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Sportsfishing Club of The British Isles Newsletter Quarter one, 2022 Welcome to our rst newsletter since the advent of Covid which, although it did not stop our shing, it did restrict our access to some of the places we wanted to sh. With countries now opening up this is now changing so we are looking forward to recording your adventures be they inside the UK or beyond our shores in our newsletters going forward.

Chairman’s Strike Many of you have been SCBI members long enough to remember when the club produced a glorious, glossy yearbook detailing some of the exploits during the year as well as reminiscences from the past. Sadly, the cost of produc on increased to the level that made it impossible to con nue in a cost-e ec ve manner. Although many of you are keen users of the club’s Facebook page and others visit the SCBI website, social media seems somewhat transitory and lacks the archival element that the yearbook provided. With that in mind, the commi ee has digi sed all the earlier yearbooks (many thanks to our Vice-president, Charles Reaves) and we are currently modifying the club website to make them all available via the member’s-only page. Whilst the screen is not the same as hard copy, it nevertheless means that new members will be able to access those interes ng older items without having to track down the increasingly rare originals. In addi on, following comments at the recent AGM regarding member communica on, we have ini ated a new newsle er, of which this is the rst edi on. As we gain in experience, we hope to consolidate a house style and generate a professional-looking, on-line magazine containing reports, ps, reminiscences, whatever you, the membership, would value. At present, we intend to issue this quarterly for the coming year and then review its success. We all like to hear about good sh being caught but, in addi on, why not describe a venue that you visit whether at home or abroad, what went well and what to watch out for. Don’t be shy and don’t worry about your composi onal prowess or punctua on – this is not a school test! We will happily cross the t’s and dot the i’s as necessary; any pictures will also be welcome. Some items of possible long-term value may also be added directly to the website to save searching in years to come. Also at the AGM, the club combined the roles of treasurer and membership secretary to streamline procedures. I hope you have found the adop on of membermojo straigh orward as a means of renewing membership. It does mean we will drop Paypal but the new system is cheaper and easier for the club to administer and should make recruitment for new members e cient. Thanks to Chris Adams for this.

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As I write this, I should have been shing out from Li lehampton with a few non-SCBI shing friends. However, 28kn winds gus ng 37kn means that wasn’t going to happen. I enjoy those days though; we don’t go out far, we don’t go if it is rough, and we don’t use complex rigs, but we do catch a few sh,

keep a couple for the table and don’t take ourselves too seriously. Happy days, which surely is the essence of angling. Mind you, I have missed those ‘glory’ trips to foreign ports in search of monsters over the past couple of years - maybe this year? Talking of trips for 2022, there are now two places open for the SCBI Shark Compe on out from Plymouth in August. If you haven’t been before, do try it; it’s great fun and we even manage to catch a few. This year I think we are due three full days of glorious sunshine and a sea full of hungry sharks! Contact me if you’d like further informa on (and all gear can be provided if needed). Our Tournament Secretary, Andy Atkins, is currently in Kenya shing the Diani tournament as we prepare this rst newsle er. I look forward to hearing a report from him perhaps for the next newsle er. Andy is also looking at the possibility of organising an SCBI club trip there for March 2023. I also understand several members are shing the Penn Challenge in Cape Verde this spring and don’t forget the World Championship in Italy in September. Andy will post further details on his return.

At this point, I’ll simply thank all the contributors to this rst edi on of the new newsle er, thank Johnmac for pu ng it together, and hope you enjoy it and will send contribu ons for future edi ons. Tight lines, Chris Flower Chairman, SCBI

A message from our Membership Secretary I have now been in post for 2 years and throughout that me Chris Flower and myself tried to get together to do a handover and of course Covid and lockdowns prevented this happening. We have now managed to get together over a pint and a spot of lunch and I now have control of memberships and to some extent the treasurer element of the club. I have bought in a new membership system (Membermojo) Spor ishing Club of the Bri sh Isles (membermojo.co.uk) which should help to make joining and renewing memberships easier and more e cient for the club. We are in the early stages and there have been a few teething problems but it’s now fully opera onal and working well. Can I ask you to update your contact details if you haven’t done so already. This allows the club to message you and keep members up to date with upcoming trips, news and informa on. I have also included the online shop on the portal. This will allow you to buy any of the SCBI merchandise when comple ng your membership etc. I am in the process of organising a couple of boat trips on the south coast. We will have a trip with Shawn Trinder from Lyme Regis in June and a Gosport trip in August/ September aboard Indie skippered by Ray McLaren. I now have admin rights to the members area of the SCBI website. If you have any login di cul es please get in touch and I will try to sort them out. I hope you have a produc ve years shing and please keep us informed of your catches and achievements via the Facebook page.

