SHANE HUXSTER (pictured) was undoubtedly the star at the West Coast Sea Angling Club’s annual dinner and presentation night held at the Peninsula Hotel.
Club president Sam Robins congratulated Huxster on his outstanding year. He had won the club championship for the third year in succession, which was a record for the club, the highly competitive Winter League, the Herm championship, as well as a number of other awards.
There were also words of congratulation for Tim Froome, who had won the Summer League, and Shane Bentley, who had won the Specimen Fish Hunt for the second successive year.
The president looked back over a highly successful year. Membership was well up and the fishing had generally been good, which had produced some exciting competitions. In addition, no fewer than 10 club records had been broken.
He was also pleased to announce that the club had donated £1,100 to the Wigwam charity, which gives assistance to local children who have problems, such as illness or disabilities.
A special welcome was expressed to the club’s guests Rob Houilbecq and Anelka from Mick’s Fishing Supplies, and myself and wife Joy, who went on to present the trophies to all the award winners.
WITH both membership and catches up, members were able to reflect on a successful year at the Guernsey Sea Angler’s Club’s annual general meeting held at La Villette Hotel.
The club’s success was reflected in competition secretary’s annual report. Mike Weysom was able to inform members that overall catches had gone up 19% and no fewer than 23 different species were landed.
His statistics did, however, throw up a few interesting surprises.
The general concern in 2008 had been that catches of pollack on inshore marks had seemingly been well below par, but club catches had bucked the trend by going up by 23.75%.
Mackerel catches were very unusual with identical numbers of 150 being landed from both boat and shore marks.
Herring catches slumped from 44 in 2007 to zero, black bream went up from 71 to 120, ballan wrasse were down from 89 to 44, but, conversely, cuckoo wrasse went up from 23 to 36.
It was a quiet meeting as no changes were made to either club rules, the points system or size limits.
All the club’s officers were re-elected for a further term: president Adie Sarre, vice-president Joe Gomez, secretary Martin Smith, treasurer Daniel Smith, competition secretary Weysom, boat organiser Peter Frise, and junior secretary John Davey.
Committee members Stuart and Dave Tostevin were re-elected, but Ron Harris and Martin Crittell became new committee members, replacing John Hatton and Lee Vaudin.
Ron Harris and Len Le Page were re-elected as the club’s delegates to the Bailiwick of Guernsey Record (Rod-Caught) Fish Committee.
BAILIWICK Bass Club members will enjoy an increased range of prizes in their new season, which starts on 1 March.
At their annual general meeting held at Les Rocquettes Hotel, it was decided a trophy would be awarded to the member with the best top five fish over the year.
A similar award would go to the junior member with the top three best fish. There will now be separate Bass of the Month awards for women, juniors six-to-10-years-old and juniors 11-to-15-years-old.
The Herm Cup would now be fished for over one 48-hour period and not over two legs as it was in past years.
President Daryl Butcher had reflected on a good year and thanked all the committee for the hard work done to ensure the club’s success.
All the club’s officers were re-elected: president Butcher, secretary/treasurer Jon Collenette, fixtures secretary Nigel Mahy, junior secretary Shane Branquet, fish recorder Jason Brouard and record committee delegate Nigel Mahy.
Mick Damarell was re-elected as a committee member and he was joined by two newly-elected members, Dawn Marley and Paul McLaren.
Article posted on 25th February, 2009 - 2.29pm
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