Leeda and Weymouth Angling Centre Flatfish Open
Our first competition of the year was the Leeda and Weymouth Angling Centre Flatfish Open.
This years open was sponsored by Leeda and Weymouth Angling Centre, was held on Sunday 2nd April between Abbotsbury and Hive beach. The conditions were good, calm seas, with a light NE wind, and plenty of sun, unfortunately with some wind a few days before hand had coloured the water quite bad, not the best for flatfish.
It was a very good turn out considering the conditions, total of 161 anglers, which included 3 juniors, 4 ladies and 15 OAP's.
The registration started at 9am in Abbotsbury car park, with anglers allowed to drive between the boundaries once they had signed in. Fishing started at 11am and finished at 5pm, with last bags at 6pm back at Abbotsbury car park.
The start of the match we still had a small amount of flood tide, with the ebb tide due later on during the match, due to the water colour the first fish to make a appearance was the plentiful dogfish. Not what the anglers wanted on a flatfish only match, any other day they would be more welcome.During the course of the match things were very slow with only a few whispers of a couple of flatfish caught.
Back at the weigh in, things had proved right that sea state had slowed things down for the day, with only 6 angler bringing fish back to the scales.
Bob Smith (Poole) 2 x Sole for 60cm (Longest Aggregate length)
Gary Bowler (Portland) 1 x Plaice 45cm (Longest Individual fish)
Glen Short 1 x Plaice 42cm
Adam Cullingford 1 x Plaice 41cm
Andy Mills 1 x Plaice 34cm
Mike Tanetta 1 x Dab 23cm
Bob Smith walked away with £500 first prize, while Gary Bowler won £250 for his fish, and in the pairs event Bob Smith and Andy Mills won £150 for their combined length, followed by father and son Gary and Kyle Bowler with a length of 45cm, and in 3rd place was Glen Short and Alan Jones with 42cm.
And due to a small weigh, and plenty of prizes left on the table, these were all put into the raffle, which keep many anglers happy.
