EFSA European Shore Championship 2019 Akureyri, ICELAND – May 1st – 4th

Congratulations to EFSA Portugal with 15 years anniversary

Constituted on 7^th February 2003 EFSA Portugal celebrates 15 years of existence this year. Many section members have contributed over these 15 years to promote sea angling sport while competing on the national and European scene.

In commemoration of this great event EFSA Portugal awarded several section members for their dedication and great contribution to the promotion and development of sea angling during all these years. The following EFSA Portugal members were awarded: Aderito Alves; Jose Marques; Josue Lima; Carlos Palhinha; Carlos Olivera and Jacinto Afonso. Congratulations!

European Big Game Championships – May 11th – 14th 2020, Cape Verde, Mindelo – New deposit deadline December 15th 2018

Dear EFSA members,

We are proud to announce that in 2020 the EFSA Big game tournament for teams will be held at the Blue marlin capital of the world; the isle of Sao Vicente, Cape Verde. EFSA headquarters in Mindelo will be at The Sportfishing Club, Mindelo! Entry to the tournament needs to be completed as soon as possible. EFSA Netherlands has an option on all boats, ending at the beginning of 2019.”

Bellow you will find the Announcement & Program for the 2020 EFSA Game Championships. It is important to notice that only one team per country can enter in the  first entry round. This has been decided to give every country a fair chance to enter at least one team. The second period will be:  the first to pay is assured a spot in the competition! We have an option for the whole fleet. That is 16 top boats , with top skippers in a top prime period. To be able to secure the fleet we really have to stick to the times mentioned in the annouoncment. The skippers have given us an option until the end of the year. By them they expect a deposit for all boats. Enrty will only be excepted upon payment of the 500,00 euro deposit, per person,  into the EFSA Netherlands account.

Kind regards Miranda Koop
Secreatary EFSA Netherlands

Download the Event Announcement & Entry Fee instructions: click here
Download the Event Program: click here
Download the event Entry Form: click here

European Game Championships Tuna – Bill fish, September 14th – 20th 2018, Portugal, Azores, S. Miguel

Friday – September 14th with the presence of the President of EFSA Portugal, Director Maria Helena and the Director of Big Game Carlos Palhinha, the above championship began on 14 September with the meeting of EFSA Sections Captains represented (Scotland, England, Iceland, Ireland; Gibraltar A and B, Portugal, Switzerland), totaling 9 teams / 31 fishermen. After the necessary explanations the boats were drawn, followed by the reception cocktail at the headquarters of the Naval Club of Ponta Delgada, where all the teams and chaperones were present, as well as the most diverse local personalities.

Saturday – September 15 Although the weather and sea conditions left some concern due to the effects of Hurricane Helene, which passed the tropical storm, the boats left at 8:00 a.m. in Porto de Abrigo, after a signal from the Event Directorate. Unfortunately the existing concerns became reality and an hour after leaving Dir. Proof, after contacting the captains, understood to cancel this day of proof and the return of all boats. Onshore, an extraordinary meeting was held with the captains of the EFSA sections and then with the skippers, with Dir. Proof presenting a proposal, which was unanimously approved. Proposal submitted: – the annulled test of Saturday would pass to the next Wednesday, keeping however the draw made as well as the Code of the Day and all the General Programming will adapt to the new reality. So the test days were 2nd, 3rd and 4th, but the tour circuits were still scheduled – Monday went to Sunday and 4th was only reserved for fishermen’s fishing partners. We were pleased to note that the fishermen included the President and Treasurer of the Executive of EFSA, Horst Schneider and Kim Bowden.

1st day of competition – September 17th After many touches, it can be noted that the day of fishing was very positive, since four teams captured and released, according to the regulation, four (4) blue marlins, After the Competition Jury showed the videos brought by the teams and the recognition of the captured / released species, the teams obtained 300 points and the classification was as follows: – 1st England; // 2nd France; // 3rd Gibraltar B; // 4th Switzerland The tie-breaking criterion was that of the “first catch register” in accordance with point 18 of the Regulation. 2nd day of competition

September 18th with very favorable conditions, the second day of competition provided several touches and beginnings of combat with blue marlins. After the day of the competition and after the Competition Jury saw the videos delivered by the teams that captured and released the blue marlins, the classification of the day was thus ordered: -1st- Iceland; 2nd- Switzerland; 3rd – England / Scotland, all with 300 points The general classification after the two days of tests was as follows: -1st Switzerland – 600 pts; 2nd England – 300 pts; 3 France – 300 pts; 4 Gibraltar B – 300 pts; 5th Iceland – 300 pts; 6 England / Scotland – 300 pts.

