Boue Blondel bass aplenty

THE heavy catches of bass made at the Boue Blondel in the early part of the year do not seem to have had any adverse short-term effects. It had been reported that the Guernsey Bass Anglers' Sportfishing Society had enjoyed exceptionally good catches during June and, as could be seen from last week's published results, the Bailiwick Bass Club has followed suit.

Members entered 50 shore-caught bass during June. The Collenette Jones award for the heaviest went to Daryl Butcher for his 8-1-6 fish.

Paul Clark topped the catch list with nine for 43-7-8 - a weight that has rocketed him up to second in the shore championship list.

Shane Bentley is the new championship leader. His six bass for 27-1-2 added to his May catches gave him a total of 56-9-2 - 4-7-2 ahead of Clark.

The pairs championship leaders, by a big margin, are Martin Millman and Paul Clark, who have a total of 21 bass for 104-2-13.

The club is hoping that catches remain at those high levels for its bass festival weekend.

Friday will see the start of the first open event of the season.

The Quayside Marine and Leisure Bass Challenge, held in conjunction with Shakespeare Tackle and organised by the club, will run from Friday at 6pm through to 9.30pm on Monday. There will be nearly £3,000 in prizes. The top award of £1,000 will go to the captor of the heaviest shore-caught bass over the current Bailiwick record.

In both the shore and boat sections, the winner gets £400, second £200 and third £100. The fourth and fifth will receive prizes of fishing tackle.

There is a pairs competition and prizes for the heaviest bass by a woman angler, the top junior under-15 and the top junior under-11.

The event is open to all anglers, young, old, male or female, and you haven't got to be a club member to be eligible.

The central point for the open is at Bulwer Avenue, opposite Channel TV.

Registration commences at 6pm on Friday, with weigh-ins on Saturday, Sunday and Monday at 9am and 9pm.

Although omens look good for the event, the real problem, both afloat and ashore, may not be locating bass, but finding that extra-special specimen that will put the angler's name on the prize list.

One other exciting innovation this year, the two bass clubs are having their first inter-club competition based on the members' catches in the two open festivals.

THE Guernsey Freshwater Angling Society has lost its annual inter-insular match against the Jersey Freshwater Club which was fished at Danmarche in Jersey.

The fishing was disappointing, with the top individual weight being only 6-8-0, landed by Jersey's Dave Merman.

The match is decided on a points system, with the winner of each pair of anglers gaining two points and the loser just one.

Jersey anglers won six of the eight competing pairs, which meant their winning score was 14-10.

The Guernsey winners were Mark Ogier, who beat his Jersey rival 1-10-0 to 0-10-0, and Rob Foss who won 2-13-0 to 1-2-0.

Scott Wild lost by 2-15-0 to 1-13-0, Alan Bradley 2-2-0 to 0-7-8, Mark Callinswood 6-8-0 to 0-8-0, Steve Moores by 4-15-0 to 1-15-0, Darren Parrish by 2-6-0 to 0-14-0 and Paul Berryman by 2-12-0 to 1-1-0.

Jersey's total weight was 23-6-0 compared to Guernsey's 11-1-8. Fish caught during the match were roach, bream, perch and brown trout.

JON COLLENETTE has caught a big bass on a Guernsey west coast shore mark.

He free-lined a sandeel bait and was rewarded with his best ever bass, an 11-12-9 fish.

It has been entered in the July Fish of the Month competition, where it will be judged against the 18-6-5 Bailiwick shore record, and also in the Phoenix Fish Bass competition.

Collenette was absolutely delighted with his catch, but his excitement was somewhat tempered when he realised that had he waited until this coming weekend to land his fish of a lifetime, it would probably have been a winner in the Quayside Marine and Leisure Bass Challenge.

Colin Patch was also after a shore-caught bass and caught a fish heavier than Collenette's.

It was, however, a 12-10-12 bull huss that had taken his sandeel/squid cocktail bait on a Guernsey north-west coast mark. It will be assessed against the 13-14-0 shore record.

A wreck south of Guernsey produced a big black bream for Joe Gomez. His ledgered sandeel tempted a 4-15-8 specimen, which will be judged against the 6-10-8 boat record.

The bream is also a new Guernsey Sea Anglers' Club boat record, beating the previous best, a 4-14-6 fish caught by Bill Tabel way back in 1974.

LYNDON LE BILLON has won the Guernsey Sea Anglers Club's latest junior section competition - an evening boat match, the third leg in the four match Roger Cup series.

His winning catch was three pollack, one pout and two mackerel for 7-8-0 and 74 points.

The 17 youngsters were taken to marks at the Grunes of Jerbourg, the Great Bank and the harbour wreck.

Fish were much harder to find than in previous matches with the total catch consisting of 47 pollack, two pout, 13 mackerel and one garfish.

The top pollack of 6-9-0 was caught by Jack Mauger, while the heaviest pout of 2-1-0 was boated by Lyndon Le Billon.

The Salt-X awards for the top three heaviest bags went to Marcus Crittell 11-1-0, Jack Mauger 10-6-0 and Lyndon Le Billon 7-8-0.

Although Connor Brown could finish only 10th on the night, he has retained his position as the leader in the Salt-X junior championship.