FOR the second consecutive year Shane Bentley has won the West Coast Sea Angling Club’s Specimen Fish Hunt.
He started the third leg of the competition level with Dave Saunders on seven species. He increased his total to 10 by catching a 2-4-4 lesser-spotted dogfish, a 5-6-14 ballan wrasse and a 2-3-13 black bream. His overall percentage was 525.44.
It was a target too far for his nearest rivals, with four managing to finish on eight species.
Sam Robins, a previous winner of the fish hunt, had started the weekend on six.
He found a 4-2-12 grey mullet and a 2-1-0 lesser-spotted dogfish to come second on eight and 439.28%.
Shane Huxster finished third. After the first leg he had six but caught a 4-1-12 grey mullet and a 2-3-9 lesser-spotted dogfish to end on eight and 416.60%.
Fourth was Keith Quertier who landed a 5-1-1 ballan wrasse and a 10-6-1 bull huss to go up from fifth, ending with eight and 409.5%.
Saunders could find only one qualifier, a 2-0-8 lesser-spotted dogfish, and fell back to fifth with eight fish for 384.94%.
During the weekend the competitors landed 47 qualifiers covering 15 different species.
There were a number of excellent specimens.
Colin Patch landed the biggest fish, a 43-6-0 conger (pictured), and the only bass, a 6-8-0 fish.
The top two dogfish were a 10-6-1 bull huss by Quertier and a 2-4-7 lesser-spotted by Caleb Zunino.
Sam Ellis landed a superb grey mullet of 6-13-11, while Steve Greenway topped the red mullet list with a 2-2-4 specimen.
Billy Forman had a 7-5-0 small-eyed ray and Kevin Handley caught the top ballan wrasse, a fish of 6-7-0.
Some species did not come up to expectations.
Only four black bream were caught, the biggest, a modest 2-7-8 specimen by Tony Ozard.
There was only one pout, a 1-0-2 fish by Zunino.
There were no trigger fish, no Couch’s sea bream, no pollack and only three golden-grey mullet, topped by a 2-0-15 fish by Peter Taylor.
No records were broken over the weekend, so Sam Robins has hung on to the £1,000 prize for breaking the twaite shad record with a 1-12-12 specimen in round two.
There is always intense rivalry between the four-man teams in the competition. This year was no exception. The winners were Steve and Shane Huxster, Tim Cotterill and Robins with 643.79%, just 19.07% ahead of Zunino, Forman, Pierre Garrick and Quertier, who finished on 624.72%.
CYLE HOOPER has won the Guernsey Sea Anglers Club’s junior overall and shore championships, both by a big margin.
The youngsters have recently fished the last two legs in the four-match series for the Bachmann Trophy, which is basically the shore junior championship.
Both were fished on St Peter Port Breakwater. The third leg was won by Yusuf Ikirmawi, who landed six garfish for 4-0-0 and 48 points. Seven juniors entered, the total catch consisting of three pollack and 22 garfish.
Leg four was won by Samuel Luke Teed, who had two pollack and five garfish for 6-9-0 and 42.25 points. Five entered and between them they had two pollack and 22 garfish.
Hooper finished third in each match, landing five garfish on each occasion, gaining 21.25 and 23 points respectively.
In the shore championship Hooper finished with 448.5, well ahead of second placed Samuel Robert Teed, who had 356.5 points.
It was a similar story on the overall list. Hooper was top on 833.25 points, while runner-up Ikirmawi was second on 557.75 points.
The senior championship race is not yet over. They have just fished the second leg in the two-match Clark Cup series, the first leg having been fished afloat in the summer.
The winner of the cup was Joe Gomez.
He had a narrow win in that boat leg and had to do enough in the shore event to ensure victory.
During the six-hour roving shore match he caught 29 garfish and two mackerel for a weight of 17-0-0 and 138 points.
This gave him only third spot on the day but was sufficient to give him the overall honours.
Unusually, Peter Frise had a poor catch on the boat leg, finishing 24th of the 25 competitors, and although he won the shore match with 46 garfish for 25-10-0 and 220.5 points, it was not sufficient to overcome the huge gap in points between himself and Gomez on that first leg.
In fact, he finished in only third place behind John Davey.
The month attracted 10 members and eight found fish on what was a very rough afternoon.
The total catch consisted of seven black bream, one bass, one ballan wrasse, two mackerel and 155 garfish.
Jason Brown had the most desirable catch of the day.
He landed a 5-12-0 ballan wrasse, which gave him the competition kitty for the heaviest fish, a 4-8-12 bass and seven black bream for a total weight of 18-7-0 and 199.75 points, enough to give him second spot.
Frise’s win lengthened his lead at the top of both the club’s overall and shore championship lists, he being 435.25 and 392 points clear of Mike Weysom who holds the two runner-up positions.
THE first boat-caught entry in the November Fish of the Month competition has come from Colin Druce.
He was spinning with a sandeel bait at the Boue Blondel when he hooked an 11-4-9 bass, which will be assessed against the 18-6-12 Bailiwick record.
It has also become an entry in the Phoenix Fish Bass competition.
Kevin Handley has submitted his 6-7-0 ballan wrasse, caught while fishing in the Specimen Fish Hunt.
It was caught on a crab bait on the west coast and will be judged against the 8-10-13 shore record.
Results Page 42
Article posted on 19th November, 2008 - 2.29pm
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