The EFSA European Shore Championship 2019 was held Wednesday 1^st May to Saturday 4^th of May 2019 from Akureyri in North Iceland with 55 anglers: 3 ladies, 1 junior, 19 seniors and 32 ordinary/annual/life members. The anglers came from 7 Sections: England (11), Germany (8), Iceland (4), Ireland (10), Netherlands (8), Scotland (6) and Wales (8).

The fishing

The Championship was a Shore Championship with unlimited amount of fish to count for points. The fish was categorized into two fish type; flatfish and round fish. The minimum size was 35 cm for Cod and Coalfish but 20 cm for other fish. A maximum of two hooks was allowed with minimum size of 14 mm. The anglers put all their fish into a bucket provided by the organizers. Then the Stewards on shore came, measured the fish and wrote down the size of the fish into the angler´s scorecard. The scores were written down on the master card at the end of each fishing day and the anglers had to sign his/her score. All fish was released. The bait was Blue eye and Mackerel.

The venue was fished from three different shores/spots: From the piers in Akureyri on the first day, from a nearby village of Hjalteyri on the second day and on the third day from Drottingarbraut nearby the center of Akureyri. The venue was fished from 5 zones: A, B, C, D and E and 11 anglers on each zone. The drawing into zones and the teams was done with a blind draw at the registration on Wednesday 1^st May. The drawing into pegs was done each day on the zones.

The winner of a zone each day was the angler with the most fish points that day. The calculation of each day result was done by adding the total running length of each angler’s fish with the number of his fish multiplied with a constant of five (Total length of fish + No. of fish x 5 = Total fish points of the day).

A total of 1183 fish were caught, 388 on the first day, 754 on the second day but only 41 fish on the third day. Fish species was Dab, Rough Dab, Cod, Wolf fish (catfish), Shorthorn sculpin, Whiting and Thorny skate.

Results

The Championship was fished to the General Rules for EFSA Shore Championships.

The winner of the Championship. If two anglers had the same total zone points for all the three fishing days then the fish points decided who was the winner. If two anglers were with the same total zone points and the same fish points, then the number of fish decided who was the winner.

EFSA European Champion 2019 was Stephen Glynn, Ireland. In the second place was Björn Hansen, Germany and in the third place was Nils Grünwald, Germany. EFSA European Lady Champion 2019 was Clarinda van der Zande, Netherlands. In the second place was Miranda Koop, Netherlands and in the third place was Ilonka Rijnberg, Netherlands.

In the Championship there were 10 A- and B National Teams, 2 from England, Ireland and Wales and one from Germany, Iceland, Netherlands and Scotland. Netherlands was in the first place, England B in the second place and Germany in the third place.

The number of 2man teams was 28 and the number of 4man teams was 14.

The longest flatfish caught was a Dab of 48 cm, angler Wilco Keur, Netherlands and the longest round fish was a Cod of 80 cm, angler Michael Schramm, Germany.

A Protest Committee of five was appointed and one protest was recorded during the Championship.

The Awards and Gala-dinner

The Prize giving ceremony and the Gala-dinner was held at the HQ hotel Kjarnalundur in Akureyri on Saturday 4^th May. The total number of prizes awarded was 57; for the first three places in the Individual, for the Lady class (1, 2 and 3 place), for the junior (1), for Life member and Senior (1, 2 and 3 place), the Two man team and Four man team (1, 2 and 3 place), for the National team of five (1, 2 and 3 place), the Executive team of four (1, 2 and 3 place), best (longest) flatfish and the best (longest) round fish.

EFSA Iceland likes to thank everybody that made this Championship become a reality; the anglers, the Stewards, the organizing Committee, the members of EFSA HQ, the sponsors, the municipality and the local people of Akureyri.

12^th May 2019.

Thorir Sveinsson, EFSA Iceland Secretary.