Pictured (left to right) are:- Andrew Skeels, Ryan & Andrew Jones and Roger Harries (Pic by John O’Connor)
The 9th Felinfoel Brewery Double Dragon RNLI Annual Fishing Open, organised by members from Pembroke & District Angling Club, Osprey Sea Angling Club and Neyland Sea Angling Club, was held on Sunday 7th February 2016 on Amroth beach in South Pembrokeshire.
The competition was blessed, in a way, in that it was fished in a just long enough break between storm Henry and storm Imogen and 22 out of the 68 anglers, which included three ladies and eight juniors (7 boys and a girl), managed to weigh in 26 sizeable fish as compared to 2015 when 21 were recorded and four weeks earlier when 23 anglers, from an entry of 91 weighed in 28 fish. So, as it turned out it, not a bad day all round.
Jeff leads the way . . .
The winning angler who managed to land three flounder for 1 Kg 160gms was a regular visitor from Bridgend, Jeff Stephens, netting him the first prize of £250. He also had the biggest flounder at 515gms taking the pool of £68.
In second was Andrew Jones (Kilgetty), who landed two flounder for 885gms, allowing him to pick up the runner’s up prize of £7, whilst in third place was another local and one of the organisers, Andrew Skeels, who also had two flounder, but for 690gms, winning him £50.
. . . And the Jones’ boys double up!
No lady managed to weigh in but a couple of the juniors did with John Mansbridge taking the £25 first prize with a fine flounder of 500gms and Andrew Jones’s nephew Ryan taking the £15 second prize (both kindly donated by Shane Tucker) with a flounder of 295gms.
This, along with his uncle’s catch, was enough to give them the pair’s competition also, picking up another £60 for their combined 3 Flounders for 1 Kg 180gms. Second in the pairs was Andrew Skeels along with another of the organisers, John O’Connor, from Llanycefn, also with three flounder, but for 1 Kg 085gms, giving them £40, with Jason Davies and Jamie Evans, third with two flounder for 830gms netting them £20.
Superb final total down to sponsors and supporters
However, the most important result on the day was that the event, by the time the money is all in, will have raised over £800, for the Angle & Tenby lifeboats.
To thank for this sterling effort we must, first of all, thank our main sponsor Felinfoel Brewery along with their rep Jamie Owen for continuing to sponsor this event.
We congratulate the anglers from the organising clubs, together with Roger Harris of the Amroth Arms, who always puts his premises and valued support at this event’s disposal, together with Liz Tallboys from the Tenby Lifeboat support group who ran the raffle.
Final thanks
Finally, we must again thank all the kind and generous sponsors of the event who donated cash, made collections and donated prizes for the raffle which ensured continuation of the event’s great success.
These were Neyland and District Angling Club, Shane Tucker, Andrew Skeels, Steve “Paddy” Parry, Robbie Scale, Denis, Simon and Alex Nicholas, Haydn Cole, Roger Harries (Amroth Arms), John O’Connor, Leigh and Andrew Rogers, Andy Luxford, County Sports, Haverfordwest, Grainger Tubolt, Pembroke Dock, Country Stores, Gowerton, Ken Gainfort, The Brook Inn, St Ishmaels, The Sports Club, St Ishmaels, Peter Dunn Electrical, The Taberna Inn, Herbrandson, Dent Steel, Glyn Edwards Office Equipment, Milford Haven, and John and Sheila Mason.