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Chris Adams

t’s always a double-edged sword being asked to write for a magazine or online pla orm, and perhaps doubly so when it is for such an illustrious group of anglers as our own SCBI membership, most of whom have tales I can only dream of. I will never manage to please everyone; some won’t be interested in UK freshwater shing and others will be far more experienced and successful than me. One or two may just think I am doing it to boost my own (already overin ated) ego and self-promo on. Truth is, I have essays to write for my Masters, and telling a shy tale or three and sharing some photos is far more appealing. So, please take it for what it is, a light-hearted look at some of my shing exploits this year and the ups and downs along the way.

or those lucky enough not to know me, I am a serving Wing Commander in the Royal Air Force. I had an exci ng career early on, ying around the world as a Navigator (actual tle now Weapons Systems O cer), hun ng baddies and having fun. But a er a couple of promo ons, I now y a desk and in 2022 a move to a headquarters 8-5 (ish!) job gave far more scope for shing than I had enjoyed for the last few years. By combining this with ‘ exible working’ and ‘working from home’ during the pandemic, this allowed me to choose when to work and when to play. As long as the work was done everyone was happy, so understandably I capitalised on it when I could. In September 2020 we relocated from Lincolnshire to Marlow, Bluebird - my 12’ SeaStrike Buckinghamshire and chose (don’t tell the wife!) the nearest military accommoda on to the Thames. I bought a boat and set about chasing new targets in unfamiliar waters. Exci ng stu but although it took a bit of me to get into the groove and nd my mojo I am pleased with my results for last year. Early 2021 saw me shing for grayling in a local Berkshire chalk stream. I’d caught a couple of small ones before I moved, but the next few sessions over January and February saw me catching a considerable number of sh up to a pound and half on y, lure, and bait. These wonderful sh never cease to amaze me with their colours and ght – both in and out of the water. If you haven’t caught these beau es, then they really should be on your ‘to-do’ list. For me, the hunt for a 2 pounder is high up my priority list and has already seen me visit the Itchen and a Test tributary, so I will keep on plugging 1lb 8oz river Grayling away. he last 2 weeks of the river season saw a change of fortune. I was y shing for pike on a stretch of the Thames when a friend called me, completely out of the blue, to ask if by chance I was nearby and could come and weigh and photograph a couple of big perch as he had no scales or self-take photography gear. Now nothing res me up like a big perch, so I plugged in the a erburner in the Nissan pickup, drove like a farmer and was there in minutes having given up and forgo en about the pike! It was a spot we knew well and had heard rumours of big perch and he had managed to put 3 sh around the 2-3lb mark (biggest going 3lb 2 oz) in the net. The cost for me coming over? Well, that will be to steal a minnow of course and have a go myself as I had a light rod in the car. I only went and wangled an even bigger one at 3lb 5oz! The next 2 weeks before the season ended, we were down there as much as we could with mixed success. We had one epic session with 2 sh each, my biggest going 3lb 10oz and his going 3lb 12oz! We had a few more 2s before the calendar called an end to it, but it certainly showed how important it is to nd them in winter. fi

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A year in the life of an all-round shing addict…. Karl Bird

A March 3lb 5oz Thames Perch

It is worth explaining, I count myself as an all rounder, a specimen hunter, and the world’s worst y sherman – something I had vowed to work on in 2021. I’ll sit it out all day for a big one over a load of small ones and I love lure shing given the choice, but I won’t cut my nose o to spite my face. Whilst my friend and I were catching these impressive perch, I had other friends telling me they don’t count as they weren’t on the lure (my response to this is to gently point out that the only sh which truly count are those caught on the y….) and another one following me around throwing lures all day and blanking, which is his choice – you have to do what makes you happy.

pril passed by in a blur. This is a month which more o en sees me concentrate on shoo ng with it being the start of the roebuck hun ng season, shoo ng and par cularly deer stalking being my other love. It also heralded the opening of Chew Valley and I had my rst trip there, chasing pike on the y.