3rd and last day of competition September 19th with departure at 08:00 and arrival at 18:00, the last stage of the championship began. During the day the expectation was total due to the innumerable information, via port of refuge, of several combats on the part of all the teams. However, the news and expectations were in the course of the hours being reduced by the fact that the captures were released. As a result, only Gibraltar B made the catch, being the only team to score on the last day. The tie-breaking criterion was that of the “first catch register” in accordance with point 18 of the Regulation. The team from Portugal, Ireland and Gibraltar A failed to get catches for the standings. In the late afternoon / early evening, prizes were awarded to the 3 classified teams, souvenirs to all the fishermen who made up the 9 teams and diplomas of nominative participation. The final overall results: Team Gibraltar B – gold, Team Switzerland – silver and Team England – bronze medals.

Species & Line Championship – Conger 2018

EUROPEAN SPECIES/LINE 2018 WEYMOUTH

Saturday 21st July and the 64 anglers from 13 Sections made their way to the boats ready for the 0730 departure. The target species for this Championship was conger eel. There were 2 options, as this was a Line Class as well as Species Championship. Using your own line meant entry to Species championship only, while using the 35 pound Ande braid supplied meant the possibility of 2 pins at this event. The majority of anglers elected to fish with the supplied braid. Anglers were given cuttle fish and several packs of mackerel as bait. It is usual when conger fishing to start the day by feathering for mackerel and have enough to last the day but the last couple of years mackerel have been scarce all along the South Coast. The boats did stop to feather for fresh mackerel but most anglers only had enough for a few each, so the supplied froze bait was needed as well.

The 8 boats headed well offshore to their chosen wrecks, where they hoped to find a good number of eels, as well as some a big ones. The Species pins would be awarded to the best catch of eels over the 2 days, the Line Class pins would go to the3 heaviest eels over the 2 days. Fortunes among the boats were varied, with the anglers on some seeing up to 6 or 7 eels, while on other boats just a few eels, with many anglers not managing to boat even one eel.

Back at port, and over a pint, the talk was of how great a day some had while others had a job to understand where they went wrong. Such is conger fishing! Sometimes you are close to the wreck but just not at the section were the eels are feeding or, as with many wrecks, they do not hold large number of eels.

When the scores were in it, was Pete Bailey with the best score on day 1 of 75 points. Many anglers were close behind with two on 65 points and two on 55 points. At the other end of the results table, ten failed to catch and another ten had one small eel for 5 points.

Day 2 and we all set off again with hopes of a better day. It was all still to play for with the chance of getting a big eel to win a line pin. The format was the same as previous day; so around Portland Bill to try for a few fresh mackerel then head out to anchor a wreck. Listening to the chat on the radio, it was evident that as on the previous day in was feast or famine, depending on the boat.It did not follow that boats that did well Saturday had a good day Sunday.

The presentation and gala dinner were held at The Crown Hotel on the Sunday evening.
Cliff Newbold had a great second day scoring 105 points, which was almost double the next mans score. This added to day 1 score of 35 gave him a winning score of 140 points to win the Species gold pin. Silver pin went to Ash Currier with 110 points and Pete Bailey took the bronze pin with 100 points.

The Line class pins were awarded to the heaviest eel s over the 2 days. Cliff Newbold- added to his Species gold pin, taking the Line Class gold pin with the heaviest eel of the Championship,which was a conger of 64 pound, caught using the 35 pound Ande braid supplied for the event. Cliff also had one of 53 pound, but each angler was only allowed to enter his best conger. Pete Neale took the silver pin with 51pound eel, and Ash Currier won the bronze pin with a 49.5 pound conger. Just out of the pins was Andy Selby with a 49 pound fish

There were a total of 366 Conger eels caught and released over the two days.

