Angling prize fund of up to £10,000

By Len Le Page

Last year’s winner Denis McKane with the heaviest boat-caught specimen ever recorded in a local bass festival. It weighed 16-4-3. (0481673)

AN UNPRECEDENTED prize fund is up for grabs in this year’s Guernsey Open Bass Festival.
A total value of up to £10,000 worth of prizes is available if the current Bailiwick record is broken.
Anybody who has a catch over the record will receive £5,000, while there are sums of £600 for the winners in both the shore and the boat categories.
The four-day event kicks off today and finishes on Monday.
Brian Montgomery, one of the event’s organisers, is hoping that the competition will attract more novices and take the number back up to a level that it used to reach.
‘In the past there have been as many as 500 people taking part and it is Guernsey’s most prestigious angling event,’ he said.
‘Recently, though, the numbers have dwindled and have gone down to as low as 100 at times.’
However, Montgomery believes that the last couple of years have seen the open given some much-needed impetus.
‘We have been helped out by sponsors recently and it is starting to make the event much more attractive again,’ he said.
The Guernsey Bass Anglers Sportfishing Society, the organiser of the event, is positioning a Portacabin alongside Boatworks+ on the Castle Emplacement and that will be the control point.
Registration is between 5.30-7pm today or at any of the weigh-in times, which are 8-8.30am and 8-8.30pm each day.
Over 40 prizes are up for grabs, the top one being £5,000 for the heaviest bass over the 18-6-5 shore record.
The sections are open to both seniors and juniors.
The organiser and its main sponsor, Boatworks+, are hoping for a successful competition.
Bass reports confirm that good catches have been made recently and, given good weather, it should be a prolific and exciting competition.
It is hoped catches will improve on last year’s competition when 11 shore-caught and 45 boat-caught bass were brought to the scales, including no fewer than seven over 10-0-0.
The event costs £12 to enter, or £16 for both the shore and the boat sections.

Article posted on 28th August, 2008 - 3.00pm

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