A prime Chew Pike taken on the y

A March 3lb 10oz Thames Perch

My Pumpkinseed

12lb Sturgeon A visit to a local venue to drown some maggots with another club member, Jason Heenan and another friend, resulted in my rst entry to the Angling Times this year with a pumpkinseed and a double gure sturgeon, caught on a oat rod, centre pin and a size 16 with double maggot! A great ght but not one I would want to repeat in a hurry. The month ended with a holiday to Cornwall where I managed some ballan wrasse on so plas cs, which is another sport that is great fun and one I wish I had more me for. Fishing plas c worms or cray sh imita ons texas-rigged or on weedless jig heads is very exci ng. A take from a ballan is exactly what you want from a sh and boy they do not hang around! A 5-20g lure rod, small xed spool and 0.13mm braid really allows you to get the most from these sh and a 2 pounder will de nitely pull your strings!

A hard ghting Cornish Ballan

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he real highlight for me was my rst season y shing for predators on the Anglian Water reservoirs. Without y shing, you have to wait un l the 1st September to chase the pike, perch and zander on lures. Gra am is my favourite but also most hated venue in the country. I think it is fair to say no other venue holds such a good head of all 3 predators (although the Trent and Thames are probably ge ng there now) with 20lb+ zander, 35lb+ pike and 5lb+ perch a real possibility.

We managed a dozen each that day and heard tales of a 30 lb plus sh to a trout angler. None of ours broke double gures but s ll great fun. A decent Chew monster s ll sits on my ever-growing list of ‘to-dos’. A trip down to visit Jerry with fellow club member Chris Adams saw Chris hook up but ul mately needing to straighten the hook for a release as the harbour was closing (ask him about that one!) on the rst half day. This was followed with a blank on the second day.

11lb 10oz Grafam Zander

7lb 4oz Grafam Zander

But generally, it is as hard as a venue can be for lure shing, but as I was to nd out, the early season zander y sport was more measured. My rst trip with a friend and mentor saw me put a couple of zander to 11lb 10oz on the boat and was rewarded with a men on in the Angling Times once more. My form con nued over the rest of the season with a sh or two on each subsequent trip and in early June I saw my father get his rst y caught zander too, come early June.

pening week of the river season is always a busy one. I was due to be shing in Madagascar that week but with ongoing COVID restric ons I had ran a plan B alongside – good military planning as it turned out as we got news that Mada was not going to happen and it has now been rolled over to August 2022. Something I am very much looking forward to. To make the trip up north worth it, I was back on Gra am on the 14th June before nding myself camped next to the mighty River Trent enjoying a BBQ and a few cold ones with friends at lunch me on 15th. Pulling the short straw, I ended up in the upstream swim (as barbel feed upstream) so I gured my baits were the last they would encounter if they even got passed my mates traps at all. What followed was one of the most frustra ng sessions of the year as I had to endure the frustra on of watching friends downstream catch sh a er sh whilst my ps remained mo onless. For the last night I went all in and baited heavily (and then some!) in the hope of drawing them through and managed to save the blank with a couple of sh to

A very welcome Barbel just under double gures.

A couple of days later I was back on the Thames on my boat with Jason. History repeated itself as I watched him catch some lovely perch to within an ounce of under 3 lb whilst I pulled out of a few big sh and caught very li le. The month ended with a lure shing trip on another friend’s boat further upstream on the Thames where I got into some nice chub to 5 lb+ on crankbaits and a couple of trips on my boat where I nally managed to land a perch near where Jason had his success. This was also where I had my rst Thames double gure pike. Up un l then I had been plagued by jacks.

uly commenced with a prac se for the RAF Boat shing team as we were scheduled to compete against the Army and Navy in July out of Lymington. I am pleased to report that we were victorious and I was a orded the honour of being selected for the Combined Services team against the UK Police team. Chris Adams was in the enemy camp for that one, and unfortunately the RAF lost, but it was a great event, and lots learnt. A work trip saw me back in Lincolnshire and armed with my 8-weight, conduc ng some evening manoeuvres against local carp, and landing sh to mid doubles o the top on the y.

Another great bit of sport if you haven’t had a go! I also met up with a guy I had met online (Facebook, not Grindr!) to learn the dark art of targe ng barbel on the y. Over the last ve years, this guy had become a master. I had a great day, and at last knockings managed the holy grail, a targeted barbel on the y. Not huge, but very, very welcome.

