Wild white water drives anglers into Humber for championships

The preparation, the anticipation and for the lucky some, the splendid sensation of being a winner is what this challenge is all about.

The annual lemming-like march to our beaches once again attracted anglers from all over Europe. But on the Wednesday before the match it was obvious that it was very likely that the weather would be atrocious.

The 5.6 metre spring tide coupled with an onshore wind was bad news and the organising committee at East Riding of Yorkshire Council decided to extend the southern boundary from the Spurn Life Boat and pilot jetty up the river to the Humber Bridge.

This brought into play another 30 miles of safe fishable water and in retrospect, was a very sensible decision.

Because of the awful weather and sea conditions the European Open Beach Championship came to the City of Kingston upon Hull, to use its Sunday name.

Anyone interested in beach fishing who visited the East Yorkshire coast last weekend could watch the hundreds of anglers between the Humber Bridge and Bridlington.

Joining in the buzz and talking to our European neighbours fishing in the match and bringing some much needed revenue to our area was an interesting experience.

They buy bait and tackle, stay in our mobile homes, chalets, pubs and hotels, fill up their cars, use the Hull docks to arrive and depart and best of all they buy fish and chips.

This type of revenue at a slack time of the year is very welcome for the local economy.

We have a unique rural coast line in East and North Yorkshire and the more that know about it the better.

Back to the match and I thought that the worst day weather-wise was Saturday as the sea was wild white horses, until I saw it on Sunday. There wasn’t much to choose between Saturday or Sunday for foul weather and foul fishing. Two metre waves were breaking half a mile out and only white water pounding the cliffs. With constant rain and a bitterly cold easterly driving it into the anglers faces as they looked out to sea, the conditions were somewhat unpleasant.

Anyone who fished the East Yorkshire beaches last year may be surprised to see how the sea has moved thousands of tons of sand. Some beaches that were 100 metres from cliff to sea have now gone and unfishable beaches last year now have a beach.

One has to marvel at the power of nature.

Sunday saw the number of fish caught halved. Only 12 fish were weighed-in. On Saturday the river beats did best with around 30 fish being weighed-in, but the best fish was a cod from the cliffs south of Hornsea.

Some days, one can predict the probability of catching cod but on others it is simply a lucky dip. Last weekend fell into the latter category.

I perched on a ledge feeling the ground tremble as the tons of water hit the cliff and the rain came down. As fishing was quiet to say the least there was plenty of time to shelter in one’s tent and contemplate the cold, pouring rain and driving easterly wind. This bombarded the muddy ledges halfway down the 80 feet cliff near Hornsea.

The best reason for being there my refrigerated brain could contemplate were:

The buzz of hooking something big and pitting our wits against all the obstacles of nature/choice of tackle etc;

The kudos amongst our fishing colleagues for consistently good catches;

The personal pride and sense of achievement deep in our primeval hunting instincts and perhaps the lure of filthy lucre with thousands of pounds of prize money and a car dangling in front of our eyes.

I’d better come clean and admit its just for the money. Needless to say, on the very days of the 2013 Championship I drew a 
blank.

After three hours it didn’t take long to decide I wasn’t enjoying getting wet through, getting the first stages of frost bite, not catching fish and being nithered to the core, so I left for an early bath.

On the Saturday I saw a local Barton upon Humber angler weigh-in a 1.7kg – 3lb 12 oz cod. He caught this south of Hornsea in tremendous seas on his last cast.

Not many cod were weighed-in on the Saturday as the sea was almost unfishable.

Ten to 20 flatties were caught in the River Humber. Even less fish were weighed in on the Sunday and in the main they were caught in the Humber.

The 2013 crown went to a very pleased Karl Wiepcke and he deserved every aspect of his success in what was being said to be the worst sea and weather conditions in the last 20 years.

Mark Taylor from Grimsby, who fishes for the Humber Sea Angling Club, caught a nice cod on Withernsea seafront against all the odds.

His bait was lugg worm and razor shell fish but in those seas any scent trail would disappear in seconds.

Ms Kim Blackburn from Hornsea caught two nice flounders in the River Humber.

They secured the best female prizes for her.

Contest aims for record

The 2013 European Open Beach Championship, held from March 8 to 10, celebrated its 20th anniversary this year.

The East Yorkshire championship, widely regarded as the largest three-day beach angling event in Europe, is aiming to beat the current official record of 785 competitors set in 2010 in Malta. Despite having attracted more than 1,000 competitors in previous years, it is only recently that the record has been verified.