Search
Description
Andy Ford follows the fortunes of the 1300 competitors hoping for major honours in Europe’s biggest shore match….
In the only TV series made exclusively for the UK's sea angling community, Onlinefishing.tv’s ‘Sea Watch UK’, Andy Ford heads to north east England’s Bridlington coastline to get a flavour of the European Open, a match that attracts an incredible 1300 competitors, making it one of the biggest matches of any kind in the world.
In fact the 2009 European Open Beach Championship, formerly the British Open Beach Championship, was the biggest two-day beach fishing festival anywhere in Europe in 2009.
And when you find out that there’s a total fund to go at of £25,000, and the biggest fish wins the biggest prize, so literally anyone can win it, you realise why it’s so popular.
The event turns out to be a 'match of two halves' over two days, with Andy and his team tearing up and down the 40-mile stretch of coastline used, picking up tips from seasoned shore anglers and having plenty of laughs along the way…
The fishing is tough on day one in calm conditions – nice weather for the anglers – not so good though when you want the cod to feed. Andy conquers the winding coastal roads to investigate some of the hotspots and talk to local anglers, and some who have travelled hundreds of miles with thoughts of a match-winning cod on their minds.
He even comes across anglers who are borrowing techniques more suited to coarse angling, and some who got lost on their way to their chosen mark, and so fished a different one instead! Andy interviews the day one leader who is ‘going long’ for his fish, and Total Sea Fishing magazine editor Barney Wright passes on some rig and bait advice before getting ready to present the prizes.
The wind gets up on day two and more cod decide to have a go, with rumours of a couple of really big fish and the OnlineFishing.tv cameras there for the all important weigh-in, as we see some really superb cod brought to the scales, including specimen cod to nearly 15lb, rays, flatfish, and a few surprises….