When barbel come on the y - size doesn't matter

A 14lb 12oz carp taken on the y in July

2lb 15oz Thames perch for Jason Heenan

5lb Thames Chub taken on a lure

here has been enough wri en already about the SCBI shark compe on in August so I promise I won’t men on the one on the y rod, nor the taped 120 pounder, but again another great event in fantas c company. Gu ed I will be shing in Madagascar for 2022 trip as it is truly one of the highlights of my shing calendar. Looking back through the photo albums the rest of August appears quiet, apart from some chalk stream trout shing, so I must have spent some me with the wife during the month.

eptember saw me move jobs and head o to the Defence Academy at Shrivenham to complete a Masters. Term 1 had plenty of ‘re ec on me’ and yes, you guessed it, I chose the re ec on of the water! If you are a taxpayer, thank you so much! I owe you a beer. This month heralds another big event in my angling calendar, as the Anglian Water reservoirs open for lure shing on 1st September. I’d already done ve trips to Gra am on the y by this point and hoped the knowledge learnt from those would help me with my rst on the lures. The previous winter had been appalling for us, with several blanks on the zander front, and the odd perch caught, but this season started well with a few zander falling on opening day and subsequent trips, before the lure of the Gra am perch got to me, but more of that in a bit…. A few river trips and general dangling occurred with steady success but nothing to write about, then a Gra am trip with a friend saw him have a 20-pound pike (something that s ll eludes me from Gra am) and his rst decent zander a few ounces o 10lb. I lost something that haunts me to this day and suspect it was a very big pike by where/how it was hooked, shing really can be a cruel mistress at mes.

My 120lb Blue taken at the Plymouth SCBI shark festival

ctober was interspersed with trips on the Thames, both bank and boat, and Wednesday sports a ernoons (thanks to the Army!) was spent i ng between canals and rivers local to the college. Friday a ernoons on the way home for the weekend saw much of the same, and a few smaller sh started to slip up, including several more 2 pounders. A 3lb 1oz Gra am perch was a highlight of a generally quiet month on the catching front and saw me star ng to wonder if I was spreading myself too thinly. I had never shed so much and was not catching anything decent, but many others were struggling too, par cularly from the middle and upper Thames, so I just had to keep the faith and keep slogging on. This ran in to November too, albeit a 2lb 15 oz and 2lb 6 oz perch slipped up, the former on a lure near Oxford and the la er nearer home on a livebait. I visited a military run Test tributary next to Dever Springs and had a good day chasing pike in the morning and grayling in the a ernoon, both on the y, but s ll no 2 pounder….

3lb 1oz Grafam perch

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2lb 15oz lure caught November perch

ecember really saw a change in my fortunes as the hard work and e ort began to pay o . It started with a true red-le er day that those of you who follow me on social media will already have seen. Targe ng perch on Gra am in the shallow water bays of the north shore, saw me and a mate s ck 12 perch on the boat, backed up by a near double gure zander to me from the deep bowl. We caught on a combina on of so plas c shads rigged on 20g jigheads and deep diving crankbaits. My haul was to earn me a Drennan Cup Weekly award and I put perch of 4lb 8oz, 4lb 6oz, 4lb 5 oz, 3lb 12oz and 3lb 10oz on the boat. My mate had two further low 4s and a handful of 3s. Truly one of the best days I have experienced a oat or ashore, it was true shing madness. Three 4-pound perch in forty ve minutes will live with me for a long me. The river came alive too, my records showing me I had a 2lb 9oz sh on a livebait and a 2lb 12oz from my boat on a so plas c creature bait.

Drennan Cup 4lb 8 oz Grafam Perch

3lb 8oz January Grafam Perch

4lb 6 oz December Grafam Perch

12 months brings us full circle back to early January. Gra am did what Gra am does and handed me my ass with a blank on my next trip a er the red-le er day, showing that it truly is the boss. The following trip saw my mate who shared the result with me blank whilst I got back on the scoresheet with a nice mid-3. However, the rst January weekend saw a fortuitous booking slip up with friends on Lechlade which le me watching a rising, coloured River Thames swelled with heavy rain and crashing air pressure, but I decided I just had to go out in the morning. Deadbait rods were rigged up that evening and I arrived as it was ge ng light to a spot I know occasionally delivers nice pike. Two mackerel baits on over depth oat ledgers went out, and at my allo ed ‘going home me’ that I had agreed with the wife, I made that text we all know and love. ‘It’s looking good, I am feeling lucky, one last cast’ or words to that e ect. Forty ve minutes later and I was shaking, with the biggest pike I had ever seen in the net.

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A new PB of 23lb 6oz………………..

