For those reading and not 'in the loop' a group from AA organised this meet today to raise money for the charity UK and International sniffer dogs.http://www.sduki.org.uk/ Recent events spurred the lads to run the event, a police search dog was injured due to the irresponsible behaviour of one of a tiny minority of ( NON -AA) anglers who left a tempting morsel on the pavement that the dog found and ate - along with a fishing hook . Thankfully the dog is well and able to return to work but we as a group felt we should show that sea anglers have a positive,proactive and responsible nature and that we can respond positively to what was a regrettable and avoidable incident and hopefully go some way to making amends to the police who really don't need to be without a search dog in this age of budget cuts and pressure to manage ever increasingly challenging policing on a shoestring.

A few weeks of planning and drum banging had preceded the meet which was held at the same venue the dog sustained its injury - Heysham Harbour North Wall - with the blessing of Adrian from the management of Peel Ports who in fairness have been very understanding and tolerant of the angling community. We hope that continued vigilance in maintaining cleanliness of the venue will allow us to continue to use and enjoy the wall which is an important and historic local venue, much needed for anglers of a certain age or infirmity as it is one of the few local venues with drive - on access so the less mobile can fish from their car boot and continue to enjoy their hobby where it would not otherwise be possible. I digress though, basically after a few weeks of pursuing Padsta Tel's idea of arranging a meet while the iron was hot so to speak we had about 35 names ' on the sheet' and were all ready to go . MUCH behind the scenes negotiating,scrounging and generousity had been involved in securing raffle prizes and much more for the meet, all that remained to do was turn up and have fun

I arrived at the North wall earlier than planned, unusual for me ! A good few were already there and parked up, a promising looking start to the turnout which can be in the air sometimes especially given the miserable foggy morning we woke up to . (after 4 hours sleep that was all that was left after the last of the food prep was taken care of !) Padsta Tel and Sharpey landed shortly after and Tel was soon 'on fire' with his array of stoves sending the great smell of early morning bacon drifting along the road. Matty arrived moments later and the setting up was soon well underway, fuelled by a nonstop stream of bacon and sausage buns hot off the stove

My wife decided it needed a woman's touch and made AA 'themed' bunting to hang along the railings around the presentation/registration area- she later claimed it had been 'handy for you lot to wipe your hands on ' ....I have no idea what you mean dear... My daughter had been set to producing dedicated event score sheets and info about the charity so anyone passing by could see what the mob of us were about this morning ! We set up centrally and Sharpey was rapidly doing brisk business as a stream of anglers arrived waving money.......................more than expected too,lads turning up to pleasure fish this morning asked to join in too so we ended up with a staggering 46 anglers fishing, something of a record for an AA meet and I'm sure everyone will tell anyone who didn't attend they missed a cracker!

Matty and I had discussed what we'd like to see the meet raise and we'd said if it made £300 we'd be pleased, 30 entries and a fiver apiece in the raffle should take care of that. 46 entries in and we were £230 to the good already

The format of the match was simple - just the biggest flatfish/round fish and shark/Ray would win a great tackle bundle prize! Fishing commenced- on full bellies with crocodile Dundee still producing the breakfast buns - at about 10 am, as soon as lads all the way along the wall had water to cast into!It wasn't long before the familiar shouts of triumph drifted along the line as the first fish began to take the baits, there seemed to be a good few fish about during the flood , with so many fishing though blanks would be inevitable ! 'Matty the flatty' was in his element, soon getting stuck into numerous dabs , often 2 at a time, Rob F the Mersey maestro and DJ Dave also among the fish. Inbetween them I had a few Dabs but nothing to trouble the scorers really, small March/April fare of 20-25cm but nice to get a few . It slacked off over high water and into the ebb before a few finally came back on the feed and tallies were added to by many.
A lot of time was spent yapping and walking back and forth and running through the time schedule for the food which my wife was providing.Paul arrived with a bag full of prizes with his young 'un, who was immediately plied with biscuits/drinks/shiny coloured fishing tackle and a lot of fuss!

