Following on from my post last month about my unfulfilled quest for a British Conger Club shore gold medal a few people mentioned how it would be good to see dad’s equivalent so here it is.
Dad qualified as a full member of the BCC way back in 1975 with a St Caths eel of exactly 25lb. He didn’t have long to wait for a first medal with a silver medal fish of 35-9 caught straight off the end of St Caths in 1976.
1977 was another St Cath’s fish, this time a bronze medal for an eel of 32lb. There was no medal fish in 1978 before bouncing back in 1979 with his first of 3 Jersey 40’s with a St Cath’s backwall eel of 41-8.
In 1980 it got even better, another silver with a Jersey P.B, again from the backwall of St Cath’s at 43-13.
And to add to that he also had the first ever winner of the shore conger festival with his best jersey eel from the rocks at 38-4
There was then a 10 year drought of medals mainly down to bringing up myself and my brother before getting back on the medal trail in 1990 with an another St Caths eel of 30-8.
1991 was bronze again, yet again a St Caths eel of 30-0.
1992 was bronze again, this time a rare Jersey medal off the rocks with this one of 30-14.
1993 heralded the start of a run of big fish from the other Channel Islands starting with a silver medal fish of 36-15 from the aptly named Congriere in Sark.
1994 and another Silver, this time from Alderney with an eel of 39-0
1995 and silver again from Alderney, this time 35-4, a night that saw Paul Bisson also land an eel of 34-8.
1996 and another Alderney fish but this time it’s gold. Amazingly this eel of 46-0 was caught during the Alderney angling festival and was only big enough to finish second in the conger section, an insight in to just how good the conger fishing in Alderney was at this point.
1997 and after a run of silvers it’s back to bronze with another Alderney fish of 30-0 but it was just a dip because 1998 was back to Gold with a PB and 50+ tie winning Alderney eel of 53-12 caught in a big swell and expertly gaffed by Paul Bisson. I will always remember getting the phone call just before Christmas from dad saying he had just caught a massive eel and for anyone, but particularly dad a shore 50 truly was a dream fish of a lifetime.
1999 was back to earth with a bump with an Alderney bronze medal fish of 28-5.
There was then a gap of 2 years with no medal before bouncing back with a Jersey PB from the rocks of. 41-2. I remember this night well. It was February and the weather was awful so we had found somewhere to tuck in. The swell had got really nasty even on this sheltered mark so dad moved further into the bay where he was getting pestered by dogfish. Pretty fed up he left his gear out before a proper bite. It was super shallow so when the eel surfaced it was really fresh and looked massive. I was a little weary of gaffing such a fresh fish but there were no real dramas and dad had his 3rd Jersey 40.
2003 was another bronze, this time a Sark fish of 33-8, 2004 another bronze for a Jersey fish of 28-12 which was caught in the Conger festival and was the winner, a 3rd success for dad.
2005 was another Sark fish, this time a bronze of 32-0 before a medal less year in 2006. 2007 & 2008 saw back to back Jersey silvers with eels of 37-0 & 37-4 both rock caught eels actually caught within a couple months of each other.
2009 was medal less again before a Jersey bronze of 25-0 in 2010 actually caught during the bass festival, 2011 another Jersey bronze of 30-4, this one again caught during the Conger festival but not big enough to win on this occasion.
2012 was another Jersey shore bronze, this time 33-8 which was the last medal dad won.
So a 13 year gap since a medal, when you look at dad’s Congering history that shows the decline over the last decade or so although there are signs of a little recovery fingers crossed. Dad actually goes for his first knee op next week so hopefully once they are both done he can get back out and add to his impressive medal collection.
Shore Fishing Jersey 
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