‘Lugsy’s cafe’… the TF boys could hardly have hoped for a better day, although we’re not sure it helped the fishing….
Henry checks his hair’s in place… there are snappers about!
Sea Forum Members Shock on
July 12th doesn’t mean very much to some people but for a group of around 40 sea anglers from all around
Some months ago on this very site several posting were made concerning the excellent sport that is available at a small Holiday village called Selsey in West Sussex, where apparently it is possible to catch large numbers of hard fighting smoothhounds from the beach, giving some of the best action that our coast can provide, quickly it was decided that some of us would meet up and give it a go…..
Kent angler Ian Sweetman (also known as Crab on the Total-Fishing.com sea forum) took the challenge of organising and fellow Kent angler Dave Underwood (also known as Lugsy on the Total-Fishing.com sea forum) offered to down rods for the evening and supply all with food and hot drinks.
After many e-mails and phone calls the plans were in place and all that remained was to drive down to Selsey and see how the plans came together…
By the time I arrived around half a dozen anglers had already taken root in the local bar and as our numbers swelled to about 40 we headed off to the beach, unfortunately Total Sea Fishing ‘s editor and deputy editor, Dave Barham and Darren Taylor, had personal commitments and had to say their farewells as custom rod builder Julian Shambrook took center shingle and proceeded to enlighten the masses with advice on choosing and buying a fishing rod, Julian concluded his presentation with a surprise……a FREE custom built fishing rod paid for by his own pocket….not just any rod either ….the first prize was his very own Rubber Shark rod that was being reviewed for the mag by Barney Wright on that very day….
It must be said that there was plenty of input during the raffle buy some of Julian’s own staff and his good friend TV presenter Henry Gilbey…. who’s video’s were also raffled off along with a few other items.
The winner of the rod was forum contributor Trevor Hayman who chose a 12′ rubber shark.may it serve him well…..
The fishing however didn’t live up to expectations with only a few small fish being taken throughout the night. Catches of bream, gurnards, bass and pouting rattled the tips of the rods but alas the target fish seemed to have heard of our plans and decided not to show….. However this didn’t seem to matter a great deal and as I said my goodbyes in the early hours of the morning I couldn’t help but think what a great day it had been.
As a final note I would like to thank everyone who attended this meeting and special thankyous to some of the biggest names in sea fishing today such as big casters Roger Mortimer and Barney Wright,
Julian Shambrook and his rod building team Ian, Andy and Kelvin,
Steve Mcquire of Mola Mola,
TV presenter and writer Henry Gilbey
and Total Sea Fishing staff Dave Barham and Darren Taylor who pleasured us in their company…
Julian explains the fine points of rod selection, while Barney puts one through its paces.
… and the rod winner is, trevor Cayman. Right, dispelling rumours that the smoothhounds failed to co-operate, here’s one Jimmy Sayer sneaked in during the evening.
Many thanks to ‘crab’ for the report and pics.
