The pioneer of Jersey shore specimen angling.

What an absolute pleasure it was to spend an afternoon in the company of Colin Shales, probably the first person to target specimen fish from the shore in Jersey. I took dad with me and listening to the two of them talking about their memories of fishing St Catherine’s during the 60’s, 70’s & 80’s and the characters of the day was just wonderful.

Colin was born in Jersey in 1934 and was evacuated to the UK with all his family in 1939 returning back to the island after the war in 1945. It wasn’t until Colin was in his early 20’s that he started fishing, so the mid 50’s. In those days most people simply fished for the table catching Pollack, Wrasse and Mackerel. Colin told me when he first started targeting bigger fish it was Conger at St Catherine’s using hand lines with bricks for weights. Back in those days there were no railings on the breakwater.

It wasn’t look before Colin progressed to cane rods and reels made by Intrepid and Mitchell and started targeting bigger Conger and Undulate Rays. Colin soon became the master of the Undulates and caught many cracking Rays before breaking the British Record in 1978 with a fish of 15-12-9 which broke the existing record by 5lb. For this incredible achievement Colin won the Anglers Mail best overall performer award, and Colin and his wife were flown to London for 3 days where at a luncheon he was presented with a gold Abu Ambassadeur reel which sits proudly in his living room.

Colins family are no strangers to British records, as well as Colins British record Undulate, Colins son Martin held the British record for Marbled Electric Ray and even Colins late wife got in on the act with a British record Rockcook Wrasse, a species I have never seen caught locally.

As extraordinary as Colin’s record Ray was it was beaten by another true character of St Catherine’s and today’s record holder Ken Skinner with this fish of 17-8

Colin did go on to catch many other Undulates including a lovely personal best of 16-15-5, a massive fish by anyone’s Standards

It wasn’t just Ray that Colin could catch, he also caught plenty of big Conger, Bass, Wrasse as well as many other species. Dad often talks about a massive Conger Colin lost on the end one night, 3 times they had it in the net and 3 times it rolled out. This was Colin’s biggest eel of 35lb.

Apart from catching many incredible fish and laying the foundations for specimen hunting that we all follow Colin has also made a huge contribution to angling in Jersey and indeed to Jersey life. A member of the Jersey Sea Fishing Club and the St Catherine’s Angling Association, Colin was also one of the organisers of the Jersey Junior Sea Angling Festival more commonly known as “The Smiths.” Most of my generation and the generation after me will have fond memories of The Smiths. Colin was on the committee for the full 30 years that it ran for, some years attracting an incredible 300 kids. I remember it being packed solid, you would have a midday break where every kid was given an ice cream, a bottle of drink and a packet of crisps all sponsored by Smiths Soft Drinks hence the name. You would have Bel Royal Radio who would rig up a tannoy system along the entire length of the breakwater, St John’s ambulance in attendance and the lifeboat on patrol. It was a massive undertaking for the organisers who did a fantastic job.

Colin and his late wife Lilian are also well known for their fundraising for the RNLI. Originally Lilian would knit soft toys which they would sell on their charity stall in the car park at St Catherine’s. After Lilian passed away Colin who by his own admission can’t knit decided to continue selling shells and to date they have raised an incredible £55,000.

Here are a few more old photos to enjoy.

I hope you have enjoyed this post and these wonderful old photos as much as I enjoyed chatting with Colin. For most of us fishing today we have had people willing to show us the ropes. I was fortunate enough to have an angling mad dad who was happy to give up his time to take me. When I talk to dad about who had the time to show him it’s always Colin’s name that comes first. When I asked Colin there was no one before him targeting specimen size fish, he really was the first and for that we are all following in his footsteps.