TWO South Devon anglers will be representing England this weekend in the Sea Angling Liaison Committee Home International Championships.

There are competitions for seniors, youth and juniors, and Torquay's Julian Shambrook will be among the senior English team.

He will be joined by other South West anglers including Dave Chidzoy from Bridport, new cap Dave Lane from Weymouth and Rob Marshall from Taunton.

Kingsbridge's Neil Hargreaves and Portland's Jake Butcher will be part of the youth team, which is managed and coached by my wife Jo and I.

This year it is the turn of the Welsh Federation of Sea Anglers to run the event, and the teams from all the home nations will be fishing the two-day event from the beaches near Aberystwyth.

Last year the English and Welsh youth teams tied on points, and Wales took the gold on fish countback. We hope to reverse this result this year!

● WEDNESDAY saw the first big garfish come to the Paignton Sea Anglers' Association scales, caught by veteran clubman Jim Hutchins. The fish weighed 1lb 14oz 1dm.

Gordon Richards was afloat on Friday aboard Torquay charter vessel Anne Clare, where they fished a mid-channel wreck mark which produced some fine conger eels.

Gordon's conger tipped the PSAA clubhouse scales at 64lb 12oz 13dm.

On Saturday Paignton had an evening competition fishing on Brixham Breakwater, where Fran Dack took first prize with her garfish weighing in at 1lb 8oz 0dm.

Also on Saturday, John Case went out on a private boat and fished in Brixham Harbour for mullet – his best fish a golden grey of 2lb 5oz 14dm.

There was a pairs competition the following day. Mike Barnes and Karl Bennett fished a rock mark in Torbay and picked up some decent garfish, the best ones weighing 1lb 12oz 10dm by Mike, and 1lb 10oz 6dm by Karl. The pair took first prize from shore.

The boat section was won by Mike Johnson hooking a cuckoo wrasse and young Jamie Grimshaw taking an LSD of 2lb 8oz 0dm.

Junior Craig Doidge was also float-fishing another rocky mark in Torbay, and he snatched a new junior club record garfish which tipped the PSAA scales at 1lb 13oz 14dm.

This beats Keith Nathan's old record of 1lb 11oz 10dm, set in 1996.

● TORBAY & Babbacombe ASA veteran Rob Wood visited his favourite South Hams beach in broad daylight to catch several bass, bringing one to the scales weighing 8lb 2oz 14dm to his favoured peeler crab bait.

● BRIXHAM Sea Anglers Club hold the 36-hour marathon fishing race – based loosely on the 1970s BBC2 programme The Fishing Race – this weekend.

The race is from boat and shore. For more information, see the rule book or Castor Road HQ noticeboard.

The club's weekly Wednesday evening competition continues through the summer until August 26, and is open to all. Entry is £2 for adults and £1 for juniors.

On the angling front, it's been a pretty quiet week at the club. Matt Shepherd did get a couple of good garfish of 1lb 12oz 9dm and 1lb 12oz 3dm from Berry Head, but that's about it!

● THE Borough of Torbay Sea Angling Festival 2009 starts in nine weeks today, so each Friday I am putting the past winners in the column, until we reach the 2008 champion on the eve of the festival, which starts on September 4.

The 1985 winner was Bill Loxton from Paignton with a flounder from boat of 3lb 8oz, scoring 155.5 per cent specimen weight.

The following year's winner was C Prowse with a pollack from shore weighing 4lb 3oz 12dm for a 141.4 per cent specimen weight.

In 1987, regular visitor B Rutter won with a turbot from boat weighing 28lb 5oz 12dm – a 157 per cent specimen weight. Next week we'll look back on the 1988 to 1990 winners.

● BAYWATER Anglers host the Masterline Family Festival at Brixham Breakwater this weekend.

Tomorrow is a demonstration day from 9.30am to 2.30pm, while Sunday is competition day with a fantastic first prize – a sea-going kayak with two kayak rods and matching reels, one for legering or trolling with a multiplier, the other for float fishing with a fixed-spool reel.

There are plenty of other prizes too. For more information, visit the website www.seafishing4fun.org.