Prime Angling is a retailer of fishing tackle and bait located in Worthing, West Sussex, England.
The original store was opened back in 1988 by freshwater match anglers Kevin Pope and Ray Gage, the shop was officially opened by Peter Stone who was a well-known angler and friend of the legendary Richard Walker. In the early years, the shop was exclusively freshwater focused. Kevin and Rays partnership was fairly short-lived, and Ray left to pursue other interests leaving Kevin at the helm.
In 1990 Mike Perfect became Kevin’s new partner in the business, Mike joined to expand the sea fishing side of the shop, a sensible move given their location. Some years later Kevin decided to move on, and Mike continued the business on his own. Mike had help in the shop in the form of Ray White, a local character who many remember fondly following his sad passing in 2018. This team ran the shop all the way through to 2011 when the business was sold to Ally Harvey and George Cunningham. In 2017 Ally decided to move on and the shop is now owned solely by George.
On April 27th, 2019 George moved the shop to its new bigger and better location with aspirations to make the shop even better.
Worthing has always produced more than its fair share of top sea match anglers and this is reflected in the Prime Angling Team and its associated members. The original match team consisted of Mike Perfect, Alan Gilbert, Dave Rudland, Dave Butler and Terry Thomas, a team that was very successful, winning the Sussex Super League several times and went on to represent England at the World Club Championships in 2005.
Most noticeably the team’s successes came in the National Sea League with the team being crowned national champions on numerous occasions through the years making Prime Angling the most successful and highly regarded beach team in the country, here are the results since 2005.
- 2005 – 7th
- 2006 – 5th
- 2007 – 3rd
- 2008 – 3rd
- 2009 – No final was held
- 2010 – Winners
- 2011 – 4th
- 2012 – Winners
- 2013 – Winners
- 2014 – Winners
- 2015 – 3rd
- 2016 – 7th
- 2017 – 2nd
- 2018 – Winners
- 2019 – 6th
- 2020/21 – Winners
Being national champions five times in the last ten years is something we, as a shop, are incredibly proud of and emphasises the quality, dedication and hard work of the team. The current team consists of Paul “Shakey” Stevens, Colin Carey, Darren Bond, Joe Arch and Ben Arnold.
