Ventnor Blog

The Ventnor Angling and Social Club presents The Andy Manning Memorial Junior Open Competition.

It all takes place on Sunday 24th August and there are loads of prizes, kindly sponsored by various individuals and businesses from around the Island.

If you know someone keen on angling under the age of 16, do let them know about this competition, you never know they might be walking away with one of these great prizes.

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Many thanks to Kevin for sending through this report from the Ventnor Angling and Social Club. Ed

Kevin Mole Outboards & Chandlery Open Boat Specimen Competition hosted by Ventnor Angling and Social Club took place on Sunday 27th July.

Calm and sunny weather added competitors in last weekends specimen boat open hosted by Ventnor angling and social club allowing charters and small dinghies to fish from four harbours around the Island.

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The first leg of the Sunday league will take place this weekend at Wheelers Bay fishing from 10am until 1pm.

This pegged league with rod and reel provided is open to all at a cost of £2 fee to join the league and a sign on fee of £2 on each leg.

£1 of the sign on fee will be paid out as prizes on the day and the £2 joining fee and other £1 will go to the league sweeps for longest and heaviest fish and the overall league winners on the last leg.
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Last November, the club hosted the 22 hour open competition to help raise funds for Haylands Farm in Ryde.

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We caught up with Danny Vokins at his Bembridge pad near the start of last week and got the lowdown from him as to how he caught his now-world famous 14ft, 500 pound Thresher shark, just off St Catherine’s Point.

A highly amiable chap, he was a joy to interview, given his huge enthusiasm for the subject.

He’s dedicated a large chunk of his life to catching and caring for sharks - 35 years. He’s very particular about the sharks not being killed when they’re caught, in fact it was his insistence on this, that cost him the official record for the largest shark caught in UK waters.

He also got Bembridge Shark fishing club to change their rules, by insisting that the shark not be killed to be counted.

His preference is to catch the shark, bring it alongside the boat and tag it.

His shark exploits have been covered all over the UK media, including The Sun, Daily Express as well as the local press.

When we spoke about it, he and his wife (Sue) told me that he was complete knackered for two days after the catch - pretty reasonable when you think it took him two and a quarter hours to catch it!

It’s clear that Danny doesn’t just have the skills to snagging sharks, but has the abilities in the photo department too.

You can stay up to date with his fishing exploits by following the updates on his Site, VoFish.

Amateur fisherman and property developer, Danny Vokins has been chasing sharks for some thirty years now, so imagine his joy when he landed a whopping 500lb Thresher Shark this weekend.

With some live mackerel as bait and an 80lb line, it took Danny over two hours to land the shark. Nearby fishermen had to come to his aid to help haul the 14ft shark to the side of his boat.

Linda Reynolds, from the Shark Angling Club of Great Britain, said that had this catch been killed and weighed on land, it would certainly have broken the record for largest thresher shark to be caught in UK waters.

Danny says that he doesn’t fish for records: “I am not about killing sharks, there’s not enough of them in the ocean, so I am not bothered about any record.”

We’ll be bringing you more of the story later.

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Ventnor Angling Club are holding a 22 hour charity open competition with a first prize of £300

Starts 6pm Saturday and finishes at 4pm on Sunday - weigh-in will follow between 4.30 and 5pm at the Football Club.

Entry is £10 with an optional pairs prize entry of £2.

First prize has kindly been donated by Jamie Currie Plumbing and the Volunteer have given £50 for the first junior and laydee.

You don’t have to fish for the entire 22 hours.