Club members young and ‘nearly young’ have enjoyed some great sport recently, with large bags of hard fighting Smoothound sharks joining the usual ranks of fish we are fortunate to catch around our local coast. The warmer weather has produced a noticeable algal bloom, but once this subsides, the summer fishing should kick-off in earnest. Results of recent competitions were as follows:

April 27, Mid Week Match: A chilly north wind promised clear water and flat conditions and so it proved. Almost everyone (Pugs?) managed to weigh-in and in the final analysis dogs, three-bearded rocks, pouting and shanny were carded. El Presidente Mike Dixon landed a tidy dog to take his third victory of the year and Jumping Paul Jenks is edging ever closer to a victory with a good bag for second.

Results were - 1. Mike Dixon, LSD, 0.845kg; 2. Paul Jenks, bag, 2.196kg; 3. Barry T, LSD, 0.837kg.

Well done to Harvey as well for weighing in and grabbing the junior dosh.

May 8, Cai Bach Beach Match: A gorgeous day and 15 lads and lasses made the trip to Cai Bach in hope of bull huss. Sunscreen and sunglasses were more in evidence than fish and it fell to Joe Pro to land a sole doggie and take the spoils. The day was unusually enjoyable despite the lack of fish. We were even spotting strange young men in Welsh Dragon boxers gently swimming in the margins to cool off, the same young man throwing numerous traces in the tide, a graceful red kite working along the beach oblivious to us humans and a gin clear almost Mediterranean quality to the water. What more could you want? Oh and Joe took the Denning Shield and quite a few quid. Well done Chunk.

May 10, Mid Week Match: Nice conditions, good humour at least at the 11 seniors and junior Harvey booking in. Everyone went to secret locations, so the bean can strings wouldn’t stretch far enough for in-match updates. Back at the weigh-in, lots of buckets suggested lots of fish and 21kg was duly added to the club’s total for the year. Plenty of our friendly dogs, a pollack, corkwing wrasse, ballan wrasse and a common smoothound were carded. Well done to Travis who took his first victory with the club and to stepson Harvey who took the junior dosh!

Results were - 1. Travis Webling, Common Smoothie, 3.450kg; 2. Ben McD, bag, 3.002kg; 3. Nev, LSD, 0.870kg. A nice little match.

May 22, Roving Match: A beautiful day, 11 anglers, 11 species, 28kg, no fish retained and a good outing for most. A group of six headed off to Fishguard to sit in the sun, while three went under the bridge and the remaining couple, Mr. and Mrs. Kendo, ambled off down the Haven. The sun shone, mini rods quivered and dogs woofed. For most, it was almost idyllic. The weigh-in and photo check confirmed that starry hound, thornback ray, codling, bass, ballan wrasse, corkwing, three-bearded rockling, shore rockling, poor cod, pollack and LSD were all landed. Travis had a particularly good day with his three dogs, codling, bass and a thornie for a 6kg plus bag. Well done sir and second place for you.

Ben and Lewis managed a 6.5kg bag to just take the top honours by four grams, with ‘Hashstash’ Roberts and ‘Foster’ Jenkins taking a well-earned third place.

1. Lewis and Ben, 6.479kg; 2. Travis and Harvey, 6.475kg; 3. Hashstash and Foster, 6.296kg.

May 29, Pendine Beach Match and Inter Club with HAG: Sixteen ‘Tenbyites’, including three intrepid juniors, booked in on an idyllic evening at Pendine. Battle was joined at 5.30 pm against the invading ‘Heathens’ from across the Landsker Line and West a bit, otherwise known as the general environs of Aberdaugleddau. Once on the beach our battle wode was applied, our fighting pikes adorned with a smorsgabord of crustacean and worm-like goujons and gently lobbed seaward. Most of the battling hordes bravely ventured far East towards native Dylanland, with just a few Tenby committee staying down by the favoured graveyard of previous skirmishes, ‘The Sticks’. Only president Mike Dixon located the hounds at the ‘Sticks’, with the other committee skilfully managing to avoid them completely!

It was a fabulous night, with 75kg of smoothounds between the two groups and, for the majority, a memorable evening.

The weigh-ins were expertly concluded by Martin and Sandra for the HAG list and John and Nev for Tenby and with five prizes available on this occasion, results were - 1. Travis Webling (amazing bag of 14.109kg) (Tenby); 2. Nick Cole (HAG); 3. Haydn Cole (Tenby); 4. Tom Twose (Tenby Junior); joint 5. Brian Twose (Tenby) and Roly Adams (HAG).

All the fish were weighed, photographed and returned immediately on the beach.

In the inter-club ‘debate’... Tenby Trollopes 55.717kg, HAG Heathens 19.880kg.

May 31, Mid-Week Match, Pendine: The May bloom was very much in evidence in last week’s Mid Week Pendine match and whilst the flounders and bass are not keen on this brown/green stuff, our friendly smuts kept most of the 13 seniors and one junior active! We welcomed two new members to swell the ranks and thank goodness they came! The pressure on the beleaguered match secretary is clearly telling as for the first time ever, he forgot to bring the gate key. Thanks to Tom and Keith for getting me out of that pickle.

And so to the match, no surf and a chilly stiff northerly would normally kill catches completely, but not when the hounds are in. Up and down the beach they appeared (apart, again, from in front of Barry, Nev and Garf) and at 11 pm, lines out and back to the scales.

Another great match for most with a total of 41kg towards the club’s year-end total. New member Keith had a great bag of 9.581kg, but was pipped for the bag prize by the usual expert Haydn. Kenny B had a tidy hound of 2.530kg, but was pipped to the overall top prize by new member Tom O’Brien.

Results were - 1. Tom O’Brien, Hound, 2.680kg; 2. Haydn Cole, Bag, 11.017kg; 3. Kenny Badham, Hound, 2.530kg

Well done also to Seth Rowlands for weighing-in and snaffling the junior prize.

Thanks for reading and more information is available at any time from Nev on 07500 417737 or through the usual internet based sources.