Kayak caught record cod

WHEN Dan Richards paddled off in his kayak from Sandgate Beach near Folkestone the last thing he expected was to return a UK record holder.

Well that’s exactly what happened to the 38-year-old from Kent when he landed this superb 29lb 10oz cod and smashed his previous best by more than 20lb.

Kayak fishing is a method many anglers dare not attempt and the fact that Richards paddled a staggering two miles off-shore where he landed the giant fish in nearly 80ft of water made it even more impressive.

Fishing with two rods, Richards tempted the beast – the biggest caught from a kayak in this country - using a Pennel rig. This was held tight to the bottom with a 12oz lead and a 60lb hooklink with a size 7/0 hook baited with cuttle fish stuffed with lugworm.

“When I first struck into the fish I just thought I had snagged the bottom, because when fishing at that depth it is often hard to tell,” he told Angling Times. “But then it started stripping line off my reel and that’s when I knew it was a big fish. It was like reeling a sack of spuds up through the depths but never in my wildest dreams did I expect it to be that big,” he said.

He then had to haul his catch aboard his tiny boat and with no room aboard for the giant fish, the keen sea angler had to continue fishing with his catch lying between his legs before paddling back to shore.

“I tried putting it on the back of the boat but with all my gear it was impossible so I packed up one of the rods and carried on fishing with the other. I would have been happy to come in with a fish like that but I had to stay out longer as my friend had caught nothing and had travelled a long way to get here. Everyone has been congratulating me but it is yet to sink in” he added.
  

Record blue shark caught

This mammoth blue shark could have tipped the scales at nearly 250lb, smashing the British record in the process.

But Bob Pollard decided to release the monster specimen rather than kill it, meaning it can never be claimed.

Length and girth calculations put the shark at 248lb, well above both the long-standing 218lb British boat-caught best and the 222lb blue shark taken by Wayne Little in 2010 which was also returned alive, but the 43-year-old builder had no intention of taking the fish back to shore to be weighed.

Bob, who snared the predator while aboard the vessel Bite Adventures, out of Penzance in Cornwall, said: “There’s no way I’d murder that fish. A British record sounds nice but I wouldn’t kill a fish for it.”
The Shark Club of Great Britain member, who had a 118lb blue shark earlier this year, was out with experienced captain Chippy Chapman and a group of other anglers.

“It was a fair day out, that’s for sure,” laughed Bob.

“It didn’t really sink in at first, I just thought ‘that’s a big shark’ but when Chippy shook my hand immediately and said it was a 200lb’er I just couldn’t believe it.

“It finally hit home on the way back in when we were looking at the photos, which don’t really do it as much justice as actually seeing the beast. It’s difficult to comprehend how fat the thing was - it was so out of proportion.”

The shark, which measured 98 inches long and 45 inches around the middle, took a mackerel flapper 30ft off the bottom in 250ft of water.

Bob said: “When the reel clicked it was a long way from the boat. There’s 300yds of braid, plus backing, on the reel and after its first run I could see the knot. It was probably a good half an hour before I got it in. It put a fair old bend in the rod and I was strumming the braid like a guitar at times.”

Trevor Cozens, who photographed the capture, said: “It was an incredible fish. My personal view is that it seems a madness you have to kill a fish to claim it. You don’t in coarse fishing, as long as you’ve weighed it and got the correct witnesses. I accept there are a lot of issues with weighing a fish on a boat but maybe recording length and girth is the way forward.”

Plans for freeze on commercial sea fishing slammed

Controversial plans by a think tank to freeze commercial sea fishing in Europe for five years to allow fish stocks to return to sustainable levels have been slammed by industry experts.

The London-based New Economics Foundation argue in its report, No Catch Investment, that the suspension would generate billions of pounds in profits by 2023 and that private investment of £9.16bn would compensate fishermen and maintain boats.

It looked at 51 out of 150 commercial fish species, including hake, mackerel, whiting and Icelandic cod. Most, it said, could be restored to sustainable levels within five years, with some varieties such as certain mackerel and herring needing less than a year. However, some stocks of cod and halibut would take at least nine years to replenish, the report found.

The chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO), Barry Deas, has stated that stocks are already improving and the idea made no sense.

“On the whole, we are already moving towards maximum sustainable yields so what is the point in spending these huge amounts of money? A freeze on fishing would result in a degeneration of infrastructure and a loss of markets,” he added.

13lb 10oz bass caught off Blackpool coast

Mark Yule became the envy of many sea anglers in the UK when he boated this huge 13lb 10oz bass during a trip fishing off the Blackpool coast.

The Lancashire-based sea fishing fanatic was aboard his own boat named ‘Incentive’ when he hooked the specimen on a lure around four miles off the shore.

