LAST week Anglesey’s castle town of Beaumaris was invaded. This day however, the invasion was made up of 160 law enforcing police officers from forces all over the United Kingdom.

They had descended upon Anglesey for their National Police Athletic Associations Boat Angling Championships.

Following a series of leagues and qualifiers held within their own force, the PAA Championships is the final date in the anglers force calendar.

This year 40 teams of four from 27 different forces from Northern Scotland to southern England with 3 teams from Northern Ireland all gathered to contest the honours of being the best police boat anglers in the UK.

The competition side of the event was organised by GO Angling, a Menai Bridge based company who specialise in angling trips, events and holidays.

Gethyn Owen from GO Angling speaking to TSF, said “It was a very difficult event to organise. Firstly we needed over 20 charter boats to accommodate all 160 anglers. We managed this by bringing boats in from all along the north Wales coastline, from Rhyl, Conwy, Beaumaris, Menai Bridge, Cemaes Bay, Amlwch and Y Felinheli.

Sadly the weather was against us for much of the day, with strong 25mph NW winds. Fortunately for me all skippers were more than happy to travel to Beaumaris through the strong winds and gave 110% during the day to find fish for the competing anglers.

“After two hours fishing to the east of Puffin Island on Dutchman’s bank we moved the boats into the shelter and safety of the Menai Straits. Here many anglers caught over 100 fish which included dogfish, whiting, dabs and various mini species.”

The Championships were a total success with many anglers complimenting the host force – West Midlands Police and GO Angling on a professional and well run event.

At the end of the day between the 160 anglers, they had caught a total of 8055 fish, all of which were released shortly after capture and having been marked by the on-board adjudicator.

The team event was won by the host force West Midlands Police with the overall champion also coming from the WMP – Alan Foster. Alan’s catch totalled 157 fish for 205 fish points. The presentation night was held at the Celtic Royal in Caernarfon with prizes being presented by the mayors of both Caernarfon and Beaumaris.