This Is Guernsey

By Len Le Page

ON REFLECTION, what can be said about this year’s fishing? The general consensus is that it was a very poor year with disappointing catches.

In general, sport was well below par with many anglers experiencing their worst ever results.

The weather compounded the problem.

For long periods windy weather made it difficult, if not impossible, to get afloat and even made shore fishing a real challenge, with anglers having to fish for long hours to get some success.

Yet, in spite of all the problems, some good catches were made, with a number of superb specimens being caught.

The results in the year’s open competitions accurately reflected the general scene with many disappointments and few successes.

The year got off to a fair start. The Mullet Open, which was won by Mike Weysom with a 5-8-11 fish, saw the total catch being just one down on the previous year.

The Bailiwick Bass Club Open results were extremely poor.

Dean Tulie won the shore section with a 9-3-2 fish, while Paul Berry took the boat section with one of 8-13-10, but catches were well down.

No 10-0-0-plus bass were caught, boat catches dropped from 33 in 2008 to 22 and shore catches fell from 22 to 17. The new kayak section failed to produce even one fish.

The choice of a smaller tide than usual may have been one cause of the decline.

The Guernsey Bass Anglers Sportfishing Society’s Festival had very mixed results.

On shore, competitors struggled to find bass with the final haul of 23 down from 32 in the previous year.

No double-figure fish were landed, the winner being Paul McLaren with an 8-14-13 fish.

The boat section was a complete contrast.

Catches rocketed up from 23 in 2008 to 55 and included 19 fish over 10-0-0.

The winner was Tom Brock with a 12-12-7 fish. Nearly all the bass were taken on the so-called French marks, with only a small minority coming from the more traditional marks.

The Alderney Festival results were also very disappointing.

In past years it was a formality that all five prize-winning places in all nine categories would be quickly filled. This year only two of the categories, grey mullet and the best specimen under five pounds, were fully subscribed.

Alderney was always a mecca for conger but only two were entered and other species were no better.

There were only one Couch’s sea bream, two ballan wrasse, two flatfish, three bass and three black bream, poor results that would never be anticipated in past years.

The WCSAC Specimen Fish Hunt also saw a fall.

It was a highly successful hard fought competition won by Billy Forman with eight species, but the number of qualifying fish fell from 180 in 2008 to 141. The number of different species landed was on a par with recent years with 19.

The GSAC Fur and Feather Open told a similar story.

Catches dropped from 167 covering six species in 2008 to 105 covering four species this year.

Tony Merrien did exceptionally well, winning both the best fish award with a 6-2-2 ballan wrasse and the heaviest catch prize with 27-8-0, the overall weight of his eight ballan wrasse catch.

One positive note was that in spite of the downturn in catches, support for the opens rose, and went up from 721 in the previous year to 746 in 2009.

It would appear that the steady decline in support for the opens that has been apparent for many years has been reversed.

Fish of the Month entries also showed a decline, dropping from 120 entries in 2008 to 105, the lowest total for at least 10 years.

But there was better news from the Phoenix Fish competition with entries being on a par with previous years.

There were six record claims in the year, which was not only the equal lowest ever, but 2009 also failed to produce any British record claims.

They did, however, include some year specimens.

The most sensational was undoubtedly the 59-0-0 sting ray caught by Richard Torode from the shore at Vennerette.

It not only filled a vacancy on the Bailiwick Record list, but broke the oldest record on the CI lists, a 41-0-0 Jersey fish that had held the shore record since 1952.

Another excellent fish was a thornback ray.

Until August 2008, the species did not appear on our lists.

The record was established by a visitor with a 12-6-2 specimen and it is ironic that this was beaten only 10 months later by Wayne Calladine’s 18-4-0 fish.

Andy Marquis filled a vacancy on the lists when he caught a 0-2-5 white bream at the Salerie.

This species first appeared in Jersey 10 years ago, with equally small specimens, but they have steadily grown larger over the years until our sister island established the British record with a 1-7-4 fish.

