September & October Report!

Hello again, I have been a busy boy recently with fishing the Alderney Angling Festival, aswell as a few trips in Jersey :)

Going to kick this off with a Boat trip I did on Anna 2. Sam Chapon with a unusual catch a Sting Ray weighing 8lb 8oz. This was caught whilst drift fishing for Mackerel, the fish took feathers which he was bouncing off the bottom of the seabed.

The next best fish of the day was this Reef caught Conger Eel it went near 50lb.

He also had a cracking Bull Huss shortly after this one weighing 15lb :)

Lure caught Bass of around 2/3lb had first cast on White 4" Paddle Tail.

I had my first Sole of the year also, I do love catching these fish!

Alderney Angling Festival 2013

So my first time fishing the competition in Alderney and I really couldn't wait! I didn't know what to expect apart from good fishing. So we flew in on a Thursday had a night out on the Beer and gathered bait over the Friday and then the Fishing started! Mine and Leigh Mullins session was all planned out! on our first cast we both hit into Black Bream over 2lb! after around 5 Bream over 2lb - none over 3lb. It was time to do a bit of Wrassing. Literally every drop was getting a bite think we managed around 40 Wrasse each on this session. Leigh having one around 5lb...my biggest so far about 4.8. A different type of wrasse took my Crab though, a female Cuckoo Wrasse weighing 15oz. It was weighing 1lb 1oz on the scales at first. So thought I was into a weigher....wasn't keeping my hopes up though and as I had to wait like 15 Hours before weighing it in, I was expecting it to loose some weight. It went 2 Drams under anyway. Still a personal best fish so I was happy :)

So darkness soon came upon us so we both geared up for the Conger Eels, was pretty quiet to start with but Leigh soon hooked into the first one. We had 3 Congers in total all of which was caught within 30 minutes of each other, Leigh Mullins had the biggest one 26lb 6oz. This eel won Leigh first place in the Conger Category.



So we all kept on fishing very hard, with team mate Matt Smith (from Alderney) having weighed in a Pollock & Bass over 5lb our team now had 3 Fish. I tried finding myself a big Wrasse.
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So I did try nearly every day for a Big Wrasse. By the end of the week I did manage x3 Wrasse over 5lb. It was all very fun especially when getting them on the soft plastics!  I even set my self a challenge to get a Wrasse on a toy spider, which I managed first cast :)

All in all we caught something like 17 Species of fish between myself, Ross Johnson & Leigh Mullins. Leigh was unlucky with a few fish didn't quiet get on the board. Black Bream of like 2.15, Sole of 1.14 & Dogfish just 1oz shy too! Very unlucky but that's Fishing :)
Ross Johnson managed to get a Wrasse on the board weighing 6lb 7oz this was a new PB for him & he also managed his Couches Bream which he needed for his species hunt.

So the competition came to an end, I didn't manage to get a fish on the board. But I learnt a lot and am already counting down the days until I return to fish it next year :)

Since I have been back to Jersey I have done a couple of sessions, catching the smallest Red Mullet I think I will ever catch! Also had around 4 Tub Gurnard too, all being very small.

My first session back on the rocks in Jersey and I go and catch a new Personal Best Undulate Ray weighing 14lb this took a Launce Sandeel wrapped in Fresh locally caught Squid. New Personal Best Sole too weighing 1lb 9oz :) I will be focusing a bit of time on Conger Eels soon as well as a nice Bass :)

Thank you very much for taking the time to look at my Blog, until next time...tight lines :)