I was recently invited to fish the 2010 Penn Cup in Havoysund, northern Norway. It was an invite I was obviously very grateful to receive and quick to accept.

The Penn Cup was founded in 2009 and is based around people either working within the Pure Fishing Company that owns the world famous Penn brand, or people associated with Penn via the retail sector from all areas of Europe and the UK.

This year’s event saw six teams of four anglers drawn from all over Europe including Germany Holland, Italy, Belgium and the UK.

The UK team, they gave us the name “British Bulldogs”, comprised Andy Williams from the Pure Fishing UK marketing department, Gerry Foote head of the famous Gerry’s of Morecambe tackle shop, top UK match angler Alan Yates and my self.

The competition would be fished from self drive boats over three days taking in six rounds of just 3.5-hours each and you had to leave and return to port within that period. The fishing was points related with one point each for haddock, coalfish and torsk within the size limit, 3 points for cod over 80cms which proved hard to come by, 5 points for an in size wolfish and 20 points for an 80cm plus halibut. Each of the six boats was designated a skipper that stayed with the boat for the whole period, with the other anglers changing boats each round to mix things up.

The first day was practice day and we went out as team to get the feel of the ground and see what tactics were applicable. It was obvious that coalfish were there in numbers over the shallower peaky ground. This gave us a problem. To be in with a chance to win the match we would need to concentrate solely on the coalfish which were averaging between 3 and 5lbs and could be caught two at a time. But then the other side of the coin was that we were in the far north of Norway with the chance of big cod and halibut, plus we had a couple of lads with us that had never caught halibut before, nor a really big cod and it seemed unfair on them to target just the coalfish for the duration. The decision was taken to do our own thing and target individually what we wanted, but to also try and fish well for the team.

Looking at the other anglers it turned out that it was about 50% those that wanted to go for the coalies and the other 50% preferring the chance of a bigger cod and halibut. As the anglers changed boats each round, as a boat skipper, I tried to give everyone at least some time on their target species over each round.

German angler Rudi Elsenbarth proved the coalfish king fishing literally like a machine and landing something close to 200 in size coalfish, this gave him the honour of becoming the Penn Cup individual champion for 2010. His team, The German Executors, lead by Michael Stahlberg with Karsten Rothe and Johannes Dietel also finished the top team. Well done Guys and congratulations!

The British Bulldogs team finished fourth beaten for third by just one point, but a special well done to Alan Yates who finished third overall in the individual event having done exceptionally well on the coalfish in the last three rounds or so.

Although Andy, Gerry and my self finished well down the individual pecking order we did get the big fish we were seeking, both in the competition and in free fishing time afterwards. Cod over 80cms in length proved few and far between for everyone but we accounted for 15 cod over 20lbs including four fish over 25lbs, the best a 30lb plus fish for Andy. Our boat also saw no less than 10 halibut hit the deck, the best fish a 25lber for Pure fishing UK brand manager James Robbins, and I also got six halibut to 22lbs. In addition we had haddock to 5lbs, big wolfish and torsk, plus redfish. The important thing was that we all, as a team, got our target big fish.

The biggest winner was the competition it self. The comradeship and friendly atmosphere was evident throughout and the party atmosphere each night something to be savoured. Each and every angler was truly part of the Penn family and friendships were formed between people from all over Europe that will last a lifetime.

The British Bulldogs team would like to thank everyone involved in organising the event for great job done. It was a once in a lifetime experience and will never be forgotten!