23lbs 6 oz Thames pike - a new PB That’s probably a good way to end my tales there, I hope some of you will have enjoyed reading my ramblings. I ended with 45 species (without really trying) and 11 on the y which is pleasing result. 2022 looks great for me, college will get busier in the next two terms and the sports a ernoons will stop, but in the breaks/leave I have trips booked in for porbeagle and blue sharks and BFT (assuming we get the go ahead) as well as a week in Madagascar which was transferred from 2021. Add to that a rerun of most of the key dates above and I am hoping I manage to break a few PBs and meet more new shing friends. Si ng here now I am wishing a Defence Studies essay was as easy to write as the 2800+ words which have e ortlessly owed from brain. Perhaps the explana on for why the work essays are o en so di cult is that my available memory space for defence knowledge reduces every me I go shing - maybe my wife is right and I am addicted to shing!

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A perch and a grayling swimming away strongly - our duty of care to these sh who give us so much pleasure

ack in July 2019, before anyone outside virology had heard of Covid, my wife and I visited the Spanish Balearic Island of Mallorca for some rest and relaxa on. It is a lovely island and one we had been to many mes over the years. A while before departure, I conducted some research into the possibility of a day’s shing and happened across the website of Vince Riera (www. shing-mallorca.net). To be honest, I was a li le concerned having seen a lot of ‘holiday tourist trap’ shing sites but club member Steve Murphy told me that he’d shed with Vince’s brother, Tony and their set-up was good. It seems Tony and Vince had divided the business and Vince’s boat was based in Port d’Alcudia, which would be a short taxi ride from my hotel whereas Tony was based some distance away. By coincidence, I received a message from Vince at about the same me enquiring about joining the SCBI as he had heard of the club from Jurgen Oeder. Following an exchange of emails, I booked a day with Vince aboard his 14 metre, or 45-foot, Tiara, Mad Max, with blue n tuna as the prime target. I was staying in Albufeira, and Vince kindly o ered to pick me up from the hotel in the morning of the trip. He and his partner Charlo e both spoke excellent English, made me feel very welcome from the start and were deligh ul company all day. It was indeed only a short ride to the marina and I was soon aboard Mad Max, wondering what the day had in store. Mad Max is a gorgeous cra , largely open and unclu ered in the cockpit area and with twin inboard diesels that power her along at an impressive rate, but my eye was rst drawn to the gh ng chair; a classic Pompane e heavy tackle job, all teak and stainless steel and very securely anchored through the deck.

Mad Max - a gorgeous craft

Mad Max, Vince, Charlo e and Fidel in Mallorca - Chris Flower

Captain Vince Riera at the helm

Whilst I se led down, stowed my waterproof jacket and lightweight eece (you never know, even though the forecast was wall-to-wall sunshine and 30 degrees!), and applied another layer of sunscreen, the two of them prepared for departure, bringing out three Shimano 80W reels on 130lb bent-bu chair rods by Black Pearl. Vince said we’d sh two, but he liked to have the third ready lest anything happen to one of the others, like a bust-o . Although rated 130lb, these rods had #4 A co Unibu s, sugges ng they were at the lighter end of the class, something I’d chat with Vince about during the day.

The classic Pompanette chair

I’d been collected at 6.30 and we were heading out to sea by 7.00. I won’t say where we stopped, except to note that we anchored on the edge of a drop-o . The principle being that blue n tuna patrol the area, cruising along to intercept bai ish swept upwards by the currents. But rst, we’d have to catch the bait. Out came a couple of light rods and electric reels, something I’d never used before, but a er a quick lesson I soon knew how to slow the retrieve as the catch neared the surface to avoid shaking them o the hooks of the sabiki-style lures. We caught three species, though like bait-catching everywhere, as soon as you want them, they clear o : there were some scad which Vince said were ok, some dragon sh that were useless and a few green mackerel that Vince believed would be best. Early morning sunrise Rigging for tuna was fairly straigh orward: the 10/0 Mustad Demon Circle hook was a ached to a leader of 130lb clear uorocarbon which in turn was connected by small crimps and a ‘wind-on’ style swivel to the 130lb nylon topshot which in turn connected with the 150lb GSP (gel-spun polyethylene) braid. A lead weight was a ached to the topshot by elas c bands to get the bait down whilst a large plas c jug served as the oat, again a ached by elas c bands. As with sharking, one bait was set deeper and farther out whilst the other was shallower and closer in.

I asked Vince why he had bright red mono on the reel when I thought tuna could be lineshy; wouldn’t clear be a be er choice? He said he’d had great success with this colour line and con dence was an important element, though he felt the bright orange-red was be er than the darker but shinier red line on the third reel. The line closest to the hook was more important and at this me of year, when the giant blue n are not around, he was happier with quite ne clear uorocarbon. For the giants, he would go up to a 12/0 Mustad Demon Circle if possible, or a similar-sized Super-Mutu if he could get them, but the Super-Mutu are very expensive on the island and can be hard to get out of a sh. He would also sh 130-size reels and more powerful rods for them too.

