Freshwater team win their 'Muratti' clash

THE Guernsey Freshwater Angling Society has beaten its Jersey rivals in the annual inter-insular. It was fished in Guernsey waters on this occasion, with the 14 competing anglers spread over six different venues in the north of the island.

The anglers are paired off, with the winner of each scoring two points and the loser one.

GFAS members won five of the seven pairings and subsequently ran out winners 12-9.

Species caught during the day were rudd, tench and carp. The heaviest was the 46-12-0 landed by Scott Wild, whose catch included the biggest fish, a 13-2-0 carp.

Alan Bradley also did well, for he had the second heaviest total weight, a haul of 27-0-0.

The top Jersey catch was 14-0-0 by Greg Brown.

Sea angling inter-insulars against Jersey teams used to be common some years ago, with anglers fighting hard to get in their club team. To many it was their main aim and to achieve team selection was the highlight of the year.

Sadly, inter-insulars have largely disappeared from the scene.

n TONY OZARD and Sam Ellis have both caught an undulate ray at Banc du Nord.

They were similar in size, Ozard's weighing 11-4-1 and Ellis' 11-2-10. Both were taken on legered sandeel bait.

They have become entries in the July fish-of-the-month competition where they will be judged against the 19-6-13 Bailiwick boat record.

Very few ray are caught by local anglers even though the professional fishermen land them on a regular basis.

Ray prefer a static or slow-moving bait that would be presented from an anchored boat. They are reluctant to chase a fast moving bait and there is no doubt that ray catches would vastly improve if local anglers fished at anchor and didn't always follow the usual practice of drifting.

In this case the boat was doing so but there was little movement as it was slack water.

Stan Bienvenu has entered a shore-caught Couch's sea bream. A legered ragworm on a west coast mark produced a 2-0-8 specimen. It will be assessed against the 2-6-9 shore-caught record which was caught by Andy Gilbert on 1 November 2003.

Gilbert's fish is also the British record and must be one of the most vulnerable on the list: surely it will be beaten locally this year.

Clive Solano had a strange turbot at the Banc de la Schole. The 4-10-0 fish was completely white both sides. It even lacked the bony tubercles which are normally present on the upper side.

n LEE VAUDIN won the second leg in the Guernsey Sea Anglers Club's non-championship Will-mott shore series.

He found one pollack, three black bream and two mackerel for the day's heaviest bag 6-6-0, which gave him 70.5 points.

The eight-hour roving shore event attracted 10 members, with eight bringing fish to the scales.

The total catch consisted of 16 garfish, one pollack, one ballan wrasse, one grey mullet, 14 mackerel and three black bream.

The competition kitty for the heaviest fish went to club president Mike Weysom for his 3-10-0 grey mullet.

The result meant that Vaudin took over the top spot in the series list with 92.25 points.

There will be a long wait to discover the outcome of the competition for the third and final leg is not scheduled until January 2007.

n RICHARD KNIGHT had a runaway victory in Sark AC's July competition.

He landed one bass, two ballan wrasse and two black bream for 9-5-0 and 77.25 points.

That was well clear of second-placed Shirley Lancaster who had four ballan wrasse for 7-4-0 and 31 points.

Eleven members turned out for the six-hour roving shore event and seven bought fish to the weigh-in.

The total catch consisted of one pollack, two black bream, one bass, one Couch's sea bream, one garfish and seven ballan wrasse.

The best fish was the 2-11-0 black bream landed by Knight. His win has pushed him up to second place in the overall championship, just four points behind leader Lancaster.

n ANGLERS have two open competitions to look forward to in the first two weeks in August.

The first is the Noel Rive Children's Open organised by the Guernsey Shore Anglers' Premier Pursuers. It is scheduled for Sunday 6 August, from 2-5pm on the Castle Breakwater.

There are two competitions, one for the six to 12 year olds and the other for the 13-15 age group.

All children must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Any proceeds from the event will be donated to Les Bourgs Hospice.

Registration for the competition will commence near the entrance to the breakwater at 1.30.

The second is the Open Bass Festival organised by the Guernsey Bass Anglers Sportfishing Society. This will run from 5.30pm on Thursday 10 to 9.30pm on Sunday 13 August.

There is £2,500 of guaranteed prizes plus a £5,000 bonus prize to the top fish over the Bailiwick of Guernsey shore-caught record.

The top prize in the shore section is £400 plus a silver bar worth over £300, while the best boat-caught bass will win £500.

There are runner-up awards for the second and third bass in each section, for the top fish by a woman, a junior and a visitor, a pairs competition and optional pools.

Registration and the subsequent weigh-ins will take place at the Salerie Corner car park.

Entries will be accepted between 5.30 and 7.30pm on the Thursday or at any of the weigh-ins. Obviously one must enter before commencing to fish.