2024 Review

My fishing year started with a 6am New Year’s Day start for my traditional New Year’s Day fish. Garfish was the target but I only managed 1 and a small pollack. Fortunately January improved quickly, a club weigher pouting and dogfish to get the ball rolling before a cracking session on the rocks with big baits produced conger of 20-13 & 14-8 as well as an 8lb Bullhuss.

That was followed by the Sinkers beach comp which produced some cracking Bass although the best I could manage was only 51cm. The following night I returned and managed Bass of 5-14, 5-8 & 4-6.

The rest of January was just a mix of smaller Bass, Conger and Garfish.

February for me is often the slowest month. A few trips produced Bass on the beach to around 3-8, plenty of small conger and dogfish as well as Garfish to about 1lb.

March is the start of the Sinkers Bass on measure comp, 7 rounds throughout the year with your longest Bass from each round counting. Your 2 weakest rounds are dropped with your best 5 counted for your final score. This is a really popular event locally and always fun to take part in.

The first 2 rounds were in March and were always likely to be worm baits on the beaches. Best in round 1 for me was 61cm followed up with a 57cm in round 2. A decent start.

April saw rounds 3 & 4 for the BOM, round 3 was a bit of a struggle with my best being 53cm but round 4 produced a lovely 74cm fish in pretty torrential rain which turned out to be the longest bass of the season in the BOM.

May started with some more beach bass to 59cm as well as a few Gilthead Bream but as usual for me I couldn’t find a decent Gilthead. I also spent a fair amount of time chasing an elusive Stingray with no success, I suspect my problem being too stubborn to move on from an area I’ve spent 3 years trying to work out for them. The undoubted highlight of May and indeed the whole year came on May 15th when I went to St Catherine Breakwater with dad to have a go for a Tope. It started with a lost fish on my bait rod which gave me confidence there was a chance. I then had what looked like a potential Tope enquiry on the big rods that didn’t develop, something I find happens from time to time. About 30 minutes later and another enquiry, this time after quite a while playing with it it finally took off and we had a Tope on. My Century T700 was doubled over and the line is peeling off the reel, there’s nothing else we can catch off the shore as exciting as a Tope it’s just a shame at the moment they are such a rare catch. After several runs it slowed down but felt very heavy. Once on the surface it looked decent but it’s always hard to judge on the backwall when you are so far from the water. After a bit of backwards and forwards it was in the drop net and dad was like “ you will have to help me pull this up the wall it’s bloody heavy”. Well the 2 of us struggled as the net on its own is heavy but eventually we lifted the net over the wall and could finally see my prize. I thought it was close to a new PB and once on the scales it added 1-4 to my PB at 40-4, a new Sinkers record and just short of the 60 year old local record. A few quick photos and it was safely released.

Amazingly I then cast out fresh baits and had another smaller Tope of 19-4 before losing another one. What a session!

The end of May was our first camping trip of the year to Forest view campsite in France. Here you can camp lakeside and do a bit of carp fishing while your there. First day, first cast and first fish is Finlay, the biggest carp in the lake at 40-8 and a new PB.

Unfortunately the rest of the holiday the weather and the fishing was terrible although I did manage a cracking 27-12 Grass Carp just before we gave up and came home early beaten by the rain.

June started with a few Bass off the beach in the low 50’s before another cracking session with Dad that saw him catch his first ever Stingray and his 33rd Jersey Specimen at 11-8, with myself catching a smaller one of 6-1. It’s fantastic to see Dad still excited about a new PB after more than 60 years of fishing.

The rest of June produced a few chunky bass as well as some jumbo mackerel.

July started with a fun session on the hounds. Sadly we don’t see the big fish of previous years any more but even these smaller ones up to 7-4 are good fun.

These were followed by another freezer filling session on the Mackerel which produced some proper jumbo’s to 1-4

As well as plenty of Black Bream to 1-10.

August is the start of the competition season, firstly the fun cancer relief competition as St Catherine’s Breakwater which is for the longest fish. In recent years the target is generally Conger with this years winner being around 10lb with this one of around 100cm coming second.

The end of August always marks the start of the Jersey Open Shore Angling Festival, a week long competition for multiple species which always begins August bank holiday weekend. This is my favourite of all the comps as the multi-species approach really suits me and it’s been my lucky comp over the years. This year for the first time in a long time I had the whole week off work so I was really looking forward to it. Day 1 I started on the Black Bream but only managed small fish so a change of tactics was called for and I moved to try for a Bass. After about 30 minutes I hooked a decent fish that felt like it might make the 60cm minimum size and after several long runs on the light braid it was in the net. Sadly it was about 59.5cm and just to small. Fortunately about another 30 minutes into the session I’m in again and when I slipped the net under this one I was confident it was bigger and I was right at 62cm and super fat at just under 6lb I had my first fish on the board.

Day 2 started with an unsuccessful bash for a mackerel before going back on the Black Bream. I was catching loads of small bream, as well as a Thicklipped Mullet just under 3lb and a scad before I hooked what felt like a much better bream. A few hairy moments trying to net it in a big swell and I knew it would be over the 1-8 minimum size. Back on the mackerel for an hour with no joy before going down to the weigh in with my bream going a decent 1-13-4

2 fish in 2 days is a great start and I was buzzing. Day 3 the plan was to spend the day trying for a Ballan Wrasse. Minimum size is 50cm, a tall order and I intended to move a few times through the day to try different marks. It didn’t really work out like that when 3rd drop at my first mark I had a fish of bang on 50cm.