Mad Max twin inboards got us to our chosen mark quickly

Anyone who has been aboard a number of game boats over the years knows when things are right, when the captain and crew know what they are about, and Vince and Charlo e are top class, as was the kit and its condi on. The top-quality bucket harness was placed on the chair seat and we spent a few minutes adjus ng it and the footrest to ensure everything was set up right, though Vince said he some mes felt doing this was unlucky.

Vince cast o the buoyed anchor and we began to follow the sh. Once the rst run was over and I had recovered some line, I could increase the drag somewhat but never went past the 23Kg se ng, quickly backing o if the sh ran again. This blue n made three long runs before se ling down into a dogged resistance, circling in the deep water as I slowly li ed it up Gear set on the inturn and held as hard as I could on its outswing. I was nearly tempted to add extra drag via my thumbs on the side of the spool, but Vince said no, given the light leader. However, he and Charlo e were excellent in manoeuvring Mad Max to ensure there was an angle to the line rather than a straight up-and-down ght. Even so, the ght lasted the best part of an hour, largely due to the depth of water.

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My Blue n surfaces near the boat

The rst strike came late morning. It took the bait on the deep rod and went o on a long run, very deep down. Since most of the topshot was already o the reel in se ng the bait, I was soon watching the backing go out at a steady state. Bit by bit, I didn’t increase the drag from the strike se ng of 18Kg with so ne a leader on this rst run; it was going to be a game of nesse rather than muscle.

Vince expertly leadering my Blue n

Vince and Charlottes teamwork, boat and sh handling skills were exceptional

Ready for tag check

When the blue n got to the side, it wasn’t the monster I’d expected but a rela vely modest sh later calculated to be 89Kg. Even so, I was delighted.

My Blue n tagged and ready for release

The ini al plan was to tag the sh, remove the hook and release it, but as it came closer we could see it already had a tag. Plan B was then brought into play: the tuna would be brought aboard, the old tag removed and checked and a new tag a ached. Between them, Vince and Charlo e slid the blue n onto Mad Max through the transom door and inserted the deck hose to ensure a ow of water over the gills, removed the old tag, a ached a new one and measured the sh’s length and girth. A er a couple of photographs, the tuna was carefully returned and we watched it swim strongly away. I sat back and enjoyed a cool drink while Vince washed down, died up and prepared a new leader. Just then Charlo e announced that the tag number was a sh that she and Vince had caught on Mad Max earlier that year. When she checked that earlier return, it proved amazingly to be a sh that they had caught the rst me the year before. So, I was the third angler to have caught that same blue n tuna on Mad Max, proving that the sh had survived being caught and released twice before. Vince immediately christened the sh Fidel – I don’t know why! I must men on lunch. What a feast! Cold chicken, cold meats, salads, pastries, breads, fruit, all a hungry tuna catcher could desire and in a quan ty su cient to sa sfy the hear est appe te. I had a second strike later in the a ernoon but either the sh didn’t hook up or it slipped the hook in those rst few moments; the oat, a er ini ally disappearing on the strike, quickly reappeared on the surface leading me to believe the tuna had dropped the bait without being hooked, but we will never know for sure.

Homeward bound at the end of a very satisfying day With the me ge ng on toward 4.00pm and fresh bait uncatchable, we agreed to turn for home. That run back to the marina was beau ful, with the sun, the sea, the cli s – just magic. Time for a cold one.

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A er a few chores on the boat carried out by Charlo e and Vince while I had a second beer, they ran me back to my hotel in me for a shower, change of clothes, aperi ve and dinner. A marvellous and memorable day with a great skipper and his mate on a top-class boat; I can’t wait to return, possibly to try for the Mallorca challenge of a blue n and a broadbill on the same trip.

