This Is Guernsey

By Len Le Page

THE McLaren family had a highly successful time at the Guernsey Bass Anglers Sportfishing Society’s Open Festival presentation night held at the Wayside Cheer Hotel.

Father Paul won the shore section with his 8-14-13 fish, the shore pool and the pairs competition along with his son Callum. He also took the award for the top fish on the Sunday. It was the second year in succession Paul had won the shore section.

Callum won the shore section junior award with a 7-5-14 bass and finished a very credible sixth overall. In total, prizes won between them were £1,030, a Daiwa rod and reel, £75 of Boatworks+ vouchers and a 100g silver bar.

Boat section winner Tom Brock enjoyed similar success. Along with the top prize in the section, he shared the pairs award with Mark Page and won the best fish on Sunday prize. His overall winnings were £700, Daiwa rod and reel and a 100g silver bar.

Other anglers who did well were the two women who won the awards in both sections, Davina Fallaize who took the boat prize with an 8-8-6 fish and Dawn Marley who won the women’s shore award with a 7-6-6 fish. She also finished fifth overall on the shore list.

It was great to see visiting anglers participating in the event and having success.

Jersey’s Gareth Gale won the shore section visitor’s prize with a 7-5-10 fish, while he and his colleague Liam Harrison finished seventh and eighth overall.

UK angler Dave Page won the visitor’s prize in the boat section with a 11-4-8 bass and finished seventh overall in the boat list.

Local angler Neil Corbet was the only entrant to enter the shore/boat combo competition, his 14-4-8 combined weight winning him the £150 prize.

The evening was ably compered by GBASS president Brian Montgomery. He was able to report on an extremely successful festival. The weather had been good, the boat catches the best for very many years in both quality and quantity, and the 245 anglers who supported the event was the most for any Bailiwick open competition for at least 10 years.

The president considered that the format was good, with something for all the bass anglers’ preferences, and the 50-plus prizes reflected that.

Thanks were expressed to all of the GBASS committee and its members for helping to ensure the success of the festival.

There was a special mention of Andy Marquis who attended every weigh-in and ensured the latest up-to-date results appeared on the internet within an hour of the completion of the weighing formalities.

The president thanked the sponsors for their support, especially main sponsors Boatworks+, whose generosity had been exceptional and was greatly appreciated.

The one big disappointment had been the defeat by the Bailiwick Bass Club in the inter-club match by 46-12-6 to 38-14-13.

This competition, based on the top six fish by each club’s members in the shore section, has been won by the BBC in the first five years of its existence and GBASS have yet to get their name on the trophy.

The surprise of the event was the comparatively disappointing results in the shore section. Catches had dropped from 32 in 2008 to 27, and no double figure fish were caught.

In comparison the boat section catches had rocketed up to 55, which included an incredible 18 double-figure specimens.

The other disappointment was the lack of entries in the dinghy and kayak sections, with just one fish being caught in each. Mark Le Prevost won the kayak with a 4-13-0 specimen and Jean Prout the dinghy with one of 4-6-4.

Ben Mahy from Boatworks+ presented the prizes and congratulated the club on the event’s success. He promised continued support for the festival in the future.

DUE to the clash of dates with the GBASS Open Festival, only three members of the West Coast Sea Angling Club went over to Herm for their all-night match.

It was won by Steve Huxster who landed two grey mullet, biggest 3-10-0, one lesser-spotted dogfish and two conger, both weighing in excess of 25-0-0. The weight of the conger did not enhance Huxster’s points total for the club award a straight points value for conger, and lesser spotted dogfish. It all meant that his points total for the night was 171.

Shane Huxster was second with 12 lesser-spotted dogfish, one conger, one pollack and an 8-4-0 bull huss for 145.5 points.

Jack Thoume completed the catches with one lesser-spotted dogfish for three points.

Steve’s catch shot him up from sixth to second in the Herm Championship and seventh to second in the overall list.

Shane has consolidated his lead at the top of the overall championship and one from second to first on the Herm list.

Needless to say the Huxsters have built a huge lead in the Herm pairs competition.

A BIG gilthead bream has been entered in the August Fish of the Month competition.

Mark Hooper legered a peeler crab bait on an east coast shore mark and caught a 6-3-11 specimen. It will be judged against the 8-8-8 Bailiwick shore record.

Yet another bass caught during the GBASS Open Festival has become both a FOM and Phoenix Fish Bass competition entry.

It was caught by Richard Blackwell east of Sark and weighed 11-2-1. In the FOM it will be assessed against the 18-6-12 record.

August was a good month for the FOM with a surge of entries and hopefully the trend will continue with the current month.

Prizes for September are the Shakespeare monthly angling award for the top overall fish, the Fletcher’s Freesias Tankard for the best boat-caught specimen, and the J. Meerveld and Sons Tankard for the top shore fish.

There are also the two runner-up prizes of Bucktrout’s Bass beers, the Tackle Direct spot prize and the Aval du Creux Hotel junior award.

LIZ DEWE is running away with the Sark AC Championship competition. In the August all-night match, she won with four grey mullet and a scad for 11-9-0 and 63.25 points.

Her overall total is now 201, 101.5 ahead of Glyn Williams in second place. The event attracted 19 members and 12 brought fish to the scales, the total catch consisted of five grey mullet, 12 black bream, one Couch’s sea bream, one red mullet, eight scad, seven mackerel and one garfish.

Probably the best fish of the match was the 4-3-0 grey mullet landed by junior member Fletcher Guille.

Stuart Penney had eight black bream, but the biggest was the 2-9-0 fish landed by Louise Collenette.

PETER FRISE has won the second leg in the Guernsey Sea Anglers Club’s three match Willmott non-championship shore series.

Nine members entered the eight-hour roving shore event and six found fish, the total catch consisting of 25 garfish, 23 mackerel, one ballan wrasse and one grey mullet.

Frise’s winning bag was seven mackerel, one ballan wrasse, one grey mullet and 12 garfish for 15-7-0 and 133.75 points.

The competition kitty for the heaviest fish went to Mike Weysom for his mullet, which weighed 4-9-0.

Frise’s win has put him in top spot in the Willmott series with 133.75 points, 24.5 ahead of second-placed Weysom.Guernsey Bass Anglers Sportfishing Society’s Open Festival: 245 anglers attracted

Article posted on 3rd September, 2009 - 2.29pm