IT HAS taken 35 years.

But a first-time shark fisherman has smashed the Bailiwick porbeagle record. James Allen reeled in the 295lb specimen at the weekend, knocking Peter Rouxel out of the record books.

But Mr Rouxel, 77, was not disappointed.

‘I’m delighted to hear it’s been broken after all this time,’ he said.

‘I knew there were bigger fish out there, it was just a question of who was going to claim it.

‘I gave up that sort of fishing many years ago. I’m too old for it now – it’s very strenuous work landing such a big fish.’

He said that regulations when catching game fish meant the rod could not be rested anywhere, so all the weight had to be taken on arms and shoulders.

‘You don’t land them in minutes: mine took more than an hour.’

In 1972, Mr Rouxel landed a 220lb porbeagle when fishing about six miles south-west of Les Hanois.

Mr Allen’s shark was caught just south of the lighthouse.

‘It just goes to show they are all around,’ said Mr Rouxel.

He was the trip organiser for the 30-Fathom Club.

‘We used to go out on something like six or eight trips a year, especially for shark. But you have to have the weather for it because you are out a long way.’

They went out on boats skippered by Frank Le Page and Graham Cowley.

Mr Rouxel was on board when Guernseyman Des Bougourd caught the Channel Islands porbeagle record-breaker in Jersey waters in 1969. That weighed in at 430lb when it was put on the scales in Guernsey.

‘Those days, we went out, spent the Saturday in Jersey and then fished Les Minquiers on the Sunday.’

That was where the Channel Islands record was set.

‘It can be very tedious – you could go a long way without anything.’

Most shark fishermen were after blue ones, but Mr Rouxel concentrated on fishing deeper for porbeagles.

It is about 20 years since he last went shark fishing, but he still goes out for smaller species such as bass.

Mr Rouxel has kept a photo album full of pictures of the 30-Fathom Club.