The Welsh section of the European Federation of Sea Anglers (EFSA) held its 2008 Welsh Shore Championships recently in Pembrokeshire -Dale Beach on the first evening and Newgale on the second, fishing 4-8 pm.
In spite of all the great fishing locally prior to the event, the weather once again reverted to EFSA-type, making the fishing extremely difficult, to say the least.
A gusting, bitterly cold, east wind greeted the participants as they turned up on Dale beach on the Saturday, meaning that catching was going to be hard work, as the saying goes 'when the wind is in the east, the fish bite least'.
Again this was an overall length competition, fished to a 20cm minimum size, but with 35cm given as standard for dogs and rays, on a catch and release basis. This gives everyone a chance, even if one of the days proves to be disastrous.
So, as the catch was particularly low, this first session, with only seven anglers landing 10 fish, four pouting, three whiting, two dogfish and a rockling, over the aforementioned minimum, hopes were high that things could be turned round on the second day, particularly as the planned venue was Freshwater East which had been fishing its head off.
The overnight leader was John O'Connor, who had managed to winkle out two pouts and a dogfish, with Adrian Tucker landing two pouts for second and Phil Lustig a dog for third.
However, on the Sunday, when everyone had assembled and surveyed the beach and surf, it was deemed unfishable - especially as we were fishing over high water - by the local experts among the competitors, one of whom, Haydn Cole, would have a great chance as he always does well at this venue.
So, an alternative had to be found and, after a vote, Newgale was decided upon, as it meant the wind would be from behind and it had fished very well a few years earlier when used in the winter as an alternate venue in the European Championships, turning up loads of whiting, especially in the dark.
However, the fishing was even poorer than on the Saturday, with only two anglers, the aforementioned John O'Connor and Haydn Cole, managing to catch sizeable fish, one whiting each, probably because it was flat calm and ice cold, never a good scenario to be greeted with when arriving on a beach at any time.
Thus, little had happened to change the order from the first night, except that Haydn was now up to fourth, just out of the pins.
So, with catching both nights to become the EFSA Wales Welsh Shore Champion for 2008 and to secure the Gold Pin, his first ever shore pin, it was John O'Connor, Pembroke Dock (pictured), with 116 points, from Adrian Tucker, a previous champion (Milford Haven), who took the Silver Pin with 54 points from the first session, with Philip Lustig (Stackpole, Pembroke) taking the Bronze Pin with 40 points.
The pairs event was won by John, partnered by Ken Gainfort (Milford Haven), from Haydn (Lamphey, Pembroke), partnered by Steve Grant (Langley, Slough, though born and bred in St. Florence), with Steve Davies (Pennar, Pembroke Dock) and Steve Tucker (Skewen, Swansea) in third.
Thanks are due to Ken Gainfort and Haydn Cole for organising the event and Adrian Tucker for pegging the beaches.