With a fair bit of the day left I did an extremely hopeful trip for a white bream which was a blank followed by yet another bash for a Mackerel.

Day 4 and my targets are limited now with 3 species ticked off. I started for a snipe or a mackerel which only produced small fish before having a breather and then doing my first night session of the week for a Ray. Sadly Ray are very few and far between for us these days and I only managed a few strap conger.

Day 5 was another snipe/mackerel bash which produced loads but nothing near the 1lb required. This was followed by another Ray session that just produced pout and strap Conger.

Day 6 and after yet another go for a mackerel I decided to have a go for a Thick Lipped Mullet, not my strongest species and with a 54cm minimum size certainly not easy. I decided to stay away from the harbours that had been heavily fished all week and try on the rocks with the intention to ground bait and only fish if I saw a decent fish feeding. After about an hour steadily groundbaiting a couple of mullet turned up with one looking pretty decent. I resisted the urge to fish straight away and continued to ground bait to try and get them feeding confidently. Once they were really feeding I dropped my float in and hooked the better fish quite quickly. After some really strong runs and a cracking scrap on really light gear I netted a fish that looked possible and on the measure it went 55.5cm and was my 4th fish putting me in the lead.

Day 7 and I had little to target left in the day so I decided to have a rest and do a decent night session in the hope of a Conger or Bullhuss. I was unable to fish the final morning due to other commitments so this was going to be my last trip of the festival. It started with a couple of small Conger then I had a Bullhuss of 6-4. Not big enough for the 8lb minimum but always a nice fish to catch locally as we don’t get loads. Another eel about 10lb followed, well short of the 15lb minimum then I hooked into something that didn’t feel like an eel. It popped up on the surface and for some reason it looked like a small conger for me so I just traced it out only to see it was in fact a decent Bullhuss. On the scales it went 10-1 and was my 5th weigher of the week, a cracking result. It was enough to give me my 6th Jersey Open title as well as the overall points trophy. I finished 1st in the Black Bream, 2nd in the any other and 4th in the Bass, Ballan Wrasse and Mullet sections.

September my main target was a Thin Lipped Mullet. I have struggled with these a little but am gradually working it out and was optimistic of improving my PB if the weather played ball. I managed quite a few during the breaks in the weather topped off with a lovely PB of 5-5.

The end of September saw us back at Forest View Campsite for a week where yet again it rained pretty solid the whole time and was pretty miserable. The fishing was good with plenty of decent carp including Finlay again at 40-8 and another big grass carp I couldn’t weigh as my scales had succumbed to the rain.

The beginning of October saw the shore Conger Festival. This is a competition that has been running since 1980 with my dad being part of the original committee. I have run this comp with my dad for many years now and I always enjoy fishing it with him. As usual for us we spent both nights at St Catherines Breakwater with the contrast in the weather between the 2 nights unbelievable. The first night i had 7 eels to 8-12 in lovely conditions on what was a very packed breakwater. The second night the weather was atrocious and there were only a few of the maddest anglers braving it but the fishing was better and I had 9 eels to 13-1 big enough for runners up place in the St Catherines section. The Conger fishing has changed beyond recognition over the last decade locally and years ago you would need a 20+ to get amongst the prizes.

October also saw the next round of the BOM for me having missed the previous round on holiday. Having 4 fish from the early rounds the priority was to get a 5th fish but what I was really after was something big enough to take me over the 300cm mark. I decided to concentrate on bait and give the lure fishing a miss and was rewarded with a nice fish of 64cm.

The rest of October only produced bits and pieces, Black Bream to 1-7, Red Mullet to just under a pound and a Baillons Wrasse

November started with a couple of sessions for Red Mullet & Small Eyed Ray but both seem to of not turned up this year so it was just the usual Pout, small Conger , Dogfish and Black Bream.

Then it was time for the Bass festival which also happens to be the last round of the BOM. I started on the Friday night with a late night bait session which only produced small fish upto 52cm, big enough to weigh in but nothing to improve my BOM score with my smallest of 5 being 53cm and nothing likely to trouble the bass festival prize list. Saturday day time and I decided to switch to the lures which turned out to be a good move. First fish of the session was a nice 54cm which was then followed by a hard fighting 59.5cm fish and just before packing up a lovely 62cm fish. Great fun on lure gear in super shallow water. The final day I went back on the bait but only managed fish to 51cm. At the final weight in it was clear there was an awful lot of fish but I just managed to sneak into 4th place in the lure section and finished the BOM on a 5 fish total of 318cm, an average of 63.6cm and enough for first place.

November still had one last surprise to show up, on a rough night on the north coast I managed a new PB Bullhuss of 11-13, my 3rd PB of the year after not having caught one for quite a while.

The end of November weekend was also the inter club challenge match. Dad and I fished St Catherine’s Breakwater for wrasse on the Saturday and dad managed a 48cm Ballan which is just on the minimum size and was enough for 3rd place individually but more importantly contributed to another Sinkers win.

December is always a busy time at work for me which inevitably impacts how much fishing time I have but a session on the big baits hoping for a Huss produced several Conger with the best going 19-4

A few sessions trying for a Unicorn aka flounder just resulted in school Bass. Not much fishing over the Christmas break, just a nice chilled out break. Looking forward to 2025, hoping it’s as kind to me as 2024 has been.