Nigel Bourgaize with his superb 17-5-12 boat-caught bass. (0670184)
TWO potential record fish took the main awards in the October Fish of the Month competition.
Richard Seager’s 14-3-0 boat-caught starry smooth hound scored 113.85% and gave him the Shakespeare Monthly Angling Award for the top overall specimen and the Select Decor Tankard for the best boat-caught fish.
Sam Robins won the J. Meerveld and Sons Tankard for the top shore-caught fish with his 1-12-12 twaite shad, which scored 108.49%.
It was a high scoring month as five other fish topped the 90% mark. The two runner-up prizes of Bucktrout’s Bass beers went to Shane Huxster 3-14-8 shore-caught common eel 98.81% and Peter Rihoy 1-12-15 boat-caught twaite shad 95.66%.
Ironically the Tackle Direct spot prize, which is selected by a draw involving all the entrants, also went to a 90%-plus fish, the winner being Shane Bentley with his 12-4-14 shore-caught bull huss, which was worth 92.86%.
Sympathy must be given to Nigel Bourgaize. In any other month this year his superb 17-5-12 boat-caught bass, worth 94.23%, would have given him a major prize, but with so many high-scoring specimens he was beaten back to fifth place and missed out on the awards.
The race for the Aval du Creux Hotel award for juniors ended in an amazing draw. David Dyson and Macauley Tulie both caught a 4-11-1 shore-caught ballan wrasse worth 54.07% and had to share the prize.
Unsuccessful entries were: Steve Le Cloarec, 2-9-12 shore-caught lesser-spotted dogfish, 91.38%, Steve Huxster, 7-6-12 shore-caught ballan wrasse, 85.54%, Shane Huxster, 2-9-4 shore-caught three-bearded rockling, 84.18%, Gary Bougourd, 1-10-11 boat-caught cuckoo wrasse, 79.22%, Gary Robilliard, 12-3-13 boat-caught bass, 66.43%, Matt Mahy, 36-13-1 boat-caught tope, 66.03%, Gary Robilliard, 12-0-13 boat-caught bass, 65.41%, Dave Saunders, 10-2-7 shore-caught bass, 55.19%, and Steven Torode, 9-15-0 shore-caught bass, 54.02%.
The first entry in the November competition has come from Jason Brown.
While fishing in a GSAC match on an east coast shore mark, he landed a 5-12-0 ballan wrasse on a scallop frill bait.
It will be judged against the 8-10-13 Bailiwick shore record.
WHEN the West Coast Angling Club winter league resumed after its summer break, it got off to a cracking start.
During October no fewer than 95 qualifying fish were entered by 28 members. Shane Bentley, who was third at the end of the first half of the competition, had seven qualifiers, which has given him a very narrow lead of 2.29% over previous leader Shane Huxster.
Bentley’s qualifiers were 5-8-12 starry smooth hound, 1-11-13 common eel, 1-3-6 pout, 2-0-11 golden-grey mullet, 12-4-14 bull huss 4-5-12 black bream and a 10-9-0 pollack. He now has a total of 12 qualifiers for 683.88%.
Huxster also had seven entries, 3-14-8 common eel, 1-13-11 golden grey mullet, 28-0-0 conger, 2-9-14 three-bearded rockling, 2-1-5 black bream, 11-13-0 bull huss and a 1-14-14 red mullet. His score is now 11 species for 681.59%.
The most successful competitor in October was Billy Forman who had eight qualifiers, which gave him an overall total of 13 for 650.98% and lifted him from sixth to third spot. His fish were 2-27 black bream, 4-11-6 grey mullet, 2-6-3 red mullet, 12-13-12 bull huss, 5-9-2 small-eyed ray, 1-2-5 common eel, 1-7-0 golden-grey mullet and a 2-9-13 lesser-spotted dogfish.
Fourth is now Glen Cortez with 10 qualifiers for 484.60. He had four last month, a 1-15-15 black bream, 1-13-1 golden-grey mullet, 1-6-0 three-bearded rockling and a 9-15-0 bull huss.
Steve Greenway has dropped from second to fifth with 10 qualifiers for 457.15%. His fish in October were 1-11-7 common eel, 2-3-5 lesser-spotted dogfish and a 1-9-13 golden-grey mullet.
It is equally tight at the top of the pairs championship, where Bentley and Guernsey had a lead of only 2.74% over the Huxster family, 1,141.03% to 1,138.29%.
FOR the first time this year Mike Weysom has gone to the top of the Guernsey Mullet Club championship list. He topped the catch list in October, landing eight mullet for 27-2-12, and has now gone into a narrow lead of 0-6-4 over the previous long-term leader, Paul Carre.
During the month 12 members landed a total of 35 fish. Peter Frise also did well, catching six for a total weight of 23-15-4.
The best fish of the month was a 5-11-0 specimen caught by Dave Saunders. It gave him the special October award and also the heaviest fish prize for September/October.
Glen Cortez had two in Guernsey and one in Herm for a total weight of 11-10-0. He was closely followed by Andy Fallaize who had three in Herm for 11-6-0.
Other catches were Carre who had three fish including a 4-4-0 from Herm for a 11-4-0 total, Tim Cotterill four, including two from Alderney for 10-5-0 and Tim Froome, three for 9-5-0, one of which was an Alderney fish. Sam Robins landed two for 5-5-7.
Other members with a single catch were Scott McMillan 5-1-0, Andy Le Lerre 4-8-0 and Esther Hatton with a 2-0-8 golden grey from Alderney.
PAUL CLARK is the new Guernsey Bass Anglers Sportfishing Society’s boat champion.
In October he landed fish of 6-10-0 and 4-6-0 from his kayak to take his overall total to 15 bass for 92-6-10. Mark Addlesee was second, but way back on five fish for 27-6-10.
The society’s shore championship is still going on and although Clark did not weigh in any shore-caught fish in October, he still tops the championship list with a lead of 10-6-6 over Brian Montgomery.
Montgomery had a good month. He topped the catch list with five fish for 21-15-0, his biggest specimen being one of 5-10-0 caught in Herm.
During the month eight members entered 13 fish. The biggest was a 9-1-12 bass landed by Sam Robins, which gave him the Mick’s Fishing Supplies Monthly Award, his second of the year.
The remainder of the catches were Billy Forman, 3-8-0 and 4-0-0, Dean Tulie, 7-2-0, Dan Slimm, 4-2-0, Keith Quertier, 3-12-0, Andy Marquis, 3-10-0 and Tom Brock, 3-4-0.
THE third and last leg of the West Coast Sea Angling Club’s Specimen Fish Hunt takes place at the weekend.
There is certain to be an exciting climax to the competition. Shane Bentley is in the lead, but his advantage over second-placed Dave Saunders is very small. They have both recorded seven species and Bentley is only 22.38% ahead in percentage terms.
Four other anglers are close with six species each, but realistically any of the top 20 or so competitors have a fair chance of coming through to grab top honours.
There is also the question of the £1,000 for breaking a record. Currently it is in the hands of Sam Robins, who broke the twaite shad record in round two.
Will anyone earn a share by landing a record fish in round three?
It all starts with the registration at the Brock Road Youth Centre at 5.30pm on Friday and will end at the last weigh-in at 10pm on Sunday.
If you have not entered so far, it is still worth it. There are separate prizes for the best of each species at each weekend and there’s still that share of £1,000.
Article posted on 12th November, 2008 - 2.29pm
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