The fishing sort of petered out for most and time was called about 3 pm when the rapid ebb left the pepperpot -enders without water . A quick tot up revealed what we feared - NOBODY had caught a roundfish OR Shark/Ray !! Swift thinking from Matty, a quick conflab and it was decided that in the interests of fairly allocating the prizes we would give them to the captors of the biggest of each species of flatfish that had been caught during the day. The winners were Frank (Budders) for the Plaice with a very respectable fish of 38cm, Peter (Jimsta Snr) for the Flounder with a 31cm specimen and - after a prolonged countback tie breaker to separate 2 same sized fish, Billy Codless sneaked the Dab prize by a nose ! Congratulations to the victors, hopefully your tackle bundles will find plenty of fish for you

With the presentation and pictures done the festivities rolled on apace, a HUGE raffle with stacks of prizes was first. It never ceases to amaze me the generosity of anglers in giving cracking raffle prizes and there was no change here, in fact it surpassed expectations by a mile with huge shoulders of pork,whisky,reels,rods,clothing,beer, loads and loads of tackle,books, bait pumps, headlamps.............it goes on and on and I can't thank you all enough for your amazingly generous donations for a good cause. Hopefully most of you managed to bag a prize yourself and took home a gem from somebody else We just need a pic of Grandadruss in his new hat drinking Stella from his AA mug and eating a boiled sweet What a cracking do, adding substantially to the total raised. We even had a 'drive by donation' from a kind lady who stopped to ask what the bunting was and what we were all up to in such numbers in such miserable weather on Easter Sunday

To end the day my wife landed back- eventually and after a few fraught phone calls to check her progress - with helpers and a boot full of home baking for the after meet feast To start there were Cornish Pasties & steak & veg pie with mushy peas,picked onions and beetroot, followed by home baked cakes and roulades, coffee + walnut cake,raspberry & lemon roulade & chocolate roulade..... amazing effort to knock out so much food on time to feed so many not least of all considering it entailed a 4 mile drive from the oven to the table! There wasn't even time to make a brew but I think most faces were full and a happy group of campers trouped off to their vehicles delighted with their day out. Most usually agree the fishing doesn't matter on days like this, these raffles let most people be a winner so in all it was a great success and far and away the best AA event I've attended .

It just remains to say a few thank yous . Everyone involved makes these events work,even if you just fish and buy a couple of quids' worth of raffle tickets but it couldn't have taken place without the organisers. So a huge thank you for all the running round, begging,buying and securing great prizes, midnight emails and PMs and your time and dedication in getting the first local AA meet for a while off to such a flyer. That's Matty (Jammygit) Terry (Padsta Tel) and Steve (Sharpey)- not least of all for the cake mate! .Thanksfor your stellar efforts chaps, ably supported by a cast of many.

- thanks to everyone for bringing amazingly generous raffle prizes and raising so much money for the
charity
-thanks to my wife and children for slaving over the food and making the day complete Jess for producing most of the superb paperwork that personalised the day perfectly.
- thanks to Adrian at the port for his continued support and understanding
- the dedicated lads who turned up to support , bring prizes and make donations even though they
couldn't fish
-big thanks to site sponsors Gerry's fishing for their kind donation of tackle for prizes,also fellow Morecambe tackle shop Trev's Tackle for theirs, cheers guys, your support and generousity helps make days like this possible
- Pike for a marathon run round mission to ensure Grumpypops could attend - thanks mate
- anyone else I've forgotten and I'm sure there are loads

We raised a stunning £519.11 - over five hundred quid for a fishing meet !!!! Amazing effort again guys,I'm sure the charity will be delighted and will be able to make good use of a substantial donation like this



Thanks for attending, lets not leave it so long before we do it again!!!!

A great day and well organised thanks to you and yours for all their effort it was greatly appreciated by all.
Seriously why are you not 25stone? Your wife's pies are excellent and the cakes
Billy

A fantastic summary of a truly memorable day was very proud to be an AA member today . Massive thanks to everybody that came along , fished and helped

codless wrote:Seriously why are you not 25stone? Your wife's pies are excellent and the cakes
Billy

It never stops mate, last night I had 4 bowls of 'try this' food thrust under my nose- about 1/2 a pound of food in each, even the dog crawled off to bed full to hide by the end of the night

A brilliant post Ian your family came up trumps it's great to see the young helping the old and to be so enthusiastic about it. The next AA meet can be a Jacobs join for those who doesn't know what one is,everyone brings food with them and we all share. This will take most of the expense from Blankos Mrs its a lot of work for one person.

Great report on a great day out..!!


Sharpey

Missed this one !!

What a good do .great job gang

Blanko wrote:Missed this one !!

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poor old lad beats the blank only to have two numpties take the mick only at AA

Fantastic report, great day out, many thanks to you and your family, Sharpey, Jammygit and Padsta Tel for all the hard work and organisation that must have gone on behind the scenes. Also it good to see so many caring anglers turn up for the event. Maybe we can make it a yearly Easter meet.