“The north west doesn’t make the angling press very often, but I think the bass fishing is right up there with the best of what the rest of England has to offer, provided you know where to fish and the right times to go,” said Mark, who used 20lb braided mainline and a Daiwa Kenzaki 12lb class rod to beat the fish.

Record haul of blue sharks taken off coast of Wales

The UK has once again proven its fame and crowbarred its name into game fishing history as three anglers enjoyed a haul of 57 blue sharks to 153lb.

Fishermen Chris Bett, John Beck and Paul Woodward fished mackerel hook baits aboard Andrew Alsop’s Whitewater II to tempt the razor-toothed sharks just out of Milford Haven.

Smashing the previous record of most sharks caught in a day by seven, skipper Andrew is optimistic that the record could be beaten again.

“I’ve never seen anything like it before in all my years in the business. It was as though the sea was infested with sharks. In four days at sea I had 162 blues on the boat, which just goes to show how many fish there are out there-maybe next time we’ll have 60 in one day.”

Chris and John, from Taunton in Somerset, and Oldham’s Paul Woodward, used plastic bottles as floats and size 10/0 hooks with 30-50lb class outfits to lure in the quarry.

Chris, who holds the British boat-caught record for a porbeagle shark at 484lb, ranks the session aboard the Whitewater II as one of the most exciting sessions of his life.

“The best way I can describe our trip is 10 hours of complete fishing ecstasy. I’ve been out with some good skippers in my time, but Andrew Alsop is by far the best. It’s no coincidence that it’s his boat that is responsible for so many record-breaking catches.”

Huge brace of ling banked

Two huge ling and more than three dozen big conger eels were landed during a sensational charter fishing trip out of Newhaven in Sussex last week.

Steve Garner from Fareham boated the biggest ling of the session, weighing 26lb 8oz (pictured) during the day afloat on Ocean Warrior 3, with a 21lb fish falling to fellow angler Gavin Eason of Lancing.

Both anglers presented mackerel flappers among the wreckage of a ship 200ft below the surface.

For more information on charter trips, visit www.oceanwarrior3.com 

Guernsey bass allegation: Man returns to court

The man accused of stealing a big bass from his local aquarium and entering it into a sea fishing competition appeared in court again last week.

Guernsey resident Matthew Andrew Clark pleaded guilty to falsely claiming to have caught the 13lb 13oz fish in the Bailiwick Bass Club fishing competition, but denied a charge of trespassing at the island’s aquarium on 9th July and stealing the bass.

The 29-year-old has now been released on unconditional bail until the trial, the date of which has not yet been set.

As we reported two weeks ago, Mr Clark stands accused of taking the bass, which had lived in the aquarium for more than 15 years, before entering it in the prestigious competition in a bid to win the £800 prize for the biggest fish landed. 

The scandal came to light when one of the judges recognised the stolen fish, and police were called soon afterwards.

189lb skate caught off Irish coast

Dutch angler Cornelius Plomp made the long trip to Northern Ireland in the hope of enjoying some rod-bending action, but got more than he bargained for when he landed this huge 189lb common skate.

After booking a trip aboard the Predator II charter boat, he was taken to a deep trench in the Red Bay off the coast of Northern Ireland which has a history of producing big rays.

A trio of other large skate were also landed during the same week by Cornelius, who said: “I’ve done a lot of fishing in my lifetime but this is a trip I’ll never forget.”

South Wales shark haul

This 90lb porbeagle certainly justified Andrew Griffith’s 12 hour roundtrip from his home in Canterbury, Kent to Milford Haven in South Wales.

During two days fishing aboard Andrew Alsop’s White Water II he also landed 20 blue sharks with several topping the 100lb barrier.

All of his fish came to a selection of baits including mackerel, pollack, coalfish and whiting floatfished at various depths.

He said: “The prized porbeagle was the first shark to be boated on the second day. It put up one hell of fight and the long journey was worth it for that fish alone. I’ve got another session booked with Andrew in a few weeks and I can’t wait.”

Cheat steals bass from aquarium to win match

Just how far would you go to win £800 in a fishing competition?

Probably not to the same lengths as the angler who broke into his local aquarium, stole the biggest bass which for over a decade has been its main attraction, and then weighed it in as a shore-caught winner in a four day-long bass festival.

The huge fish – a well-known character to locals on the small island of Guernsey – tipped the scales at 13lb 13oz making the audacious criminal the winner of the shore section of this year’s Bailiwick Bass Open.
But while the weighing scales worked in crook’s favour, the scales of justice certainly did not.

His daring bid for fame and fortune quickly unravelled when a local bass angler recognised the distinctive markings above the fishes’ gill plates and reported his suspicions to the club after visiting the aquarium and uncovering the theft.

“At first I just saw a massive bass and it wasn’t until the guy lifted it out of the tank to have the photos taken that I got a good look at it,” keen local angler Shane Bentley told Angling Times.

