Langeland 2011

48 anglers from 6 national sections met to compete in this year’s European Species Championship from October 29 to October 31.

On Saturday the competitors arrived in the head quarter hotel Skudehavn in Rudkobing, the main city in Langeland. Anglers arrived by all means air, land and sea. Whilst our friends from Portugal and Iceland were competing for the furthest distance, admiration has to go to Yulia and Mikhail who drove all 2000km from Moscow.

The event was opened by the organizers, Thomas Reinhardt and Marcus Wuest. This was followed by the registration and the boat draws for both days. People could then register for the pairs event and the executive teams of four were drawn too.

Each angler was handed out a goodies bag with traces, a species competition cap and information material about Langeland.

On Sunday morning meeting was at 8:30am for the boats leaving at 9:00. The boats returned at 3pm to the port of Spodsbjerg harbour. In between was a demonstration by the Danish anglers as to how to catch the bigger flatfish. With a minimum size of 30cm expectation was that there would not be caught too many scoring fish. However, there were plenty of dab, plaice, flounders and even a brill caught that made the minimum size. Best catch of the day was 32 flatfish with a total of 469 being caught by all anglers. Locals Bo and Joergen measured each fish by the harbour. Each angler was also eager to swap their token for a couple of sausages and a drink to bridge the time of the measuring of the fish. Some anglers kept their catch for their own consumption others left them for the local fishery community to enter the food chain.

Word spread fast that a pirk with a trace below the pirk and the boom trace from the goodie bag above was the way to fish. This was demonstrated on the second day when the best catch of 23 was complemented by 589 fish overall. Again some fine sausages and drinks awaited the anglers.

After another round of measuring it was time for the dinner and prize giving. A brief opening speech by Marcus Wuest got proceedings under way. The dinner was a buffet with plenty of food. Despite some bigger and hungrier anglers and their partners present there was some food left over. Even though nobody was really starving anymore the apple tart and cream desert was gone in no time.

The prize giving followed with a thank you to the sponsors: Brugsen supermarket for supplying the food at the weigh-in, Hotel Skudehavn for the ladies prizes and Angelcentrum Langeland for the generous sponsorship. Another thank you went to the skippers who brought everybody over the fish.

Apart from the sponsors there was a lot of work going on in the background. Bo and Joergen measured more than 1000 fish. Maja handed out the food and drink at the weigh-in. Hans-Juergen Glaeser assisted with the scoring. Apart from Thomas and Marcus we had Herbert Schaffner and Alex Dorow performing their stewards’ duties on both days. Chris Reinhardt, Thomas’ wife assisted all round with scoring, food, kept the shop open and offered loads of moral support. A special thank you had to go to Svenja Reinhardt, Thomas’ daughter, for packing 96 portions of worms for each angler for both days. And what good quality they were.

The three top individuals were awarded pins. They were: Martin Hubert Jensen (gold), Sören Kristensens (silver) and Cees Vader (bronze). Nobody believed this to be a coincidence that all three came from Denmark. All of the top 10 were awarded prizes

This was also shown in the national team results with Denmark A taking top honours ahead of Germany A and England B.

For the other results see below.

What remains are memories of a very smooth championships. The organisers enjoyed the positive feedback many anglers gave. Most of them also indicated they would come back and bring even more anglers along next time such an event is being hosted in Langeland…

On behalf of the organisers

Marcus Wuest, November 2011

Biggest Fish awards:

National Teams

Pairs

Executive teams of four