October Review

October was a very busy month on the fishing calendar opening with the Conger Festival, ending with the Bass Festival with the Alderney Angling Festival sandwiched in between.

Opening weekend was the 47th annual shore Conger Festival, an important weekend for me as not only am I heavily involved in the organising but I always enjoy the weekend fishing with dad who was part of the original group that started the competition back in 1980.

These days for us that means both nights at St Catherine’s Breakwater which is always busy over the festival weekend with the dedicated St Cath’s section. This year the tides and conditions didn’t really suit the breakwater and the fishing was really slow, we only managed some very small eels with the best on the breakwater going to Mick le Fevre of 11lb. There were a couple of decent fish weighed in over the weekend from other marks, the best by Jose Gouveia at 24lb 4oz narrowly pipping Mark Andre at 23lb 7oz.

Story of the weekend goes to Steve Mullins. He was fishing with Leigh and after throwing in their used baits they saw an eel come up and take some off the surface. Steve reeled in, removed his weight and dropped it back in and after a few tries the eel took it and he “Stalked” the 3rd place fish of 14-4.

Next up for me was an impromptu trip for a Thin Lipped to try and get a club weigher before the weather broke. Being unplanned I had no bait so went with Isome, something I had tried a couple of times before with no success. I was only going to have a couple of hours at the most before the weather turned against me so it was now or never. About 10 minutes in I hooked what I was expecting to be a schoolie that turned out to be a small Thin Lipped, my first on the Isome that gave me some confidence. I carried on and about 15 minutes later hooked something a little better and after a few minutes beached a fish that just about made the 2lb club minimum taking me to 19 fish, just one short of my annual target of 20.

I fished on and had another fish a little smaller before it clouded over and went dead. I decided on a quick move for the last 30 minutes and had follows instantly, losing one and landing one small fish. So nothing big, but 4 fish on the Isome all with really good hook holds proving a useful substitute when you don’t have access to fresh bait.

Next up was a couple of Red Mullet sessions, the first a rock mark that only produced tiny strap conger before an easier mark with dad that produced Pout, Dogfish and strap Conger but no signs of any Red Mullet.

I then fancied a proper Conger session on the rocks. In recent years Conger trips have generally meant half fishing for Conger as you hedged your bets on maybe a Huss or a Tope but I have decided this Autumn and Winter to do a few out and out Conger sessions to see what happens. There are some very small signs of a revival and the 38 pounder I had last year has given me some encouragement. Anyway I thoroughly enjoyed the trip despite not catching anything big and I even made a little video of the session you can watch here: https://youtu.be/WBL18wT9Qg8?si=o9VVbl7qEgPyL5Sj

Earlier in the day I had popped down the harbour to catch some fresh Garfish for bait, and while doing that I chucked out a bottom rod which threw up a Dogfish, a Black Bream & a Tub Gurnard.

With the Bass festival looming, next on my to-do list was catch some local squid, a task that didn’t go well. One session around the town harbour and one session on a north coast pier and no squid. To be fair there were a lot of other anglers around and they weren’t catching either so it wasn’t just me being useless at squid fishing!

Then it was time for the Bass festival and the weather was atrocious. It was touch and go whether it would go ahead but with a small improvement forecast across the weekend it was agreed to go ahead with a slightly delayed start. While I probably should have done a low water bait session on the Friday night I just didn’t have the energy or motivation after a crazy week at work so opted for a short lure session to start which with water visibility almost nothing was unsurprisingly a waste of time.

Saturday bought torrential rain to go with the gales and big swells so I decided to do a daytime low-water session. I have to say I have never seen the water so coloured. The session was hijacked by dogfish in the shallows but just before calling it a day I finally caught a Bass, not a big one at 49cm but at least it was a weigher.

The trip then took a turn for the worse, I tripped over a submerged rock and went full in wearing chest waders leaving me soaked to the skin, my phone destroyed and my reel dunked. Not a great end to the session. That was more than enough for me so gave Saturday night a swerve.

