Once again, I am writing a report on a Shore Championship hosted by the Netherlands. Frank and
Clarinda van der Zande, and I have done our best to give you a great experience on the beach. We
know we cannot please everybody and have no influence over mother nature who played havoc
before the competition began. The Germans had fished 5 days strait without catching one fish. A
previous storm had killed all the Razorfish, and sudden warm weather caused Mayrot. I told them
to keep the faith. There were a few more tides that would run the beach before we started. Positive
vibes were what we needed, not panic. We did look at a replacement spot and had to chase down
permits. It wasn’t easy in such short term, but Clarinda managed to get them after several calls.
Wednesday afternoon at 16:00 we got clear. Of course, not everybody understands that we cannot
just go up and move venues because anglers want us to fish somewhere else. As organization we
had agreed to look at the results from the first day. Should there be too many blanks we’d move to
the Noordzeekanaal. Under 10 blanks we’d stay on the beach.
Wednesday evening, we started the night with an openings word from our section Chairman
Clarinda van der Zande. Marcus Wuest took over to welcome everybody and explain the 400 club.
A new pin has been designed for specimen and Steve Mason from Iceland received the first one for
a 63 cm plaice. The staff of De Sportvisser did several rounds with herring and Dutch fried food,
that is always very much appreciated by the anglers. Also, all anglers got 2 free drinks. 6 teams and
8 individuals drew their zones. We explained all the rules, answered all the questions and had
everybody fill in a waiver form for being on the flatbed behind the tractor. We explained to all the
anglers that bait would change daily as we were dependent on what could be supplied for the day.
Day 1 started at 7:00 in the morning. Everybody was eager to start. Zones called separately by the A
team members to draw their peg numbers and pick up their bait. 75 lug worm, 150 grams ragworm
and 500 grams razorshells. E and D zones were allowed on the flatbed first. The tractor would come
back for the rest of D zone and C zone. This was repeated until all participants were on the beach.
We had agreed to start once everybody was on their peg and at 9:00 the whistle blew and the match
started on time. From no fish at all to enough fish for everybody. Only 6 blanks over the whole day.
At 11:30 the tractor passed by all the anglers and gave each of them a very welcome lunch package.
Fishing was very difficult on some pegs. Hook snoods would come back thick as cigars from the
dead off algae. But It was easy to remove from the line. Here and there the lines would also be
covered in dead razor shells. A zone was won by Hans Jürgen Gläser with 5 fish 184 points.
Clarinda van der Zande, Miranda Koop, Steve Lewis and day winner Björn Hansen all won their
zones. The results, having 2 ladies in the top 5, surprised everybody. Also, the number of fish that
were caught.
Day 2 was a copy of day 1. More sun, same bait. But instead of going all the way up to the right of
the beach we divided the venue. A-B to the left down at the end of the pathway, C-D and E zone to
the right. Ed Pritchard was astonished to reel in 3 fish in his first cast within 5 minutes. It proved to
be a very promising start to the day. The flies found their way on to the beach. If you turned around
your line, reels and bait would be covered in them. They would disappeared just as fast as they
appeared. Over the whole venue it was a bit of hit and miss. Some anglers caught a lot of fish and
others less. Ed Pritchard ended the match with 24 fish. Number 2 in the zone was Björn Hansen
with 23 fish. B zone was won by Clarinda with 19 fish followed by 2 other anglers with 13 fish.
Miranda Koop had 17 fish in C zone. Elco Hage won D zone with 7 fish. That zone didn’t have the
extremes the others did. Stephan Jones and Derek Gregory were on his heels both with 6 fish. It
came down to cm count. The only zone with a blank was E zone. Kim Bowden surprised all with a
zone win with 11 fish. Shame he’d blanked the day before. When the results came through at the
end of the day Clarinda was in 1st place, Miranda Koop on second. Both 16 points trailed by Björn
Hansen with 15 points. Then 6 with 13 points.
The next morning everybody started to congratulate us. But it isn’t over until the fat lady sings,
mind you. Once again, we all drew our pegs in zone groups and got baits. The tractors brought
everyone to their peg. A and B zones last. We got an alarming call saying that one of the
competitors from B zone had collapsed while waiting. Luckily there was an open day at the Rescue
Brigade which meant that there was a lot of first aid present. We had decided to postpone the match
until we had news. The other team members brought all his kit to the beach, and the angler would
be brough on to the beach separately once he’d gotten the all clear from the doctor who’d also been
called in.
The match started at 9:30. The angler had been helped with everything and was determined to fish
the last day. Instructions had been given to neighboring anglers and an emergency phone number
shared. The match started very slowly. There were way less sludge and rubbish in the water. And to
our surprise no flies. The sun came through strong and people started taking off their heavy coats
and jumpers. It took quite some time before the first fish came in.
Bernd Gaidus won his zone with 20 fish and a grand total of 542 fish points. What an amazing
result for a 70-year-old man who hadn’t fished a competition in quite a few years. Franco Attenasio
caught 17 fish. Arjan Rijnberg put up a good fight but ended with only 13 fish. The A zone was the
best zone with 83 fish among 8 anglers. Clarinda was in zone B. She had one of those pegs nobody
wanted. Despite all her efforts she couldn’t catch a fish. Stuart Jones won the zone with 4 fish and
121 points. On his tail was Harald Stochfish with 5 fish but only 119 points. Moving on to C zone
the same disaster was happening to Miranda Koop. She had one of those pegs which did not
produce fish. Only in the last hour was she able to catch one tiny flounder of 14 cm. Paull Curtice
won C zone with 8 fish and 231 points. Kim Bowden won his Zone again with 245 points. Shame
he had blanked the first day otherwise he’d been way up the list. Despite having one fish more
Alexander Dorow had to be content with a second place in the zone. He had 210 points. Finally,
was the E zone. It produced 4 blanks the first day, We were really worried about that. But now it
ended as the second-best zone with 66 fish. Elco Hage and Nils Grünwald had a head-to-head for
the cms. Both caught 14 fish. Nils took the zone win with 395 points over Elco’s 360 points.
Back at the chalet Frank and Clarinda tapped in all the results. We knew the list was going to be
tipped upside down, but we didn’t expect this to happen. Clarinda dropped from 1st to 10th place.
Miranda from 2nd to 6th and Björn Hansen from 3rd to 4th. Top 3 anglers came from 7th-8th and
11th place. After a lovely Buffet supplied by Jeff and 3 rounds of drinks from EFSA Netherlands
we proceeded to start with the prize presentation. The staff of De Sportvisser, volunteers and
Martine and her son Arie all received a token of our appreciation. Martine runs Ons Stekkie
together with her son and husband. They supplied us daily with fantastic bait and the goodie bag.
We couldn’t have wished for a better partner to cooperate with us. The standing ovation they
received was well deserved. A lot of anglers showed their sympathy for Clarinda and Miranda.
After 2 very strong days, they’d both dropped off the podium. Such a shame but that is fishing, no
matter how painful it is.
Results:
Individuals: Gold: Elco Hage The Netherlands B. Silver: Harald Stochfisch Germany B. Bronze:
Stuart Jones England A.
Teams: Netherlands B took a jump from 3rd to Gold. Germany A dropped down from 1st place to
Silver. England went from 4th to Bronze thanks to 3 zone wins pushing Netherlands A back to 4th
place.
Juniors: Ove Hansen Gold, Amber van der Zande Silver.
Ladies: Miranda Koop Gold. Clarinda van der Zande Silver. Amber van der Zande Bronze.
Seniors: Paull Curtice Gold. Kim Bowden Silver. Bernd Gaidus Bronze.