EFSA European Boat and Line Class Championships, Weymouth, ENGLAND, 9th – 13th September 2019

– Download the event Brochure click EFSA_Programme 2019
– Dowload the event Entry Form click EFSA_EntryForm 2019

EFSA European Shore Championship Akureyri, ICELAND, 2nd – 4th May 2019

The European Shore Championship 2019 will be held from Akureyri, Iceland 2nd, 3rd and 4th of May 2019. The HQ hotel for the venue will be Hotel Kjarnalundur about 3.5 km. from Akureyri´s town center. Book your accommodation on info@kjarnalundur.is and quote EFSA2019.

Download the Entry Form: click here

EFSA Iceland 2018 European Boat Championships news

Dear EFSA friends,
Record number of anglers will attend the European Boat Championships to be held from Olafsvik, Iceland 26th May to 1st June 2018. The preliminary number of entries is 140 from 15 sections; Belgium, England, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Scotland, South Africa, SALT BAA (South Africa) and Switzerland.

We will fish for four days (Monday 28th May to Thursday 31th May) on small boats with 4-6 anglers on board each boat. Meetings, registration and opening ceremony etc. are scheduled on Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th May.
See for details in the program.
EFSA Iceland will send you more info in the forth coming weeks.
We look very much forward to see you all!

Best regards
Thorir Sveinsson, EFSA Iceland Secretary

EFSA – NETHERLAND runs the Open EFSA Boot Cup 2018 on 18 March 2018

Species & Line Championship – Conger 2018

Weymouth – England 21st to 22nd July

Download the brochure: click here
Download the entry form: click here

EUROPEAN SPECIES/LINE 2018 WEYMOUTH

Saturday 21st July and the 64 anglers from 13 Sections made their way to the boats ready for the 0730 departure. The target species for this Championship was conger eel. There were 2 options, as this was a Line Class as well as Species Championship. Using your own line meant entry to Species championship only, while using the 35 pound Ande braid supplied meant the possibility of 2 pins at this event. The majority of anglers elected to fish with the supplied braid. Anglers were given cuttle fish and several packs of mackerel as bait. It is usual when conger fishing to start the day by feathering for mackerel and have enough to last the day but the last couple of years mackerel have been scarce all along the South Coast. The boats did stop to feather for fresh mackerel but most anglers only had enough for a few each, so the supplied froze bait was needed as well.

The 8 boats headed well offshore to their chosen wrecks, where they hoped to find a good number of eels, as well as some a big ones. The Species pins would be awarded to the best catch of eels over the 2 days, the Line Class pins would go to the3 heaviest eels over the 2 days. Fortunes among the boats were varied, with the anglers on some seeing up to 6 or 7 eels, while on other boats just a few eels, with many anglers not managing to boat even one eel.

Back at port, and over a pint, the talk was of how great a day some had while others had a job to understand where they went wrong. Such is conger fishing! Sometimes you are close to the wreck but just not at the section were the eels are feeding or, as with many wrecks, they do not hold large number of eels.

When the scores were in it, was Pete Bailey with the best score on day 1 of 75 points. Many anglers were close behind with two on 65 points and two on 55 points. At the other end of the results table, ten failed to catch and another ten had one small eel for 5 points.

Day 2 and we all set off again with hopes of a better day. It was all still to play for with the chance of getting a big eel to win a line pin. The format was the same as previous day; so around Portland Bill to try for a few fresh mackerel then head out to anchor a wreck. Listening to the chat on the radio, it was evident that as on the previous day in was feast or famine, depending on the boat.It did not follow that boats that did well Saturday had a good day Sunday.

The presentation and gala dinner were held at The Crown Hotel on the Sunday evening.
Cliff Newbold had a great second day scoring 105 points, which was almost double the next mans score. This added to day 1 score of 35 gave him a winning score of 140 points to win the Species gold pin. Silver pin went to Ash Currier with 110 points and Pete Bailey took the bronze pin with 100 points.

The Line class pins were awarded to the heaviest eel s over the 2 days. Cliff Newbold- added to his Species gold pin, taking the Line Class gold pin with the heaviest eel of the Championship,which was a conger of 64 pound, caught using the 35 pound Ande braid supplied for the event. Cliff also had one of 53 pound, but each angler was only allowed to enter his best conger. Pete Neale took the silver pin with 51pound eel, and Ash Currier won the bronze pin with a 49.5 pound conger. Just out of the pins was Andy Selby with a 49 pound fish

There were a total of 366 Conger eels caught and released over the two days.