SEA FISHING: Fakenham angler Jean Balls has become the first British woman to win the European Open Beach Championships, held at Bridlington. Jean has been attending this roving match with husband Ian for the last few years and good fortune was with her from the start as she won �315 on a machine in the clubhouse the night before the first match.

Fakenham angler Jean Balls has become the first British woman to win the European Open Beach Championships, held at Bridlington.

Jean has been attending this roving match with husband Ian for the last few years and good fortune was with her from the start as she won �315 on a machine in the clubhouse the night before the first match.

The European Championships is fished over two days, with individual winners on both days and an overall champion after two days in each section - senior men's, ladies, juniors and teams of four.

The luck Jean found on the eve of the match stayed with her through the Saturday, as she claimed top spot in the women's section on day one with a flounder of 370g from Bridlington beach. Following the first day win, Jean planned to return again to Bridlington on the Sunday to see if she could match Saturdays' result, and sure enough at the weigh in, Jean triumphed again with a better flounder of 385g. Ian only managed undersized flounders, dabs, whiting and coalies. It was Jean that stole the honours and a selection of top prizes to boot.

Along with the Ladies European championship trophy, Jean's haul consisted of two beach rods, a tripod, samalite headlight, anyfish anywhere rig wallet and a penn multiplier reel. Not a bad weekend's work for two flounders!

Our region has some good form in this competition. Lee Sherwood of Lowestoft finished fifth overall in this year's senior men's section and last year's competition was won outright by Dave Richardson, again of Lowestoft. It would seem East Anglian fishing styles and techniques travel well.

Sport on the region's beaches continues in the same vein as it has for the last couple of weeks, with plenty of bits and pieces off most of the venues, with an occasional good fish for good measure.

Trimingham in east Norfolk has again been the pick of the bunch with a few good bass about to 8lb. In truth they could turn up on any of the surrounding beaches at this time and I fully expect the sport to improve further as the crab moult starts in earnest.

Matt Lawes fished Trimingham in the week for a nice bass of 5lb 2oz. Following that good result he fished Trimingham again with a friend on Saturday evening who promptly landed a cracking early season bass at 7lb 8oz. There have been a few reports of dogfish and smoothound pups from Cromer to Sea Palling.

The beaches around Yarmouth have produced similar fish in similar quantities, though it would seem you have a slightly better chance of a codling off these beaches and those further south.

Occasional plaice have continued to show, with a nice one caught off Lowestoft South pier. Dunwich has also produced some nice mixed bags of small fish and I think it's fair to expect similar catches from most of if not all of our beaches.

I don't have the results of the sea league from Orford over the weekend, but have heard of a few codling landed, though I've also heard of a few top rods struggling.