation of Sea Anglers 2014 European Shore Championships, organised by the Welsh Section, and fished on the beaches around Pwllheli over three days, but Milford Haven’s Daniel Tucker as the junior champion.
Only German angler Volker Claus, winning the individual Silver and the Irish who won the International team competition, prevented the Netherlands from cleaning up completely – but the Welsh individuals and teams did have some success.
Good support – and awful weather
68 competitors, from eight countries across Europe, returned to Caernarfon to the Celtic Royal Hotel to attend registration for the event. Once again Gwynedd County Council and their representatives had helped in the staging of the championships with preparation of the brochure and making many arrangements on the ground, especially with regards to the storing of the frozen bait, so necessary for ensuring a successful event.
The first day and night’s weather was horrendous so it was back to Llandudno’s northern foreshore, the only place it was possible to fish the opening Thursday five-hour session, fished from daylight into dark.
Conditions relent and Maurits bags fish aplenty
Thankfully, following that gruelling session, the weather moderated and behaved itself for the second day of the competition when anglers could fish the intended beach at Pwllheli.
Friday was probably the best session, not only weather-wise but also there were even more fish to catch than the previous evening, at the very same venue, one angler, the eventual winner Maurits Keur, managed to fill his 43-fish card, having to record the extra four fish on the back of it!
More rain but Daniel shines for Wales
The final session was fished on the Saturday, again over five hours and entirely in the daylight, so that everything was done and dusted before the Gala Dinner, Presentation and Closing Ceremony.
However, the weather had other ideas and Saturday dawned with rain and wind not unlike the first day and resulted in a shortened three-hour session, necessary if the results were to be computed and printed in time for the presentation.
Wales had the winning junior, which was Daniel Tucker from Milford Haven, and in the five-man International Team event, in which the worst score is discarded each day, the Welsh A team came a creditable 4th but by only 2 points, having held the lead after the first day.
Other decent Welsh results
This time the team consisted of Philip Lustig (Stackpole), Haydn Cole (Lamphey), Derek Gregory (Milford Haven), Ken Gainfort (St Ishmaels) and John O’Connor (Llanycefn).
Ken and Haydn finished 7th & 9th respectively in the individual standings and Wales B team members Mike Flynn and Steve Lewis (Tenby) were 8th & 11th individually. Tina Lustig (Stackpole), Derek and John managed a fourth in the Ladies, Senior and four-man categories respectively. Finally, Daniel also had the longest round fish of the whole competition, a bass of 43cm caught on the last day.
Thanks all round
The success of an event such as this depends on the hard work & goodwill of a lot of people and the main Sponsors were Daiwa, Ammo and Gwynedd County Council, together with other sponsors including Asso Tackle and Bluezone Fishing Limited.
Main thanks for the organisation must go to the Shore Festival Officer for both EFSA HQ and EFSA Wales Philip Lustig, who did a mountain of work running around and liaising with all sorts of people, both before and during the event, to make these championships the success they were.
Thanks are also due to members of Gwynedd Council for their groundwork in the north prior to the event, to Matt Lustig, Steve Lewis & Shane Tucker for pegging the beaches and the rest of the Welsh anglers for also helping with bait distribution, John O’Connor for collating and computing the results, Shane & Ken Gainfort for making and organising the pegs and the Pwllheli Harbourmaster and his staff for help with bait storage.