NO FEWER than three Bailiwick angling records have been broken over the last week. Shane Huxster has pushed the shore-caught standard for three-bearded rockling up to 3-1-0. He made his catch on St Peter Port breakwater, the successful bait being a legered sandeel. This is the second time this year the record has been beaten at this spot, John Dunne setting the current 2-11-4 mark in April. Needless to say, Huxster’s catch has become the first entry in the August fish of the month contest. After all the formalities were complete the fish was returned alive.

The other two new records were freshwater. David Copperwaite was fishing in a quarry when he hooked a bream that weighed 4-9-13. It had been tempted by a sweetcorn bait presented on float tackle. It easily beats the 2-6-2 current record caught by Mike Weysom in May 1997.

Visiting angler Christopher Byng has caught a 1-1-4 rudd at Les Rouvets Lake. His successful bait was a maggot/sweetcorn cocktail presented on float tackle. The rudd beats the oldest record on the freshwater list, the 0-12-14 fish caught by Laurence Howard way back in July 1984.

The standard of the Bailiwick freshwater record list continues to rise but will have to go a long way before a local fish can be submitted for a British record. As an example the national bream record is 19-10-0 and the rudd 4-10-0.

TIM FROOME has taken the lead in the West Coast Sea Angling Club’s summer league.

During July he entered three qualifying fish, a 1-2-7 red gurnard, 4-14-0 grey mullet and a 2-3-7 pout. This means he now has a total of 11 species for a score of 600.7%.

Andy Le Lerre had a great month for he entered six qualifiers which shot him up from fifth place to the runner-up spot. His fish were a 4-7-13 ballan wrasse, a 4-2-11 grey mullet, a 1-2-1 cuckoo wrasse, a 2-9-9 pout, a 1-13-8 red gurnard and a tope for which the club award a straight 25%. His total now stands at 11 species for 583.94%.

Mark Addlesee leapfrogged over Martin Mourant into third place. He also submitted six fish, a 10-3-10 pollack, 2-3-11 black bream, 1-2-3 mackerel, 1-2-11 pout, 3-5-9 ballan wrasse and a 1-1-10 cuckoo wrasse. He has, in fact, recorded the highest number of different species, but his total of 12 has a lower percentage score than the two leaders, at 524.32.

Mourant could find only three qualifiers in July, a 2-1-11 black bream, a 1-1-4 red gurnard, and a 1-0-0 cuckoo wrasse. His overall score now stands at 11 species for 482.41%.

Previous leader George Jennings had a blank month and has slumped to fifth spot.

During the month 12 members entered a total of 32 fish. It can be no surprise that Froome and Le Lerre top the summer league pairs competition with 22 species for 1,184.11%. Second are Mourant and Addlesee with 23 fish for 1,006.73%.

GILTHEAD bream and tub gurnard took the top awards in the July fish of the month competition.

Tony Ozard’s potential boat-caught record tub gurnard of 7-11-7 gave him the Shakespeare Monthly Angling Award for the top overall fish and the Tackle and Accessories Tankard for the best boat-caught specimen.

The J. Meerveld and Sons Tankard for the best shore-caught fish went to Daryl Butcher for his 3-14-2 gilthead bream, which scored 48.22%.

The two runner-up prizes of Bucktrout’s Bass beer went to Rob Jennings’ 6-4-0 boat-caught ballan wrasse 77.51% and Mark Page’s 22-0-0 boat-caught ling, 59.66%.

The Megabite Tankard for visitors went to David Woolcombe, whose 19-0-12 boat-caught ling was worth 51.65%.

The Aval du Creux Hotel award for juniors went to Leon Collenette for a 5-1-0 shore-caught pollack of 31.47%.

The only unsuccessful entry was an 18-10-4 boat-caught ling caught by Mark Page which was worth 50.55%.

The total entries for July should have been higher than the seven received. It is known that others had been prepared, including some for visitors, but the claim forms were not received by the FOM committee in time for their meeting. It is particularly galling for a number were caught fairly early in the month and there was sufficient time to get the entry in to the secretary.

PETER FRISE has won the second leg in the three-match Willmott non-championship shore series in the Guernsey Sea Anglers Club. His winning bag was one garfish, one pollack, one ballan wrasse, two black bream and nine mackerel for 12-4-0 and 106 points.

The eight-hour roving shore event attracted nine members, with seven finding fish.

The total catch consisted of 12 mackerel, five black bream, four garfish, three grey mullet, two pollack and two ballan wrasse. The competition kitty for the heaviest fish of the day went to Martin Crittell for a 3-8-0 grey mullet. Overall competition leader Mike Weysom finished second on the day, landing two grey mullet for 4-8-0 and 48 points.

As a result of the competition Weysom’s lead has been cut to 77.75 points in the Willmott overall list.

It will be interesting to see if Frise can overcome Weysom’s advantage when the last leg is fished in January.

In spite of giving the juniors a 100 point lead, the seniors ran out winners by 931.75 to 788.75 in the annual seniors v. juniors match for the Marquand Cup.

Junior Brendon Zabel had the heaviest bag of the match, his five pollack, 12 mackerel, one scad and six herring weighing 19-5-0. This gave him a £10 tackle voucher and a trophy for the best catch by a junior.

Sadly, one of the juniors failed to turn out for the match, which put the youngsters’ team at a disadvantage.

The biggest surprise of the evening was the catch of 44 herring. Peter Frise had 16, along with four pollack, seven mackerel and one garfish for 17-12-0 and 287 points, the top score of the night. Besides the herring, the 11 competitors boated 73 mackerel, 40 pollack, two scad, one bass, one garfish, one pout and one black bream.

Marks fished included the Fouquie at St Martin’s Point, marks outside Fermain and the wreck off St Peter Port Harbour.

NIGEL DU JARDIN has caught a 182-0-0 porbeagle shark.

It was tempted by a mackerel bait presented on float tackle within a mile of the Hanois Lighthouse.

It was an epic struggle for Du Jardin was fishing on his own. He fought the shark for over half-an-hour, on his 50lb BS line before he could get his catch up to the side of the boat.

His next problem was to get it on board. He finally achieved this by getting a rope around the tail.

It is almost certainly the second heaviest fish caught on rod and line in Bailiwick waters, surpassed only by Peter Rouxel’s 220-0-0 porbeagle record caught in August 1972.