“I voiced my concerns to a few mates at the weigh-in but they just laughed and told me not to be so paranoid. I decided not to make a fuss at the time and instead popped down to the aquarium first thing in the morning.

“When I got there I was really hoping I was wrong and that the fish was still in its tank but it wasn’t, it was missing. It’s crazy someone would go to such lengths to try to win,” said 38-year-old Shane, who works for Town Savers Coal.

The Bailiwick Bass Club member voiced his suspicions to the club’s president Daryl Butcher who in turn contacted the police to report the suspicious activity.
The island’s angling grapevine quickly went into meltdown with rumours of what had been going on and it soon emerged that the supposed angler had returned to Tackledirect, site of the weigh-in, later the same evening to leave the fish with owner Rik Le Ray.

“I looked for but couldn’t find any hook marks in its mouth which I thought was strange. It wasn’t until the next morning when I got a call from Daryl telling me the fish had been stolen from the aquarium that I suspected something strange had taken place,” said Rik.

“I then got a call from the police to meet them at the aquarium, so I took the remains of the butchered fish with me,” he added.

The Aquarium also provided police with useful evidence in the form of a book by local marine biologist Sue Daly featuring photos of the fish taken 12 years ago, images which reveal identifiable scars on each flank just above the gill plates.

Owner gutted about theft…
Aquarium owner Dave Miller, 64, is understandably gutted about the theft that has deprived the Aquarium of one of its most popular attractions, a fish which has been on show since it was donated as a ‘schoolie’ by a local angler 14 or so years ago.

“I’ve fed that fish sand eels almost every day since it came to us and in that time it turned into a real character with the locals, especially the anglers,” said Dave.

“I couldn’t believe it when we discovered it missing on the Tuesday morning. It would have taken me half a day to catch it in that big tank and I still can’t imagine how the thief managed to do it between the time we shut and when he arrived at the weigh-in a few hours later,” he added.

The person who was probably most relieved the culprit was caught and charged is club president Daryl Butcher whose competition could so easily have been sullied had events not been made clear as quickly as they were.

“The club owes Shane Bentley a debt of gratitude for his astute and decisive action,” explained milkman Daryl.

“This is the first time in our 14 year history that someone has been disqualified on suspicion of cheating. What this guy did was disrespectful to the club, its members and all the other anglers participating in the event,” he said.

Former Angling Times journalist Greg Whitehead was also present at the final weigh-in where he watched the drama begin to unfold first hand.

“I’d fished the boat section and was also there to cover the event for the local paper,” said Greg.

“I witnessed the weigh-in and met and spoke to the supposed captor who told me all about how he’d fished all weekend and caught the fish just that afternoon,” he added.

- The angler’s identity has been withheld because of ongoing police investigations into fraud and burglary

Five pb's broken in one trip

Andrew Griffith smashed no less than five personal bests when he spent three memorable days aboard the boat of one of the UK’s most prolific charter skippers.

This 13lb 5oz bull huss was just one in an impressive list of specimens that included conger eels to 32lb, blonde and small eyed ray up to 13lb 8oz, plus dog fish smooth hound and spurdogs, which were all taken aboard Andrew Alsop’s White Water 11 that operates out of Penarth in Wales.

His session certainly made the eight-hour round trip from his home in Canterbury, Kent, worthwhile and his bull huss was lured with a squid hookbait on a running leger rig.

*To find out more about the fishing Andrew experienced visit: www.whitewatercharters .co.uk

World record thin-lipped mullet caught

This is the picture of the new European and world record thin-lipped mullet, caught by Cornish angler Steve Maliska last week at a weight of 7lb 3dr.

The specimen beats the previous International Game Fishing Association (IGFA) best by just 3 drams and was tempted by the species expert during a session at a local river in the Truro area of Cornwall, where he used a simple paternoster rig baited with a ‘harbour ragworm’.

“I’ve had some cracking mullet over 5lb in the past, but nothing as big as this. I have just received the IGFA world record certificate, which I can’t stop looking at! It’s such a great feeling to have broken a record.”

Record bass on the cards?

“The bass are getting bigger all around the coast – and a new British record is definitely on the cards!”

That’s the bold prediction being made by leading sea anglers after a huge 16lb 6oz specimen was landed in bumper a week which also saw dozens of double-figure fish caught and a monster specimen which would have smashed the national best caught in a trawlerman’s net.

Various marks have been producing large bass in the recent cool spring conditions, with Kent hotspot Dungeness proving by far the most prolific, throwing up the best fish of the year so far to Brian Lee. The Rye Harbour-based rod took the beast from a shore mark known locally as ‘The Point’ after it fell for lugworm presented on a three-hook flapper rig.

