Hundreds of anglers back on the beaches from Spurn Point to Bridlington for the first Paul Roggeman European Open Beach Championships since 2020

The match started at 9am and the weigh-in was at Sand le Mere, Tunstall from 3pm to 4pm. I visited four or five venues between Spurn and Tunstall and found the same lively sea and lots of anglers in their club colours.

They varied from red tops and black bottoms, camouflage, all green and numerous others. I met anglers from as far afield as Clackmannanshire in Scotland, Carrickfergus in Northern Ireland and the Netherlands.

As the weigh-in got underway I witnessed the arrival of some good sea bass – in previous years an EU ban was in force. Cod around the 4lb mark were numerous, as were flatties and whiting, but conspicuous by their absence were skate or rays.

I spoke to Will Hall, who has overall responsibility for tourism, and he said that over 50 bass had been weighed in on the Saturday. The probable explanation is that the easterly wind was blowing lively surf up the beach and bass like to hunt there for shrimp, worms and small fry.

The juniors can’t cast over the surf as the adults do and about 30 or 40 yards out is perfect for bass.

Three children presented some beautiful sea bass at the weigh-in. Tommy Whitehead, aged seven from Goole had a bass weighing in at 1150gms, Oliver, aged nine from Huddersfield, had one weighing 1300gms and Ashleigh Martin, aged eight, from Newport, East Yorkshire had one at 1090gms.

Well done to all as bass are not easy to catch.

The hard-working weigh-in teams were kept busy on both the Saturday and the Sunday as a constant stream of anglers brought in their catch that was of the permitted size.

The overall winner, based on the aggregate weight for both the Saturday and Sunday, was Neil Robinson from Nafferton, East Yorkshire with 3090gms or about 6.8lbs. Well done Neil and use those bragging rights at every available opportunity.

This competition takes some winning and all those who have their name engraved on the Three Fish trophy need an excellent knowledge of sea fishing, how to deal with prevailing conditions and how to spot the best location.

In close second place was Gary Medler from Driffield with 3070gms or 6.7lbs and third was Craig Beadle from Hornsea with 2950gms or 6.5lbs. Congratulations to these winners and all the many other prize winners.