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Photo of Mel Squibb with his sweep winning fish

Two fish gave Mel Squibb five of the top prizes in last weeks all night open hosted by Ventnor Angling & Social club. Squibb returned an Undulated Ray of 11lb 2oz which took the heaviest fish sweep and a Painted Ray of 9lb 1oz which won the specimen sweep each paying £114. He also picked up the Greys Rod for the best Ray and took third overall and the pairs prize with Russ Catling who help Mel return both fish to the sea alive and well.  Dan Guy picked up £300 for his first place weight of 25lb 11-1/2oz and Paul Fincham was second with 24lb 7oz. The best Conger prize went to Shaun Graham with a fish of 9lb 6oz and Dave Hobbs won the best Bass rod with a fish of 5lb 2oz. Liz Cunningham won the £50 prize for top lady angler with 16lb 14oz and Michal Wyatt won £50 as the top Ventnor member with 13lb 13-1/2oz. 114 anglers entered the event and 36 returned fish with 35 receiving prizes.  

Ventnor ASC held a zoned open event with 40 anglers attending.
Manager of Scotties Newport, Alan Bravery chose the right time to come out of retirement and took the top prize in zone A with 4lb 14oz. Zone B was won with 2lb 2oz registered by Mark Rowan and Damian Geldard took the zone C prize and the overall best specimen with a Dogfish of 2lb 1/2oz and a total weight of 7lb 14-1/2oz. Second places went to Paul Hollingshead in A, on 2lb 10-1/2oz, Gareth Croft in B, with 1lb 13oz and Daz Newland in C with 6lb 6-1/2oz. Third in each zone was Steve Carr with 1lb 15oz, Matt Brook with 1lb 10oz and Kevin Buckler on 1lb 9oz.

Ventnor ASC Open Event

Following the cancellation of the Angling Trust open Ventnor angling and Social club will be hosting a zoned competition on 9^th May. The event will be fished over three zones with prizes for the heaviest three bag weights in each paid out according to entrees and a sweep for the overall best specimen. The forms are available from Scotties and the entry fees will be £12 with £2 going to the sweep prize.  Fishing times are from 7pm until 12 midnight with the weigh in at Wheelers Bay Car Park, Ventnor by 1am and the Presentation at VASC Club House. The zones are A from St Catherine’s Light to Bonchurch Pottery. B, Bonchurch Pottery to Stinkpot Shanklin and C, Stinkpot to Culver point piers excluded.

Local knowledge paid off in last weeks pegged open held at
East Cowes with the top prizes going to island anglers. 

                                                                                  Photo of winners

                                                                                        Left Damian Geldard, Shaun Graham,
                                                                                   John Brown and Gareth Groft

The competition attracted anglers from Southampton including England team member John Brown who was only able to achieve a joint third. Damian Geldard from Sandown picked up the first place prize of £130 with three Bass and a £40 sweep for the longest fish. Shaun Graham received £70 with two Bass and organiser of the event Gareth Groft shared third with John Brown, both receiving £37.50.  Just outside the prizes was Anthony Davies also from Southampton with a single Bass. Gareth is now hoping to arrange a similar event later in the year at Brook.

230 anglers from all over the
UK gathered at Yarmouth Quay last week to fish the two day British Cod championships hosted by West Wight chartered skippers association.

On the first day the weather allowed all 24 boats to fish the back of the Wight and with some good fish being reported over the last two weeks hopes were high for a good result. At 9am all the boats left Yarmouth Quay and by 10:15 were at anchor. The call to start came over the radio at 10:30 and 230 big fish baits were sent to the bottom. Within the first half hour Cod were being reported and by the end of the day 48 were returned to the scales. The £1000 day winner prize for the heaviest Cod went to local angler Jude Ridler with a fish of 28lb 2-1/2oz which earned his skipper Dave Stephenson owner of Becky M the day skipper prize. On day 2 the wind was increasing from the west so by 1pm all boats had to move into the Solent, this affected the overall number of fish caught with only 25 returned to the scales. Geoff Bond a builder from Romsey picked up the £1000 day prize with a Fish of 12lb 15-1/2oz boated on Wight Rebel skippered by Eric Elliott who won the day two skipper prize. The championship is awarded to the angler with the most Cod over the two days and with four of them on three fish each the overall weight was taken into account giving Garreth Butt a winning total of 39lb 13oz.  Butt from Ventnor who has only ever caught one small Codling before received his £1000 prize and the British cod champion trophy from the chairman of the council Mr Arthur Taylor.

    Tony Burt                                                

The only other local anglers in the top ten was Bob Anderson how took third with 3 fish for 17lb 11-1/2oz and Tony Burt  who returned two fish for a total weight of 16lb 5-1/2oz taking 9^th overall.
Other winners
 Jude Ridler  Geoff Bond                        
     winner day 1                                            winner day 2

The top skippers prize donated by Raymarine went to Vernon Everett on South Today with the heaviest total weight over eight fish. This was a well deserved prize as at one stage Vernon had to land four cod in his landing net at once.
The chartered skippers association wish to thank the Isle of Wight council, Plastimo, Yarmouth harbour commission and the local tackle shops Scotties, the tackle box and Barneys baits for there support and sponsorship as well as Western Wight AC for the scales and records team.
 Alan Bravery also had a fish of 11lb 4oz