I’m just back from working with the lads from Total Sea Fishing Magazine at the 16th European Open Beach Championship held at Bridlington in the East Riding of Yorkshire over the weekend of the 7th and 8th March. The venues available to fish run from Bridlington right down to Spurn Point on the Holderness coast with anglers chasing a total prize list quoted as £25,000.

This event goes from strength to strength and attracted around 1300 anglers from predominately all over the UK, but also from Europe with Dutch and Belgian anglers in particular well represented.

Speaking to Paul Roggeman, the main organiser of the competition, the entry number was swollen by close to 200 anglers over and above the total achieved in 2008. This is quite an achievement and testimony to the success of the event in these uncertain financial times.

What makes this match what it is, is that you can approach it with a focused competitive attitude, be tee-total, get up early in the morning to secure a place on the typically packed hot spot beaches, or use it as a fun weekend, enjoy a few pints with old friends, have a hearty breakfast and a leisurely few hours fishing still with the chance of winning a great prize.

Due to the nature of these Holderness beaches which are a mix of shallow clean sand and steep-to configurations, mostly backed by steep clay cliffs with the tide reaching the cliff base on the bigger spring tides, the event is chosen to coincide with smaller rising neap tides, but can fish extremely well as the water is always well coloured from the washed out clay.

There’s always chatter amongst the anglers about the hotspots, but the local lads obviously have the edge and those “in the know” mainly headed for the beaches south of Withernsea. Even then though, the beaches were a bit peggy with hotpsots producing numbers of cod tending to be just a couple of hundred yards long, though cod were caught on most of the beaches, along with whiting, dabs, thornbacks, flounder and even a lumpsucker.

The 2009 overall winner was Dave Richardson from Suffolk with a cracking cod of 6.710kgs or 14.8lbs. The overall Ladies champion was Belgian angler Hilda Weesenbeek with a cod weighing 1.695kgs, and Junior champion proved to be another young lady UK based Alix Lye. The team event was won by Julian Shambrook, Shane Russell, Keith Lamming and Keith Weatherstone. Our congratulations go out to all the winners over the two days fishing!

The 2010 event is already in the planning and looks set for an as yet to be decided date in February. Keep your eyes peeled on WSF over the coming weeks for full results as well as details of next year’s competition.

Alix Lye, presented with her Junior Champion trophy by World Casting Champion Danny Moeskops and Total Sea Fishing Editor, Barney Wright

From left to right: Team Champions - Julian Shambrook, Keith Lamming, Keith Weatherstone and Shane Russell

Winner of the 2009 Ladies Championship, Belgian angler, Hilda Weesenbeek

Overall winner, Dave Richardson, receives the trophy from Danny Moeskops and Barney Wright

Dave Richardson with this years winning cod weighing 6.710kgs