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CONGER GALS
CONGER GALS 2000 e hold on male domination was broken in the 2000 title chase by Maureen Walsh of Telford with an eel of 55lb 4oz taken at a wreck off Plymouth from Dave Brett’s boat, Scorpion. 2001
Between 2000 to 2004 the Conger Championships was won by women four times. Mike Millman recalls history being made in the heyday of UK conger fi shing
A year later, in the Championship draw for boat places with 120 competitors involved, Maureen again drew Dave Brett and Scorpion and on the second day of the event successfully defended her title with a fi sh of 52lb 10oz and had another of 51lb that would also have won the Championship. Bad weather ruled out the fi rst of the two days and there was still a force fi ve and a rough sea with heavy rise and fall
Maggie Jackson, the 2004 Champion, fl anked by (left) Tony Allen, runner up, and George Weller who caught sixteen eels to win the Reg Quest Memorial Trophy
Maggie Jackson beet 120 competitors in 2004 Maggie’s championship winning conger




Suzanne Martin won in 2003
on day two, making terminal tackle control diffi cult – so success didn’t come easy. It is still the only time in the 58 years of the competition a back-to-back title was achieved.
2003
In 2003 Suzanne Martin of Seaford, who had drawn Geordie Dickson and C.Cheeta, won with a superb specimen of 6lb 3oz taken at the Eddystone Reef, the biggest ever from rough ground in the Championship’s history. It became a year of note for Suzanne who was fi shing from her husband Chris’s boat Nikaria out of Newhaven when she had a whopping eel of 90lb 8oz, so getting her name on the British Conger Club’s Angling Magazine Cup, awarded for the heaviest fi sh overall.
2004
In 2004 Plymouth’s Maggie Jackson, who always went to sea in her multicoloured lucky smock, defeated another entry of 120 to win with a fi sh of 45lb 11oz. A total of 320lb were caught and a mere nine fi sh reached the scales. ere was much celebrating of Maggie’s success by members of her clubs, e Kingfi shers and the All Ladies Seagalls.
In the era of these Championships the Conger Club membership reached its zenith of close to 1,900. Germany, Holland, Belgium, and Scandinavian enthusiasts, and a remarkable number of 87 clubs, had affi liation status such was the popularity of conger fi shing. In 1999 Dave Brett anchored Scorpion over a wreck 30 miles off Plymouth that provided an eel of 115lb for Bristol’s Shaun Tromans, still rating second heaviest to Vic Evans’ record of 133lb 4oz record four years earlier. Long term readers of Sea Angler will recall these golden years of UK conger hunting and a half century on the magazine continues to entertain and enthuse anglers of many nationalities. ■


