All good practice for the frozen North

I have won a fishing holiday for six in Straumfjorden. I've looked it up. It's in north Norway and it appears that fjord fishing up there is designed for Eskimos. This month and next are the best months for catching cod and halibut around 30 to 40 kilos.

But this time is also when temperatures can be below freezing all day averaging –2C and sometimes drop to –18C. I'm told the midnight sun or Arctic twilight can be seen from the holiday fishing cottage. I wonder how warm that sun will be at this time of year? I don't think I'll pack my shorts. Staumfjorden is well inside the Arctic circle and isn't far from the southern point where the sea freezes.

Never mind, what might lurk in the dark depths of the fjords is very enticing to us sea anglers. And I've already had first-hand experience of extreme fishing in the cruel sea close to home.

On the cold and icy morning of February 27, 500-plus vehicles made their way to fishing venues along the Yorkshire coast, from Bridlington to the lifeboat jetty at Spurn Point.

Alarm clocks had been ringing since 4am for the start of the European

Open Beach Fishing Championship. The forecast was for easterly winds and around a seven metre tide. Many anglers were in position on the frozen beaches by 5am.

I was ready for action on Spurn Road at sunrise. I chose the relatively sheltered position because of the high tides and the long gully I had spotted the previous Monday. Food collects in the gullies and holes along the beach as the tide flows and, I hoped, so would the fish.

I baited four rigs with the permitted three hooks per rig, ie a pulley double hook at the end with a single hook on a "flapper". That gave me three spares with a combination of local lugg, squid and fish to quickly fix new bait after each wind-in. Along with some Withernsea anglers to my left and some Bournemouth anglers to my right, I stretched out and cast in at dead on 9am. Disaster. A severe pain stabbed through my lower back and I fell to my knees on the shingle. My neighbours must have thought I was kneeling to pray for a bite. But it was my "glass back" breaking again.

I painfully struggled to the deep water near the lifeboat pier. A long cast isn't necessary here because the deep channel is only a few metres from the water's edge at low water. Instead of stretching my back, I gingerly tried to lob the rig into the deep as the incoming tide gathered momentum.

About an hour later I had a bite. The rod tip quivered like a sapling in the wind. I struck but nothing was hooked. After another hour of back pain and lots of red frond-like weed on the line I packed up at 2.30pm.

On the drive to Bridlington to the weigh-in I spoke to long-faced anglers who hadn't caught anything either. The sea was too big and some had only managed to fish for one or two hours. A promising text came through to say some two to three pound cod had been caught near Withernsea.

A monster of 7.5lb caught near Skipsea by Mr S Lawson of Beverley proved to be the biggest fish caught on the Saturday. Out of the 1,200 anglers taking part only 36 weighed in on the Saturday with slightly fewer weighing in on the Sunday.

I couldn't fish on the Sunday at all. My back had stiffened up. Waiting at match headquarters at Bridlington the heavens really opened, and you had to admire the sturdy will power of the anglers.

Paul Roggeman, Keiran Lawry and their team from the East Riding of Yorkshire Council deserve a special word of thanks for organising such a big event. Who could have foreseen that the worst winter in 31 years would still be with us?

With just 30 minutes of the weigh-in remaining, nothing of note had appeared. Then in walked Justin (Jezzy) Hawksley of Withernsea with a 6.3lb cod. Even the weighers-in applauded.

Justin had also caught a three pound cod on the Saturday and his aggregate weight of four kilos gave us a local winner, crowned European Champion for 2010. Justin's nickname at the Commercial pub in Withernsea, where he fishes for their team, is "Trawler".

He'd caught the cod in the same position where I'd had a bite the day before. So at least I got something right – along with my skill in buying the winning ticket in the prize draw for a holiday in frozen Norway.

Top five of the event in kilograms

J Hawksley

Withernsea 4.000

S Lawson

Beverley 3.895

N Todd

Atwick 2.700

N Hemingway

Batley 2.270

L Sherwood

Lowestoft 2.175