THE FUNERAL took place in Nyborg, Denmark of Hans Clausen, 77, who suffered a stroke while on holiday in Florida.

He was flown back to Denmark but never regained consciousness.

During his 20 years of residence in Plymouth, with his wife Hannah, he had much success, notably with conger and in 1991, fishing from Bill Warner's The Mistress, set a new World and European record with a fish of 110lb 4½oz, a deserved reward for a huge amount of dedication to catching such a specimen.

A former President of the European Federation of Sea Anglers and one of the organisation's five Honorary Life Members, he attended competitions around the world and won several of the top named events.

He returned to Denmark permanently five years ago to be with his family.

Malcolm Jones of Sea Angler 11 carried a party of Welsh anglers to an offshore wreck during last Saturday's calm weather window.

It paid the dividend of several species led by a fine coalfish of 18lb taken by Andy Sams who fished an artificial.

Once common in our waters the coalfish all but disappeared a decade ago, but has been making something of a very limited return which hopefully will improve further.

It is a much superior species in fighting qualities than its cousin the pollack and being unaffected by change in water pressure is as good on the surface as in the depths.

Anglers who have not had the experience of catching this iconic species may well do so in the near future.

There is a report that a flounder of 3lb 6oz was caught by a young angler fishing at Kingsbridge last weekend.

This one followed on from Collard's 3lb 4oz and numerous others in the 2½lb-class certainly suggest Kingsbridge is now 'the' place for specimen-weight fish.

League anglers weighed in a number of specimen flatties in the penultimate heat and the forthcoming result sheet made good reading despite the poor weather that persisted throughout the event.

Plymouth Angling is staging a flounder competition this Sunday. Entries are at the shop before closing on Saturday and the weigh-in will be at Agaton Social Centre (6pm) for one hour. Entry fee is £5 for seniors and juniors.

The Plymouth Federation committee was pleased with the level of support shown for its last flounder event and another will be staged on Sunday, January 8 again based on the Morley Arms, Billacombe Road, where the weigh-in time will be 7pm-7.30pm. This has been set to allow over high water at 5.20pm to be fished. Entry forms will be in tackle shops.

There is also the choice of the annual RNLI charity competition dedicated to flounder at Teignmouth. Enter at the Lifeboat Station on the Back Beach from 8am. Weigh-in at the same place is from 3.15pm-3.45pm. Entry fee is £5. Fish for one of 10 big Christmas hampers.