Sunday was a little brighter but still very windy so I opted for another low water bait session. I arrived at the mark a little early in the tide and couldn’t yet get to where I wanted to fish. I set up and was going to wait for the tide to drop but as the water was so coloured I decided to chuck a bait into the lagoon I was waiting to cross despite it being super shallow. The bait had barely hit the water when the rod pulled over and when I struck the water erupted as a decent looking Bass took off. I picked up what I thought was weed but in fact turned out to be a small piece of weed with a big stone on it hanging off my grip lead which made it difficult to feel how big the fish was but it was tracking across the lagoon nicely. After a few minutes I managed to get the weed, the rock and the Bass close enough in to drag it onto the beach, not huge but a decent fish in the conditions at 63cm. A quick video on the measure and back it went, swimming straight off.

I quickly chucked another bait out and had another fish of 49 cm straight away and that was that, time to wade across and start fishing. Conditions were yet again pretty wild but I had a steady stream of bites, mainly smaller fish up to around 50cm as well as a surprise common eel.

As it happens it’s was just short of making the prize list but I was pretty pleased with it in the conditions. Amazingly considering the weather the biggest fish of the weekend was lure caught at a fraction over 69cm. Here is a full list of the winners

Next was a short worm session at what was a new mark for me. First cast I had a nice Red Mullet just under a pound and I thought I might be on to something, but then a swarm of tiny Conger destroyed every other bait that went out with the exception of one that caught a Bass about a pound and a half.

I then decided on another out and out Conger session but despite the improved weather the swell was still pretty nasty, not my favourite Conger conditions and it turned out to be a really slow session with just 1 small eel.

I thought that would be the last session of the month but I found myself with a couple of hours to spare on the final Saturday. It would be roughly 4 – 6:30pm so last light just into darkness. I couldn’t make my mind up what to do but in the end decided to try for a Ray, with the water still being really coloured I thought there was a chance on dusk. Well not much happened, small Black Bream, Dogfish and Conger but no Ray.

And that was the end of the fishing, a pretty slow month for me.

In the middle of all that was the Alderney Angling Festival, probably the biggest angling event in the Channel Islands. It’s not one I have entered since I was a kid – I think I last did it in 1988 – but over the years the list of fish caught is truly incredible. Sadly like everywhere Alderney isn’t what it once was but the event still draws a good entry of top anglers. This year was a masterclass from Steve Mullins who took the coveted best C.I.Angler weighing in 5 categories and also winning the team along with Derek, Danny and honorary Jerseyman Derek Spears.

November looks like being a busy month away from fishing for me, super busy at work and also the start of the Simply Christmas market which my wife needs help with but as always fishing will be my happy place and I will make sure to visit it as often as possible.

One final thing I want to mention before finishing this post, not really Jersey related but I don’t care!

When you have spent a lifetime fishing and following fishing originally in the angling press and then online through forums and social media there are certain people that stand out. People you look up to and respect. A lot of the famous names I grew up reading about were coarse anglers, people like John Sidley who had unbelievable dedication to catching freshwater eels.

In sea angling for me their were a few, Ricky Lambert who I had the pleasure of meeting a few years ago was one of them, one of the true pioneers of shore conger fishing who had an incredible list of big fish including three shore eels over 50lb.

Another was Martin Larkin. I remember when the British Record Conger was broken after standing for so many years. I was fascinated by the reports of what had gone in to catching that fish, it was no fluke, just someone who has set their sights on achieving it and fished relentlessly until it happened. I have never had the pleasure of meeting Martin but I follow him on Facebook like a lot of people do and his love of fishing and dedication even today is incredible. Anyone who follows him will know these days he love is fishing for Gilthead Bream and for a long time the target has been a double. Well I have just seen he has finally cracked it with a superb fish of 11lb that was safely released.

What an astonishing fish and so well deserved.

Finally Finally, I have updated my Jersey PB gallery which can now be found under the about me tag at the top right of the blog.