I recently spent a fantastic afternoon in the wonderful company of Roy Newton. I took dad along with me and spent a few hours listening to Roy talking about his fishing life, life in general and the pair of them reminiscing about fishing in the 70’s and 80’s and all the characters of the day.
I’m sure Roy won’t mind me sharing with you he is now 86 years old and while he no longer fishes he honestly looks fitter than I am although he did share with me he had recently had a little fall after going up a step ladder to see to the bird feeders!
Roy had a pretty difficult start in life, born in 1939 he was sent by the Germans to a camp in Bad Wurzach in Germany from 1942 not returning to the island until 1946. It’s an amazing story for another post in the future.
He was quite a late starter to fishing, in his mid 20’s he was getting up to no good when a mate Chalky White suggested he go fishing. They went float fishing and second cast Roy managed to wrap the float around Chalky’s neck! He then went on to catch a snipe and from that point he was hooked.
As he started getting more into his fishing he started to target specimen fish and has caught some fantastic fish over the years including quite a few records along the way. In the early 70’s there was a regular crowd of anglers targeting the Undulate Rays and Conger at St Catherine’s Breakwater, along with my dad, Colin Shales and characters like Bert the Bike they would spend one weekend at St Catherine’s and often the following weekend out Elizabeth Castle fishing for Pollack. I could still hear the excitement in Roy’s voice as he described driving down St Catherine’s Hill on a Friday night seeing all the Tilley Lamps lighting up the breakwater. They had a 40 Gallon drum and would take a bag of coke and a load of Chicken legs and pork chops and spend the night down there. In Roy’s words it was like a family. When it came time to pack up normally around 5am there was no one complaining of tiredness, they would be discussing what time to go back down for the next night. Proper hardcore anglers.
Roy didn’t mess about when it came to the Undulates. His first one ever was a lifetime PB of 16-7, an incredible fish for 1975! It was just one of a number of incredible fish Roy caught including a Channel Island Record Flounder of 2-5-12 caught in 1974 from Rozel Pier, a 2-10 sole caught from the back wall of the Victoria Pier before the La Collette Marina had been built, A Jersey record shore caught Cod of 21-0 in 1983, shore caught Triggerfish record of 3-1-3 in 1991 and even the shore Black Bream record of 4-0-11 from 1975. Probably one of Roy’s most amazing catches was one of his smallest fish. In 1974 he caught a shore caught Megrim of just 2ozs 12drms, a deep water flatfish that just shows you never know what can turn up. It was identified back in the day by Ted Lawrence who used to have a fishmongers in the parade and was the local id expert of the time.
But for all these amazing fish it was Wrasse that was Roy’s true passion. I said to Roy when I went to speak with Colin Shales I always associated Colin with Undulate Ray but when I think of Roy I associate him with Wrasse. His face lit up as he described how he loved his Wrasse fishing. Roy looked like a kid again as he described to me how he can remember arriving at a mark with a bucket of hardback crab and shaking with excitement as he started fishing. It did of course help that Roy was an exceptional Wrasse angler with an impressive string of big Wrasse to his name from both Jersey and Alderney. Twice the winner of the Wrasse section in J.O.S.A.F with fish well over 6lb including a Jersey PB of 6-15 as well as a 6-6 that beat me by drams on the last morning of the comp but there’s no shame in being beaten at Wrasse by Roy. He also had a fantastic record in the Alderney Angling Festival with the Wrasse, a regular on the board for many years including his PB of 8-1, a truly immense Wrasse which incredibly came 2nd! Just shows how good Alderney really was, you catch an 8lb Wrasse and still don’t win.
Before I add some old photos Roy shared with me together with some specimen and record fish certificates I will share with you my favourite story of the afternoon. There were 4 of them that had gone out Elizabeth Castle for the night to fish for Pollack and Conger. Roy, Dad, Irish Billy Dunne & Chick Channing. This is back in the day when there was no railings on the castle. They were float fishing on the end when it got really nasty and the waves started coming over. Realising they were in trouble they hatched a plan to all hold on to the big drop net and try and make it to the bunker at the beginning of the breakwater where they would be safe until the tide dropped and they could get off. Slowly they made their way along the breakwater and eventually got into the bunker and managed to close the door where they sat and waited. A couple hours in, freezing cold Chick starts trying to sell his gear to dad, Roy & Billy as he doesn’t seem so keen on fishing any longer. He then starts trying to burn some of his clothes to generate some heat! After a while they decide to open the door and see how it’s looking, just as they do, a big wave comes over bringing with it a stone that smashes the Tilley lamp plunging them into darkness. It must have been pretty scary at the time but it was hilarious listening to dad and Roy remembering it.
I have known Roy pretty much my whole life, in fact he gave my dad my first ever push bike that had solid wheels and the first time I used it I slammed the front brakes on and went straight over the handlebars smashing my face up. I was probably about 5 years old. He is an absolute Gentleman, a fantastic angler but more importantly a fantastic bloke, so thank you Roy for a wonderful afternoon.
At a later date I hope to do another non fishing post with Roy about his time in Germany and the subsequent visits back as an adult. In the meantime here are a few old photos and certificates Roy shared with me. Enjoy.
Shore Fishing Jersey 
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