DARYL BUTCHER had a remarkable weekend. It all started when he was fishing for bass at Pembroke. He had a ferocious bite, which almost tore the rod from his hands, and that was followed by strong resistance from the unseen fish.

When it was finally landed, it proved to be a 7-12-0 gilthead bream that had been tempted by a legered squid bait.

It was duly entered in the August fish of the month in which it will be judged against the 8-2-2 Bailiwick shore record.

A couple of evenings later he was fishing a different mark, this time on the east coast.

His legered crab was seized by a 10-14-5 bass, his first double-figure fish.

He stopped fishing and took it to be weighed on the Record Committee scales, following which he returned to continue his angling session.

He almost immediately caught a 6-1-2 bass and followed this with another gilthead bream.

That resulted in another journey to the committee’s scales to discover it weighed 8-8-8.

This easily beat that previous record of 8-2-2 caught by Bert Marquand in September 1983 at St Sampson’s Breakwater.

Not surprisingly the huge bream, almost certainly the heaviest ever caught on rod and line in the Bailiwick, and the bass have become fish-of-the-month entries.

The bass has also been entered in the Phoenix Fish Bass competition.

Strangely, Butcher’s colleague, Colin Patch, who was fishing alongside him during all the mayhem, had to be content with just a few missed bites.

The vast majority of local anglers have never caught a gilthead bream and many have never even seen one.

Butcher must have an affinity for the species for he won the J. Meerveld and Sons Tankard in July’s fish of the month contest for a 3-14-2 specimen.

STUART TOSTEVIN’S relentless march towards a grand slam of all five of the Guernsey Sea Anglers Club’s boat competitions shows no signs of abating.

He duly won the fourth boat match, once again by a big margin, to take the Roy Taylor Trophy.

His winning catch consisted of seven pollack, eight mackerel, one black bream, one scad and a bass for a weight of 19-13-0 and 190.25 points.

This was 38 clear of Daniel Smith, who finished second on the night. His catch consisted of eight pollack, which included specimens of 8-14-2 and 6-15-9, and a pout for a total weight of 31-5-0 and 152.25 points.

The event attracted 23 members who were taken out to marks at the Lower Heads and in the Big Russel for the three-hour match.

The total catch was 104 pollack, three ballan wrasse, 50 mackerel, nine pout, seven black bream, 15 scad, 10 cuckoo wrasse and one bass.

The competition kitty for the heaviest fish on each boat went to Alex Fisher (5-11-0 pollack) on Out the Blue II, Peter Frise (6-14-0 pollack) on Discovery and Peter Perrio (9-12-10 pollack) on Margaret K.

Other notable catches were John Hatton’s 1-6-13 cuckoo wrasse, Sue Le Cras’ 8-3-0 pollack, Alan Godfrey’s 1-8-0 mackerel and Martyn Smith’s 2-0-6 pout.

As a result of the match, Tostevin has built up a lead in the boat championship of a colossal 487.75 points.

With only one boat match remaining there can be no doubt he is poised to take the championship title.

The battle for the runner-up spot is wide open, for the next six anglers are covered by only 8.75 points.

LEE GILLOT needed only two grey mullet to win the West Coast Sea Angling Club’s all-night in Herm match, his catch weighing 4-12-0 to give him 59 points.

The event was very disappointing as only five members turned out and one failed to find a fish.

The total catch consisted of just 11 – two grey mullet, one bass, three lesser-spotted dogfish, two garfish and three mackerel.

The competition kitty was shared between Gillot and Steve Huxster, who had the heaviest bags. Huxster’s catch was a 3-14-0 bass.

As a result of the match, Gillot leap-frogged over Glen Cortez to take the lead in the Herm championship.

The Herm Pairs championship continues to be a two-family affair, the Huxsters leading the Torodes by 301.5 to 200.5.