Johnmac travelled to Leicester to meet her… Having now re red, leaving home at 5am in the wind and rain is not something I do o en but on the 27th November 2018 that’s exactly what I did. 260 miles later as I ring the doorbell, hoping I am at the right place, I glance to the right and see a SACGB S cker on the window …. I smile, reassured. The door opens, and I am welcomed by Dave who guides me through the hallway where brother Mike greets me warmly. With both the boys being SACGB 50+ Members, I have communicated with them before but never met them. They beckon me into the living room to meet their Mother who greets me with a wide grin and an outstretched hand. I stand back and look at her and blurt out, “you don’t look big enough to have caught that 369lbs Porbeagle”.

and she recalls being told by her mother that she took her rst steps in Looe. It was during a visit to Looe that she met a young man called Don, who later became her husband. Dave and Mike then recall some of their Looe childhood memories. it’s clear that Looe is a very special place for the Smith family. Pat adds, “my childhood holidays in Looe were wonderful, Mar n Bray and I played together as children you know”. We move on to shing and Pat tells me her father was a keen angler who introduced her to shing at a young age. When her own family came along, naturally she took them shing too. A typical Smith family Looe holiday would be two weeks with every other day being a shing day with their favourite skipper, Alan Dingle.

Yes, you have guessed correctly, I was shaking the hand of none other than Pat Smith, who has held the Ladies All Tackle Bri sh Porbeagle Shark Record, since 1970. Dave says, “welcome to Mums shrine” and points to the walls. I see a shark, then a picture of Alan Dingles beloved Lady Be y, then I turn and see a pain ng of the Looe quayside with the Lady Be y in the foreground and other SACGB memorabilia lling the gaps between numerous family photographs. In front of me on the footstool is a large pile of scrapbooks with pencil drawings of sharks on the front covers, which I nd out later was the work of a younger Dave.

Pat wearing her beloved SACGB smock

As I sip my co ee and munch on a mince pie Pat tells me of her love for Looe. Her parents o en holidayed in Looe

The Pat Smith database is now the largest shark me series in the world, but who is Pat Smith?

Legendary Looe Skipper Alan Dingles Lady Betty Pat says, “it was during an unusually quiet ree ng trip in 1966 that Alan suggested we try for shark. We agreed and were immediately smi en. All four members of the family quali ed during one week with Alan Dingle, in 1967”.

Pat and Alan enjoying a brew aboard the Lady Betty There was a very ac ve sharking social circle in Looe at that me with weekly SACGB members mee ng in the Shark Bar at the Hannafore Point Hotel.

I point to what I consider one of the most iconic shark pictures ever, the one with her, Alan and the record shark. Tell me about this one I say. Pat con nues, “un l Monday the 20th July 1970, my largest shark was an 82lb Blue. On that day we were shing with Alan aboard the Lady Be y, and le Looe at 9am. Don had taken the wheel and when we reached Alans chosen mark, two lines with mackerel baits and a rubby dubby bag were put out and we started

agree with you! The sh started to swim round the boat, so Alan started the engine and Don took the helm. It dived several mes and each me I recovered line it would sound again. Throughout the ght Alan encouraged me, telling me how well I was doing and saying, “take it easy, there’s plenty of me”. It was a very hot day and both men were constantly mopping my brow as the sweat poured from me. Don told me later that he had watched a piece of rubby dubby on the line and although I thought I was recovering line, it never moved for 15 minutes. A er what seemed an age and several more dives to the sea bed, Alan announced that the trace was in sight and a few minutes later I managed to bring it to the ga . I was exhausted. The sh was too big to bring aboard so Alan made it fast to the gunwale and when I looked over the side, I could hardly believe my eyes, it was enormous. At this point Dave takes up the story and says,” I had just returned from holiday with my friends and had decided to catch up with Mum and Dad in Looe. When I arrived, you could feel the excitement on the quay. I made an enquiry and when I was told that there was a big shark on its way in, aboard the Lady Be y, I knew that it had to be either Mum or Dad” Pat con nues, “when we approached the Banjo Pier, we could see that it was lined three deep along its length. The en re quayside was full of people who wanted to see this sh. It was only when it was hoisted over the quay and on to the scales that I could fully appreciate its size. It dwarfed me and although I was very red, I felt energised at the same me” Hamish Rogerson was the weighmaster and soon announced to the crowd it was 369lbs. The shark measured 8’ 6” and had a girth of 4’. It was also found not to be pregnant, so she really was a big girl. When you consider Pat stands 4’ 11” tall or as she would say, 4’ 11” and a “li le bit”, you begin to understand what she meant when she says she felt, “very red but energised”.

I turn to Mike for comment who says sadly, “I missed it all as I was at work”.

Alan who un l now had not spoken much, said quietly, “it’s a big sh”. I remember thinking the pain in my arms

Immediately I struck I knew it was heavier than any shark I had hooked previously. The rst run had taken 200 yards of line which I began to recover slowly then suddenly the line went slack, and I felt that sickening feeling which comes with a poten al sh loss. I kept on reeling and very soon reconnected with the sh. The shark sensed the line ghten which made it run again and this me it went deep.

