THE SPECIAL ONE
Andy Webb gives a flavour of the big event.
As you are all aware, sometimes the first three months of the new year can be a slow period for sea anglers, but there’s an event that really draws the crowds – the European Open Beach Championship.
This match is a three-day event that starts with a Flattie Bash on the Friday, and is followed by the two days of the main competition, where the target fish are mainly cod, thornback rays and whiting.
Set up by the late Paul Roggeman in 1994, it was part of his job to attract visitors to East Yorkshire by hosting events. Being a keen angler, Paul saw an opportunity outside the main summer season, and the event was a success from the start, with the first championship attracting more than 200 anglers to the Holderness Coast.
Over the years the event went from strength to strength and now more than 1,000 anglers regularly take part.
After Paul passed away in 2015, the event was renamed in his honour as the Paul Roggeman European Open Beach Championship.
Soon it will be the 26th event, which is fished between Bridlington North Beach and Spurn Point pilot jetty. It had to be cancelled one year due to an outbreak of Foot & Mouth.
For the 2019 championship, the £35,000 prize fund includes a £4,000 first prize for the winner of each of the two days.
ALL SORTED
I’ll be there in February 2019, but my involvement started in 2018. Out of the blue, I had a phone call in early January last year (2018) from the East Riding of Yorkshire Council events team, asking if Sea Angling Adventures (SAA) could film the match. I wanted to do it justice, so I had a busy couple of weeks planning and getting ready.
Soon the day to travel up to Yorkshire from Devon had come. Excited, I left my home in Teignmouth at 6.30am and my first stop was to meet SAA’s Wayne Jarman near Minehead. Eventually, we reached the event headquarters, Sand le Mere Holiday Village in Tunstall, at around 2pm.
Something I really like about the event is that everything is sorted for you. Your accommodation and ticket entry are all linked, which saves the hassle of having to sort things for yourself. After booking in at reception we headed off to our caravan. Looking out as the snow started to fall, it was about to be a cold week.
Next morning, I sorted out the camera gear ready for the day’s filming. After SAA’s Richard Allbones joined us, the plan was to head to Hull Angling Centre to film a piece with the staff about the event and then drive further up the coast to meet with Paul’s wife, Tezina, for an interview about the history of the event.
That evening we got together with local angler Lee Smith to cover some information on the local angling scene.
Back at the caravan, we were joined by SAA’s James Davies Cooke, who had travelled from North Wales. James, Wayne and Richard headed out to test the fishing at Tunstall for a few hours, while I prepared for an interview with the manager at Sand le Mere. After that, I joined them at the beach, where Richard and Wayne had caught a few whiting, but JDC had done better with a couple of cod and a flounder.
We all headed back to the events hall to get together with Rachael Pepper, the general manager at Sand le Mere, to cover their part in the event. With all the filming done for the day, it was time to head back to the caravan ready for the Thursday night outing to the clubhouse. It’s always nice to meet up with the readers of Sea Angler magazine and viewers of Sea Angling Adventures. We also filmed an interview with Will Hall, who has stepped into the role of event organiser.
FLATTIE BASH
The Flattie Bash is a warm-up to the two-day main event and fished as a measureand-release contest. The winner is the angler with the highest combined measurement.
Being ready for the draw at 8am, it gave us two hours to decide where to fish. We decided to go to the left side of Hornsea beach where we found some local anglers, along with Mike Coombe and Rob, from Seacast Fishing Weights, and two Portuguese lads to our right.
At 10am the whistle went. Wayne and I chose smaller black lug baits on two-hook flapper rigs. Within minutes one of the Portuguese lads caught a dab. After a bit of filming, it was James Atkinson and his team further up the coast in a different zone who reported catches of dabs to 26cm. Meanwhile, Andy Pearce’s team were walking the coast interviewing anglers.
By now the guys around me were all
“Scent seemed to be the key in this dark, murky water”
catching well, including multiples of dabs every cast, with black lug baits tipped off with a piece of Bluey doing really well. Scent seemed to be the key in this dark, murky water.
After a lot of running around on the beach, I finally found enough time to reel in, which resulted in a small whiting. The lads were all into dabs throughout the day, and there was a cracking flounder caught by Mike Coombe.
With the match over, we all headed back to Sand le Mer to get ready for the evening’s awards, where we were greeted by Chris Hvass from Vass, who had a stand at the event. It was an amazing atmosphere, with a real buzz about the next two days.
DAY ONE
For the first day of the main event, which attracted 1,200 anglers, my team headed off to the entrance to Sand le Mere to meet local angler Lee Smith and then drove to Out Newton. After a walk along the cliff tops and a short climb down to the beach, we set up our rods and got our baits ready for the 9am start. High water was due at 1pm.
I chose a running up-and-over rig, which I find produces a better hook-hold – I didn’t want to risk losing a fish. We had to put the baits out as far as we could to get the them into the deeper water.
After an hour or so, I was into my first fish, an undersized whiting. Wayne followed with an undersized codling. Around midday we had a spell of light snow and then the sun came out. Word around the mark was that there was something bigger caught further back up the beach, but I’d seen nothing to trouble the scales.
Back at the weigh-in, I looked forward to seeing what the rest of the anglers had caught. First place for the day with 4.630kg went to top local rod Paul Medd, who is from Scarborough, and who, with his dad, Dave, won the pairs.
Mike Brown, of Southampton, and Martin Booth, of Hartlepool, were second and third on the day.
DAY TWO
Next day it was really windy as we interviewed anglers all along the coastline. By midday there did not seem to be many big fish showing, just small whiting and small codling.
The busy venues were those where the wind was blowing from behind the anglers out to sea. The SAA fishing team went down towards Kilnsea and were not catching much in the strong tide that produced a lot of weed. However, it seemed there were more anglers weighing in fish afterwards than had done so the previous day.
The second day was won by Craig Capell, of Hull, with 3.075kg, followed by Chris Fisher, of Aldbrough, and Jeff Taylor, of North Frodingham. The team of four prize went to Ben Laws, Andrew Cass, Matthew Garbutt and Paul Garbutt.
It was Paul Medd who was the man of the moment, taking the overall prize with his two-day total of 5.765kg. It was a great achievement for Paul because he has fished the competition every year and had won one of the days of the event a couple of times, but not the overall title.
Jeff Taylor and Chris Fisher were second and third overall with 3.590kg and 3.405kg respectively.
The following morning I headed back to Devon with Wayne after a great time away.
The competition is a very special event, which brings together anglers from far and wide. Even if the fishing does not play ball every time, the laughs and atmosphere make it magical. I look forward to seeing you all again in February. ■
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