South West Trio off to Finals
| The trio to represent CSSC South West in the National Shore Angling Finals have now been confirmed. Tony Hiscock, Mike Patten and John Pollard are the fortunate three that will travel across the Irish Sea to Wexford, Eire, after they came out on top over the two legged qualifiers held in October 2007 and January 2008. Weather was kind for both competitions, staged at Chesil Beach and Slapton Sands respectively, although this did have a negative impact on the fishing. Interestingly, winner in the first leg was Steve Harries who didn't go onto make the final three. He took advantage of the clear waters to snap up a large number of gars, which is how most of the other competitors profited. Given the conditions, however, there was a surprising return of different species with Allis Shad, dogfish, garfish, mackerel, red mullet, flounder and dragonet all being recorded. Mike Patten took the second leg on a day where far fewer species were present. He explained. "Even though the times had been adjusted to take in an hour of darkness to hopefully catch some whiting and pouting they were very difficult to come by." Immediately after the competition all the anglers present held a short meeting and some rules changes proposed and voted upon. These now more closely align the Region with the National Final rules. Despite some anglers failing to complete both legs, Patten, who organised the event, was happy to see a number of new faces amongst the group. He added. "Welcome to Laura and Paul Prickett, Kevin McDonald, Peter Holt, Scott McGregor and John Rowlands," he added. "It was also good to see the return of Bill Mayling." |
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