2009 EUROPEAN SHORE CHAMPIONSHIPS Langeland/Denmark November 2009

On Sunday, November 8th, 31 competitors met in the hotel Skudehavn, Rudkobing in Langeland for the opening ceremony of the 2009 European shore championships.

The organisers, Thomas Reinhardt and Marcus Wuest from EFSA Germany, were supported by the Shore Festival Officer, Phil Lustig, to ensure everything was in line with the current EFSA rules and the shore check list. Each competitor was issued with information about Langeland, the timetables, the venue bars for the uniform and a cap with the logo of the competition.

Participants came from 5 countries with Holland and Germany sending two teams each. Other teams came from England and Wales. Two Icelanders competed for the 2nd time in European Shore championships.

For the first time ever, an official training day was organised. This took place on Monday, Nov 9th  on the Lokkeby beach. Results in wet weather were mixed but some very good flatfish were being caught. Unfortunately the easterly wind with lots of rain stayed with us during the entire week. Angelcentrum Langeland provided all anglers with supreme Lug and Ragworm, which did the business of catching mostly flounders and dab with the occasional cod amongst the fish. One sea trout made it into the scoring too.

The first official day of competition followed, for which the anglers were spread along two venues, Tranekaer (Botofte beach) and Ristinge. Clearly Tranekaer was the better venue with the day winner being the local angler Thomas Reinhardt from Germany.

This did not change much for the 2nd day when unfortunately many anglers blanked on Ristinge beach. Day winner then was Dave Lovelock from England.

During a captain’s meeting on Thursday before the competition time a decision was made to have everybody fishing from Tranekaer. This meant quite a long walk for some of the competitors as fishing with two rods required a bit of a distance between the anglers.

After the stewards made their last round of measuring and scoring it was up to the organisers to work out the final results (see below).

On Friday evening we met for a sumptuous buffet dinner at the hotel  Skudehavn. All anglers had tales to tell of the fish that got away or were too small.

At the prize giving the pins were awarded to Jan Gorissen and Frank van der Zande from Holland and Dave Lovelock from England. The team medals went to Holland A, Deutschland A and Deutschland B.

After the thanks to the sponsors, stewards, Angelcentrum Langeland – specifically Chris Reinhardt who sorted the worms for all of us –  it was time to break and start the journeys home.

We are all looking forward to another good competition in the north of Wales next year.

Marcus Wuest

Individuals

National Teams

Team of Two

Life Members

Seniors

Ladies