WFSA December News Bulletin

I've just received this from Mike Dixon, the WFSA Press & Information office. I think it is a very informative and well wriitten report that some of our members might enjoy. So, here it is.

Personal Members Newsletter December 09

It’s that time of year again when we have to close another chapter on the WFSA. 2009, what a year it’s been for the WFSA,
An individual Silver medal in the World Shore Fishing championships in Croatia was won by Joe Arch. This performance demonstrates his excellence in the world of Angling. The Men’s Welsh team that travelled to Croatia this year were...
Franco Attanassio, Captain, Alan price, James Frazer, Joe Arch, Andrew Hutchins and Pete Corker. Our Bronze Medal finish is fantastic and all credit to those involved; it continues our progress on the world ranking stage and can only promote our excellence.

Two individual medals in the Ladies Shore fishing again in Croatia, Sally Owen and Helen Pearce both won Silver Medals.
The Ladies team was made up as follows.
June Howell - Captain
Helen Pearce
Karen Hancox
Sally Owen - New cap
Pam Worrall

We have seen teams travel to Denmark to compete in shore championships and also to Birkenhead to compete in the Annual Boat Cod Championships. Yhe Gold, Silver and Bronze Pins all going to Welshmen.

The last weekend in November, 28th & 29th, saw the Annual Welsh Cod (boat) championships once again fished out of Birkenhead in the River Mersey, for the 6th year running, In the end it was a very close run thing with John O’Connor who was in the lead after the first day, with 16 fish, just holding on to his lead and winning the Gold pin, taking another 14 fish on the second day, for a total of 30 fish for 963 points, to win by one single point from Kevin Preston with 29 fish for 962 points, who took the Silver pin. In third position with 28 fish for 839 points, winning the Bronze pin was Rod Adamson.

After a meeting with the Cardiff Harbour Authority and the WFSA this was the result.

Flat Holm Island Opens up to Sea Anglers.
A party of anglers have recently been invited through the WFSA to test an experimental fishing trip the Flat Holm Island in the Bristol Channel they were invited to do so by the Cardiff Bay Harbour Authority in conjunction with Cardiff City Council with the intention of opening it up to the general sea angling public, members in the party were Roger Mortimer, Barney Wright (TSF) Colin Doyle WFSA Gen Sec, Mike Dixon WFSA Press Officer, Gareth Davies WFSA Coaching Officer, and big fish anglers Steve Gregory, Mathew Riddler, and Wayne McEwen.
Conditions were not brilliant with strong easterly winds, but you pick your date you pick your weather.

This said the fish still obliged and put in an appearance with Conger to 12lb 8oz, Bullhuss to 14lb 1oz, Thornback Ray, Whiting and the ever present Dogfish although these were not is as many numbers as were expected, in total 37 fish were caught with a variety of baits. The island is going to throw up very big fish when conditions are a little more favourable. Most of the anglers had their 60 and 80lb snoods broken or bit through by some very big fish.

The party were on the island for 24hours trying different marks for a few hours then moving to another one to fish to fully exploit the possibilities. There are so many marks around the island that it was impossible to fish them all in the allotted time. The island fishes well at all states of the tide from low to high water.

It is advisable to fish in pairs purely for safety when fishing at night, in daylight the true expanse of fishing marks available has to seen to be believed. The island is a sea angling haven as you can if you wish grab a few hours sleep ready for the next session and just leave your fishing gear on your chosen mark above the HW mark without any worry whatsoever. When walking please stick to the footpaths and at night keep an eye open for rabbit burrows as there are hundreds on the island and show no fear of humans. This is all virgin water around the island and has never been fished; although the warden did mention that he has had Bass over 4lb with just a short cast from the shore on whole squid the night before we got there.

The Cardiff Bay Authority have decided to open the island up for sea angling at a cost of £25.00 for a 24 hour period, if you intend to just fish some of the 24 hours you will be on the island then either a overnight camping pitch will be allocated at £6.50 or there is dormitory accommodation available at £12.50 per head, with this comes the use of a fully fitted kitchen to cater for your needs. All you are required to do is to leave it as clean as you find it. No alcohol is allowed on the island purely for safety reasons. And it goes without saying that all your litter goes home with you.

It is advisable to book your trip 4 weeks in advance as there are a lot of visitors that go to the island for the 4 hour stay. It is hoped that these 24 hour sessions will carry on through the winter months providing there is enough interest.
For more information and sailing times please contact
The Flat Home Booking office on,
029 20353917 or 029 20387107.
Email: flatholmproject@cardiff.gov.uk


Environmental Issues.
As mentioned before the WFSA have managed to get Roger Cook on board as the Environmental Officer, I would urge all anglers to browse his pages and to create feedback so Roger can determine what the anglers of Wales want regarding their fishing.
Please spend a little time digesting what has happened over the past year, all details can be found at the Environmental Section on the website www.wfsa.org.uk or the individual page is at http://www.wfsa.org.uk/rc%20enviro.htm
Cardiff Foreshore.

