Big Fish Event a real success

The Big Fish Event took place in Lyme Regis and began at noon on a mid-August Friday and ended at 9pm the following day, writes Darren Herbert.

The event was held in aid of the charity Help for Heroes.

For a £10 entry fee (£4 for juniors) competitors were able to fish whenever they wished within that 33 hour period.

Baillie Gifford kindly donated the majority of the prize money and therefore, all entry fees went to the Help for Heroes charity.

In addition several collections were made during the week in and around Lyme Regis area for the charity.

The weather was better than forecast at the start on Friday, but although mullet, ballan wrasse, bull huss and dogfish were caught, other species such as bass, garfish and mackerel proved to be elusive.

There was particular difficulty in getting pouting and mackerel in size to register a claim.

Unfortunately Saturday’s weather was very poor with high winds and heavy rain that kept many anglers at home. Those hardy fishermen that braved the elements enjoyed some success fishing at the far end of Monmouth beach.

One pleasing thing to note was that nine juniors took part and they enjoyed some success in breaking one LRSAC club record and having many fish that were just under size. In fact one young lady lost the only garfish to be caught when it fell off the hook just as she was pulling it in on North Wall..

As usual with this event those anglers who targeted specific fish and specific times to fish, seemed to enjoy most success.

One competitor who didn’t finish work until 6pm on the second day, was about to give up at 8pm when he suddenly remembered where he might get a fish!

With ten minutes to go in the match he caught the only bass caught in the competition and won £100, proving that it’s always worth fishing up to the end of time in a match.

Presentations were made at the Cobb Arms and the winners were as follows: £100; Best ballan wrasse 1,944gms (4.28lbs) (107.17 per cent specimen) Nigel Hill; £100 Best bass 1,178gms (2.59lbs) (27.34 per cent specimen) Toby Guest. £100 Best Bull Huss 1,016gms (2.24lbs) (28.00 per cent specimen) Simon Skinner; £100 Best garfish – None were weighed in; £100 Best ls dogfish 1,030gms (2.27lbs) (90.83 per cent specimen) Terry Hartnell; £100 Best mackerel - none weighed in; £100 Best mullet (Golden) 940gms (2.07lbs) (138.24 per cent specimen) Darren Herbert; £100 Best pouting 232gms (0.51lbs) (34.12 per cent specimen) Ban Brownley; £200 First Prize

mullet (golden grey) 940gms (2.07lbs) (138.24 per cent specimen) Darren Herbert;

£100 Second Prize, ballan wrasse 1,944gms (4.28lbs) (107.17 per cent specimen) Nigel Hill.; £50 Third Prize mullet (golden grey) 712gms (1.57lbs) (104.71 per cent specimen) Darren Herbert. Darren Herbert kindly donated all of his £350 winnings to Help for Heroes.

The Tackle Box Shop kindly donated a boat rod for a raffle for all those who took part and the lucky winner was Andy Hughes.

The organisers are pleased to announce that the final total of £1,970 has been collected for Help for Heroes.

The organising committee would like to thank all those people who generously gave up their time to make this such a successful event.