I have always set myself targets in my fishing and although some have taken many years to achieve I have normally got there in the end. The one that has escaped me and was always one of my biggest dreams was a shore gold medal for the British Conger Club preferably from Jersey.
I have been a life member of the BCC since the late 80’s. To be a full member you have to catch a qualifying eel which from the shore is 25lb. I caught my qualifier way back in 1985 aged just 11 with this fish caught in Alderney of 27lb.
You don’t get a medal for your qualifier but once a member your biggest eel of the year will win a medal with the medal weights 25lb for a bronze, 35lb for a silver and a challenging 45lb for a gold.
Conger has always been my favourite species and I can’t imagine how many hours I spend chasing that 45lb gold but despite a total of 57 over the bronze medal weight of 25lb of which 25 were over 30lb and 16 of which were over the silver medal weight of 35lb the 45 has never happened and while the recent mini revival in eels has given me a glimmer of hope it seems unlikely to happen now.
It actually took me until 1990 to win my first medal, I started with a fish bang on 25lb which I upped about a month later to 26lb before smashing my PB with what is still my Jersey PB of 41-8. I remember that fish well, it was the first time I had ever used mono for conger traces after years of using wire. I was fishing with my mate Michael who had never gaffed an eel before. He managed to nick it and somehow it stayed on the gaff. We only had weighmaster scales with us that only went up to 30lb and we had no sack to retain the eel. I took my oilskin waterproof coat off, tied the ends of the arms up and we zipped it into the coat and carried it up the cliff between us. I was on my 50cc motorbike so we had to persuade his mum to take it to be weighed for us, special memories.
1991 I made silver again with 2 over 35lb, the first on Conger gear of 35-4 and the second the 39-4 caught on bass gear described in a previous post.
1992 and it was silver again, this time a St Catherine’s Breakwater fish caught on the back wall by the rings at 35-6, this was back before the boulders had been dropped on the end and you could fish the rings on a dead nip tide before the high and just about hold bottom. Check out the length of the trace used!
1993 and my biggest from Jersey was 27-8 caught from Greve pier so my medal fish was a Sark fish and my closest to a gold yet at 44-4.
1994 and it was silver yet again with a solitaired eel which put up a really memorable battle of 38-0
I then had a gap in my fishing, busy getting married and working so I never managed a medal in 95,96 or 97 before getting back into the swing of things with a bronze medal 25-0 eel in 1998.
1999 and it was silver again, this was again a St Catherine’s Breakwater fish, this time from the last bench on the backwall at 36-4.
2000 and it was back to bronze with this one of 32-0
2001 and my medal fish came from the main harbour in Sark, caught on a fillet of wrasse on a tide so big dad managed to gaff it from the top, this one another silver at 38-8
2002 and back to Jersey and back to bronze with an early January fish of 31-8.
2003 and back to silver with my second Jersey 40 as described in a previous post in a session that also produced a 30-8.
2004 and a couple of 25’s from Jersey but my medal fish was again a Sark fish and again Silver at 36-8 from an appropriately named rockmark called Congriere.
2005 was back to Jersey and back to bronze with a 26-0, 2006 also a bronze at 27-4.
2007 and it was back to silver with a nice eel of 35-8.
2008 and I had a great autumn run of eels with fish of 28-12, 31-12, 32-12, 33-12 & this one for another silver of 37-0.
2009 and it was silver again this time with an eel of 35-0
2010 and it was back to bronze with a fish of 27-8, 2011 started with a 31-12 but ended with another silver fish of 38-8, a memorable catch as I was fishing at Sorel Point straight off the front by the life ring on my own and somehow climbed down, gaffed the eel and climbed back up. Crazy really.
At this point you were really starting to notice a change in the catches, there were still the odd big fish if you put the time in but there were nowhere near as many fish in the 15-25lb bracket.
2012 started with a 25 pounder in the Conger Festival that came second but my medal fish was yet another silver at 37-0, again solitaired in a big swell.
2013 was back to bronze, this time with a 28-12
2014 and Bronze again this time at 32-0, a fish I traced out without gaffing and is actually the last 30+ I have caught.
Then in 2015 my medal run came to an end with my best eel of the year just 18-4.
I did have a bronze in 2016 for an eel of 25-8 but my best in 2017 was only 21-12 before this one in 2018 from Bouley Bay Pier of 27-8 was my last medal fish
So 8 years without a medal, a few 20’s over that time but none over the 25lb minimum and the chance of that elusive gold seems to be gone but there are definitely signs of improvement and I have seen more eels in the 15-20lb bracket this year that there has been for some time and the conger festival results certainly offer some hope for the future. I certainly hope it comes back, for me there’s nothing like a night congering on the rocks.
Shore Fishing Jersey 
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