My fishing year started as it usually does with a traditional New Year’s Day fish. This year it was a short lure session, last hour of darkness and first hour of daylight. The conditions weren’t great so I was just hoping to avoid a blank, however I did manage 3 Bass and dropped one. No monsters but a fun session to get off the mark.
Next up was a night session with big baits hoping for a Conger or Huss. As is typical these days with the amount of small eels around I had bites from the start. Second cast I had a more positive bite which felt like a slightly better fish when I wound into it. Once on the surface it looked ok so I climbed down and traced it out. A reasonable eel of 14-4.
Next cast produce a little strap but the following cast I had a proper old school Conger bite. A nice slow pull down that just keeps going. It was nice to feel a bit of resistance and a bit of weight. On the surface it looked reasonable and with the tide as it was I couldn’t get down to trace it out so I had to use the gaff, a rare event these days. I took my time and managed to get it in the chin. On the scales it went 20-8, by no means a monster but nevertheless a good eel these days. This is actually my 108th Jersey shore eel over 20lb which just shows how much our Conger fishing has changed.
One more small eel followed before I called it a night.
The next couple of trips were easy sessions on the north coast piers to try and tick a couple of species off this years club list. Amongst the hoards of dogfish I did manage a weigher Dogfish & Whiting.
Next up was the first Sinkers Sea Fishing Club competition of the year. This is a 3 hour beach comp for the longest Bass. I opted for the safe area away from the weed in the middle of the beach but unfortunately it wasn’t where the fish were and I only had 1 little one and dropped a reasonable one in the surf. The winning fish though was pretty special, a massive 13-8 Bass for Danny Le Merrer, incredibly his 10th Jersey shore double. Some achievement.
There was a silver lining to my failure though. Due to the lack of action where I was I had a fair bit of bait left so got up the next morning to have a go for a flounder. I had 1 bite, a tiny rattle that I thought was a micro bass that turned out to be a new PB Flounder of 2-14 breaking my oldest PB from 1985, 40 years ago!
I was one of the first to fish St Aubins for Flounder way back in the early 80’s. My dad was working on a mates boat so I went and fished off the pier. I didn’t catch but there was an old guy there, I think he was French using about 50lb line catching flatfish and some of them were massive. At the time we thought they were Plaice as you hardly ever heard of Flounder locally. We went back with worm the next day and I had a Flounder of 1-9 which at the time was a club record. We had it to ourselves for a couple of weeks before word got out and everyone was having a go. I can remember catching 5 in a tide and you rarely blanked back then. These days you could spend all winter there and still not get one. I have fished for them on and off over the years so it was really nice to finally break that PB.
Next session was another trip on the rocks with big baits. Still no sign of a Huss but I did have several small eels up to 12-8 and a little one that had lost the end of its tail earlier in its life.
That just left time for 1 last session, a short pier session for Garfish, topping up the bait freezer and ticking another club fish off the list
A pretty good January, I normally find February and March the slowest months but I will likely do a few Bass sessions on the beach and maybe a couple more trips for the Conger and Huss.
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