A 2-13-3 specimen was caught commercially in Belgrave Bay in July, so it would seem possible that Marquis’ record will be beaten in the near future.

Other records were the 1-1-3 shore-caught shore rockling by Dave Vaudin and the 6-13-12 boat-caught marbled electric ray by Marcus Odoli.

One success story of the year was the gilthead bream.

The numbers caught were modest, but many fine specimens in the 6-0-0 to 8-0-0 range were caught, topped by the new potential record fish of 8-15-6 landed by Colin Tranter near Beaucette Marina.

Red and black bream disappointed in 2009.

Prior to this year, red bream had started to make a comeback with small numbers caught on a number of deep sea marks, but this year very few were reported.

Black bream catches were lower than previous years and the average size of the bream, particularly those caught from the shore, were very modest.

Couch’s sea bream were also down in numbers, which was confirmed to a degree by the results in both the Alderney Festival and the Specimen Fish Hunt. Only one specimen was caught in each competition, fish of 2-14-12 and 1-6-10 respectively.

But the number of different bream in our waters continues to grow, for a 2-7-2 two banded bream was caught commercially.

Other species had a varied year.

Flatfish catches were down, for after a modest run in the spring, the numbers of turbot and brill were disappointing.

Mackerel were plentiful, but pollack on the inshore marks were poor.

Bass were caught early in the year at Boue Blondel, but the usual run on the Great Bank did not happen. They did well on a few more distant venues, including the so-called French Mark.

There were very few John Dory trigger fish or conger on the shore.

It will be remembered as the year when kayak fishing really became established.

A few anglers had been enjoying this form of fishing for years but there was a real surge of interest to the point where a kayak open took place in May when 31 anglers took part.

In spite of all the poor catches and the adverse weather, many anglers persevered and were rewarded with many personal bests or success in club or open competitions.

Mike Weysom won the mullet open and will win the Guernsey Mullet Club’s championship for the seventh consecutive time, and all this in a year when mullet were particularly difficult to find. Liz Dewe won the Sark AC 2008/09 championship.

Peter Frise continued his dominance in the GSAC, winning his 22nd overall title in 28 years, the shore championship for the umpteenth time and many other awards as well, and Marcus Crittell who took the junior championship.

Shane Huxster won the WCSAC overall championship for the fourth year in succession, which is a new club record, and who found the time to win the FOM tankards.

Meanwhile, George Jennings won the WCSAC Summer League by a substantial margin.

Brian Montgomery took the shore championship in GBASS for the second year following, and Paul Clark has achieved a similar result in the society’s boat championship.

Winners in the open events with all be very pleased with their achievements.

Dean Tulie, the BBC shore section winner, with a 9-3-2 bass, Paul Berry, the boat section winner with a 8-13-10 fish.

Tom Brock, the GBASS boat section winner, with a 12-12-7 bass and Paul McLaren, who won the shore section for the second year in succession with an 8-14-13 specimen.

Billy Forman took top honours in the highly competitive WCSAC’s Specimen Fish Hunt and Tony Merrien, who won both of the top awards in the GSAC Fur and Feather and won his Christmas dinner for the second year following.

St Peter Port Breakwater remained the most popular fishing spot in the Bailiwick and produced a steady stream of fish for practically the whole year.

It was the venue for the highly successful and enjoyable BBC Children’s Open, but a cloud hangs over this mark.

The problem is the anglers themselves.

Rubbish is left scattered everywhere and a number of vessels in the harbour mouth were hit by anglers’ leads as they cast out. It tried the harbour authorities’ patience to the limit, and if the bad behaviour continues, it could be closed.

Anglers must realise they can only fish the mark with the permission of the authorities. It is not their right to be able to fish it. The future depends on anglers’ behaviour next year.

The year was unusual for no angler dominated the sport, so it’s not possible to propose an ‘angler of the year.’

The Fish of the Year must be Richard Torode’s 59-0-0 shore-caught sting ray. Any fish that beats a 57-year-old Channel Island record must be special.Review of the year’s catches: Catches well down as the wind blows and blows

Article posted on 30th December, 2009 - 2.29pm