A meeting was held on November 2nd at Cardiff Port Authorities with a view of getting a conclusion to the fishing access to Cardiff Foreshore
Mr. Ian Meredith the Port Facilities & Security Manager had called a meeting and insisted that this will be the last time he was prepared to sit down with anglers as a previous meeting eleven months ago had not made any progress.
Presently fishing is allowed between the Heliport and the Monkey pole without a permit. Anyone fishing beyond the Monkey Pole will require a valid ABP permit.

The limit for fishing will be to the bottom of Longships Road.Mr Meredith has insisted upon all permit holders to be possession of the WFSA insurance cover, this can be obtained by joining the PM section or becoming a member of an affiliated WFSA sea angling club. This form will have to be produced when applying for the permit.

Anyone who has met the criteria can apply for a permit; each individual has to fill in an application form accepting the conditions \ rules with TWO passport photograph's and a valid copy of insurance and some form of identity. The cost of the permit is set at £5.00which will run from January 1st to December 31st.

Any permit applied for now will run until 31st Dec. 2010 it is therefore not renewable in January 2010.
The group will be known as the Cardiff Foreshore Syndicate which will appear with your photograph on an identity card issued by ABP Ports and this ID card must be available to be produced at all times when fishing the foreshore.
Latest info

As of now (December) the latest information we have is that the Port Manager Mr. Ian Meredith is finalising issues regarding the rules with his solicitors that all anglers will have to abide by.
This is a feather in the cap off all the individual anglers and WFSA General Sec Colin Doyle for taking the time to save this venue for future generations of anglers.

More join the PM’s.

This has seen an influx of PM’s who want to join just so that they can fish the foreshore, we hope that all new members will consider fishing the friendly monthly matches that we organise, I can see several of the matches taking place on the foreshore in 2010.
I think it only fair that the PM’s put a little something back into the section so it may well be that the section will put up a trophy, but this will have to be discussed in the new year.

As you can see from the above reports the WFSA does not sit around talking, eating cakes and drinking coffee, we get out there to resolve issues and safeguard the future for all WFSA anglers.

Regions Report
The East region has gone from strength to strength this year, even before the foreshore issue and can now boast a junior section with 7 junior members fishing with the adults.
The North region is still inactive although we have many members in the North no one seems to want to get the section up and running, let’s hope for better things in 2010.
The South West is still active yet I do not get match results and this will need to be addressed in 2010 to promote the area and the section.
I spoke too soon, as I received it yesterday.
Thanks to Martin Collyer for the information.

South West Region Fur & Feather Open

Date:-13th December 2009
Venue:-Llanstephan
Time:-1200--17oohrs
Match Report

The day started with excellent conditions; sunny & quite warm for the time of year and with a slight breeze coming from a north westerly direction across the length of the beach. With free refreshments on site courtesy of the master fryer from Carmarthen, the atmosphere during the book in was full of banter and excitement. For some anglers it was a bit of a slog through all the soft mud but this proved to be an ideal area to fish at this venue. With 47 seniors, 4 female anglers and 7 junior anglers the competition was set to be a great event. The bass sadly proved to be very elusive but with 138 flounders caught on the day, it turned out to be a very successful match, with the majority of fish being returned back into the estuary and some anglers taking their catch home for tea.

Champion angler with a total weight of 4.740kg and a fish count of 11 Flounder’s, went to Carwyn Walters from Tumble Angling Club. 2nd place with a total weight of 4.020kg and also with a fish count of 11 Flounder went to Daniel Beard from Carmarthen S.A.C. 3RD place with a total weight of 3.040kg and a fish count of 7 flounders went to Martin Collyer also from Tumble Angling Club. 4th place with a total weight of 2.600kg and a fish count of 6 Flounders went to Myrddin Davies from the Pembrokeshire P.Ms. 5th place with a total weight of 2.200kg and also with a fish count of 6 Flounders, went to Gavin Forsyth who entered as an open contender.

Top female angler with a total weight of 0.800kg and a fish count of 3 Flounders, went to Ruth Morgan from Carmarthen S.A.C. Top junior angler with a total weight of 4.420kg and a fish count of 9 flounders, and went to Carwyn Wheeler who entered as an open contender. The seniors heaviest fish pool went to Vic Pearce of the Carmarthenshire P.Ms with a Flounder of 0.660kg.

It was a very well turned out event with regular faces and new competitors attending. It’s great to see the support from all the clubs and it’s great to see the number of anglers increase on last year’s event. The committee would like to use this opportunity to give a huge thank you to all that attended. To end this report, I would like to say that the "man of the match"(if there was such a thing in angling), would have to go to Carwyn Wheeler. To be so young and to show so much talent and enjoyment of the sport; credit must be given to him and to those who have taught him. Look out for him in the future; he is in a class of his own!!

Hope to see you all again during future matches, especially the 2010 Fur & Feather open.
Martin Collyer.

New PM Merchandise.

We now have available Hooded Tops with the relevant wording on the back and chest, these will come out at £20 each, and pictures will shortly go on the website for you to look at.

May I take this opportunity to remind all PM’s that have not joined so far that membership renewal is due on the 1st January, I know Xmas can be expensive but the cost of joining is very little compared to the £5,000.000 insurance cover extended to all members.
The cost of membership for the over 65’s has been reduced to £7-00, all other memberships remain the same.

I hope you will all have a cracking Christmas and put more fish on the beach in 2010.

Mike.