FREELANCE anglers have been finding the going tough during the past couple of weeks but there has been a couple of decent fish taken from the shoreline and by coarse anglers.

Michael Maidment recorded the pick of the bunch from the shoreline in the shape of a 2-14 flounder beached at Gravel Point situated along the south west side of Poole Harbour.

The 37-year-old labourer from Bournemouth used a large ragworm bait presented on a size 2 Aberdeen hook to tempt the specimen during the early flood and it sets a new personal best.

The pick of the coarse anglers was a 7-13 chub bagged by John McGough, caught while tackling the Throop section of the River Stour.

The Lymington club celebrated their 75th birthday with a dinner and presentation evening held at Shorefield Country Club where more than 80 members celebrated a successful year.

A huge array of silverware was awarded on the night with some of the principle winners being Bob Miness (small boat champion), Steve Batchelor (large boat champion) and Ollie Hopkins (senior shore champion).

The Durley section was the setting for a Christchurch Angling Centre midweek catch-and-release open shore competition where pout, pollack, rockling, whiting and flounders supplied limited action.

The longest fish was a 22cm flounder recorded by David Graham.

Results: 1 Lee Roberts 65 points, 2 David Graham 57, 3 Tom Bagnall 55.

Several Wessex-based anglers travelled over to Ireland for the three-day Irish Winter Beach Festival-based just north of Wexford where Chris Clark, the Echo’s sea angling consultant, was the top English angler.

During the first day Clark landed 12 flounders during the catch-and-release event to win his section and the match.

On day two he recorded 34 flounders and dabs to again win his section and the match while on the final day he took five flounders to finish sixth in his section.

In the overall classification he finished as the runner-up for the second consecutive year to collect a Waterford Crystal trophy along with pools and other prizes.

The action was pretty good for the 42 competitors who entered the first round of the pegged open Samalite League fished along the Ferry Bridge section of Chesil Beach where 28 codling along with a smattering of Pollack, pout, poor cod, dogfish, whiting, rockling, dabs and flounder were recorded. The night’s heaviest fish was a 4-14 codling bagged by Rob Marshall.

Results – A Zone: =1 Paul Titt and Terry Heartnall 4-11, 3 Michael Dawkins 3-5, 4 Dave Bennett 3-6.

B Zone: 1 Rob Marshall 18-0, 2 James Lane 15-6, 3 Dave Chidzoy 9-10, 4 Darren Stephens 8-13.

The Angling Trust Wessex Region Marine will be staging their AGM on March 28 starting at 7.30pm in the Hilary Christie room at Ringwood and District Community Centre.

The meeting is open to all AT individual members.

Dandy Ford Fishery was the setting for a Bournemouth Fishing Lodge fixture which produced a very tight finish with Ian Pulley taking the honours with 25-13.