Throughout my fishing life I have always liked to set myself targets. I always find I’m more motivated when I’m going for something, I wouldn’t say I’m competitive but I like to challenge myself.
The main one for me has always been the Jersey Specimen list which I have talked about before but I feel I have exhausted my options with that with the only realistic way of adding to my tally a fluke fish like a Sea Trout or a Lumpsucker or a new species turning up like a Couches Bream or maybe one of the smaller Tuna species.
That has led to me looking for new targets, one of which was to catch 10 species from the shore of Jersey over 10lb.
Perhaps surprisingly my first double figure fish wasn’t a Conger but was a 15-4 Undulate Ray rather ironically caught trying to catch my first Dogfish way back in 1984 when I was aged 11.
That was followed a year later by the Conger at 23-12 in 1985.
There was then a gap of 5 years till 1990 when I added 2 more double figure species, firstly a Blonde Ray of 17-13-6
Followed by my first double figure Bass at the end of the year at 11-1-5 to take me up to 4.
There was then a decade wait to add to the tally when the Smoothounds arrived and grew a bit, my first double being a starry of 10-12 in 2000
It took me a further 7 years to finally crack the double for a common but when I did it was a cracker at 17-12.
Still only on 6 so 4 more to find. Next one wasn’t added until 2015 and a fish I had chased for many years catching loads over 9lb before finally catching a double figure Smalleyed Ray with this one of 10-12.
Next was another dream fish to catch from the shore, my first shore Tope in 2019. It wasn’t a big fish at 19-8 but boy was I pleased with it.
8 down and 2 to go, the obvious next target being a BullHuss, another fish that had eluded my over 10lb. This one came in 2020 around Covid time. I had gone to a mark to try for a Huss but there was already other anglers fishing so I took a punt and went somewhere completely new to me and it paid off with a Huss of 11-2. Funnily enough I went back the next day on the low to have a look and I was fishing right over the top of a massive head, not sure how I managed to land it.
So just one more to go and it’s also a target I need for my Jersey Specimen list a double figure Stingray.
I had already spent a lot of hours trying for this one and with it now ticking off 2 boxes for me I became a little obsessed. The day it finally happened in 2022 the weather was actually horrible. I had picked up a lot of surface weed on my line so waded out to clear it before winding in to pack up. When I got back to the rod and wound down it was on and took off like a train. When it got close in I could tell it was a double but I was probably 200 yards from dry land with no net so a very slow walk back to the beach. Then to add to the drama when I went to unhook it the tale whipped round and stung me in the leg through my heavy Guy Cotten chest waders and my jeans and it hurt like hell. I got a weight of 18-5 and a few quick photos before slipping it back and hobbling the long trek back up the beach and home before getting told to go to A & E to get it checked out. It was a great feeling to get the 10th species but it didn’t half turn into a drama.
So that was the 10 x 10 completed and half of them coming from St Catherine’s, a mark I tend to avoid despite it producing many of my best fish.
Shore Fishing Jersey 
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