Other anglers getting among the big bass at the popular South East venue include Paul Hodges, who took an 11lb 8oz personal best as part of a six-fish haul, while Tonbridge Wells rod Adrian Colliver fooled a near 20lb brace during a charter boat trip off the coast.

These huge fish pale into insignificance, however, when compared to the massive 22lb 8oz bass which was entangled in a trawler’s nets out of Minnis Bay, Kent, last week – a specimen that would have obliterated the current record by almost 3lb had it been caught on rod and line.

According to experts and local anglers, there are a number of reasons why the waters off Kent have become so productive for big bass in recent years.

Seagull Fishing Tackle boss Tony Hills told AT: “The gradual increase in water temperature over the last 30 years has helped slow-growing species like bass mature faster. Also, with the crash in cod stocks over the last two decades, bass have become the top predator and they have feasted on the hordes of whiting fry and packed on the pounds. The winter just gone produced an 18lb 15oz fish, which is ounces off the record, so it shows the venue has the potential to rewrite history.”

It appears the Kent coast isn’t the only hot bass area at the moment however, with a number of big bass being reported lately from ‘surprise’ marks.

Sea Angler magazine features editor Paul Fenech has been inundated with catch reports in recent months and he said: “The record could definitely go, and with bass moving north it could come from anywhere. I’ve had reports of a brace of 13lb fish from the South West coast of Scotland – an area where they were unheard of a few years ago. Many anglers practice catch-and-release too, and this is helping the shoals regroup. There’s no doubt about it - it’s a great time to have a go for a big bass!”

Huge ray haul boated

Andrew Griffith has been trying to catch a blonde ray for three seasons and his quest finally ended in spectacular style when he boated 10 fish to a best of 17lb.

His haul of ‘blondes’ was part of a memorable day afloat Andrew Alsop’s White Water 11 craft, which operates out of Penarth in Wales, that also featured 16 other ray of various species, plus countless dogfish and cod to 10lb.

Most of the fish fell to legered squid and mackerel hookbaits.

To find out more about fishing aboard White Water 11, visit www.whitewatercharters.co.uk

Angler chosen to carry Olympic Torch

A former England sea fishing international has been chosen to carry the Olympic Torch through his home town during its nationwide tour of the country.

Shore fishing ace Chris Clark has taken gold in international events but a horrific injury that has left him with a steel shoulder joint stopped his intense dedication to the scene.

But despite this, he battled back against the odds and three weeks after leaving hospital he was back fishing and he will now take the torch through Lymington in Hampshire as a reward for his achievements and courage.

“I’m honoured to have been chosen to carry the Olympic Torch – this means more to me than any gold medal,” explained an elated Chris.

Record tuna landed

An angler has landed a potential new world record tuna in the form of a 738lb pacific bluefin from New Zealand.

Incredibly, Nathan Adams managed to land the huge specimen from the six metre boat which he was fishing from near Houhora off the east coast of the country’s North Island.
If approved by the International Game Fish Association it would be the largest ever landed on rod and reel.

The 42-year-old member of Muriwai Sports Fishing Club now plans to have a cast of the fish mounted on his living room wall.

Unfortunately he will be unable to profit from his catch as he had de-registered his boat with the authorities to allow him to fish for protected marlin, and it is illegal to sell fish from an unregistered boat. In January this year a 269kg Bluefin caught off the coast of Japan sold for around £500,000.

He said: “I wouldn’t have minded a few hundred grand, but there are rich guys overseas who would pay hundreds of thousands to mount that fish on their wall and say they’d caught it.”

The current pacific bluefin record stands at 716lb 8oz and was taken in 2007 off Westport, New Zealand.

European sea event set to be staged this weekend

Hundreds of anglers are set to descend upon the north east this weekend to take part in the highly coveted European Open Beach Championships.

Highly skilled fishermen from across the continent will take part and a practice match will be staged to allow those competing to dust off the cobwebs.

On Friday a ‘Flattie Bash’ event will be held between 11am and 3pm and rules dictate this will be a measure and return outing.

The main action gets underway on Saturday and concludes later in the day on Sunday.

Biggest cod for 20 years landed!

A sea angler who had never caught a cod before is celebrating this week after landing what many are already hailing as ‘the fish of 2012’.

Chris Proctor took the hugely impressive 43lb 7oz giant – the biggest cod taken anywhere in the UK for almost 20 years – after joining a group of friends aboard the Deep Blue charter boat out of Sovereign Harbour in East Sussex.

London-based Chris admitted that at first he thought he’d hooked the wreck that the anglers were targeting, before the huge fish started stripping line from his reel as it made off with his small ‘sidewinder’ lure.

It is the biggest cod landed since the British record of 58lb was landed off Whitby back in 1992, and its weight was verified by staff at Anglers Den tackle shop in Pevensey Bay.

*Full details and more pictures of this incredible fish, plus more huge cod, only in this week’s Angling Times.