Being resident at the Portbyhan Hotel they made their way back there and were pleasantly surprised to nd that Louis and Shelia Portman had put a bo le of champagne on ice so they could have a celebratory drink. Pat says, “I don’t remember much more about that evening, but I am sure I got o to bed early. Back in those days SACGB Members would meet in the Shark Bar at the Hannafore Point Hotel once a week so on that occasion I celebrated my success more thoroughly.”

to dri . It was a slow day and a bit grey. As always, Alan was working hard trying di erent depths and freshening baits. Then around 1pm we got a run. I took the rod and quickly brought a small blue, somewhere close to 20lbs to the boat which we unhooked and immediately returned. The day progressed uneven ully then I saw Alan check his watch before announcing that it was 2.45pm. I knew this meant we would soon be heading back. Alan had barely nished speaking and a ratchet started to sound. Don, who had been feathering most of the day for bait, said to me, “you take that one Pat”. As the line began to leave the reel at an increasing speed, I se led into the gh ng chair, put the rod in the bu socket and got ready to strike. It all happened so quickly I did not have me to put a harness on.

Pat was great friends with Dr. N S Lorraines wife Joan and enjoyed the company of many others whose names shark angling enthusiasts will know; Briggy, Rex Barnes, John Duxbury and Hamish Rogerson to name a few.

The shark which beat He y Eathornes record Porbeagle by almost 100 lbs was quickly recognised as the Bri sh Womens All Tackle Record and the Bri sh Womens 130lbs Line Test Class Record. Over 48 years later, both these records remain unbeaten.

Dingle his tapestry which she says he truly earned for all his hard work.

The Hamish Rogerson unique gold brooch

A er the appropriate veri ca on procedures had been completed, Pat was also con rmed as the Womens All Tackle World Record Holder plus the Mens & Womens 130lbs Line Test Class World Record holder.

In 1970 the Bacardi Rum compe on was s ll in place but Pat missed out on the winning spot to Phil Taylor’s 370lbs Mako … short by 1-lb! However she was recognised and travelled to the Hotel Europa in London to be presented with a cheque for £92.50 (and no doubt a Bacardi or two) from Mr Daniel Bacardi.

The SACGB awarded Pat the Mitchell Hedges, Sammy Porbeagle, Midland (including a replica) and the Alan Caunter trophies. She was also awarded a special trophy by the SACGB to recognise her World Record Achievement which is shown in the picture below.

Pat being congratulated by Mr Daniel Bacardi Pat was also invited by the House of Hardy to become a member of the pres gious Hardy Hall of Fame which was another tremendous honour.

SACGB special trophy to mark Pats world record In addi on, Hamish Rogerson commissioned a unique hand-cra ed gold brooch in recogni on of Pat’s monumental achievement.

The honours didn’t stop there though. A shark of this calibre merited a Du ield Tapestry which was awarded to Pat, although Pat had to prompt the company to send Alan

From the moment the shark was weighed Pat was stopped in the street in Looe by people wan ng her autograph. The Cornish press, radio and TV also sought her out, such was the scale of her achievement. When she returned home the level of interest in her achievement con nued with the local Leicestershire and Midland press, radio and TV all wan ng to meet the lady who had caught such a large shark. Someone once said that everyone has their 15 minutes of fame and in Pats case this was very true, indeed within the

sharking community she con nues to be respected by many who have never even met her but appreciate the scale of her achievement. By now I have nished my second cup of co ee, and another slice of cake, and although I could sit all day and listen to the Smiths sharking adventures, I take my last pictures and leave. As I drive home, I remember the headline on one of the local newspaper cu ngs which reported on her Porbeagle, which described Pat as, “small but brimming with vitality”. I couldn’t agree more with that reporter, even at 94 years of age she is s ll brimming with vitality and her passion for sharking and the SACGB is as strong as ever.

A February trip to Guinea Bissau - Paul Brian-Boys Bags packed, rods in tube and now all I needed to do was get myself to the airport…of course, a er the formality of my covid ‘Fit to Fly’ PCR test.

BANG… this email arrives ….my trip appears DOA! I had apparently contracted Covid again for the 4th me. This was hugely unlikely as I had the virus only several weeks prior. Hoping against hope that this was false posi ve I shot o to Heathrow to take another (expensive) rapid PCR Test…Luckily, this came back nega ve allowing just enough me to check in. Talk about a stressful start to a trip!

Flying Air Maroc was a new one for me and I was really impressed. Great service, very new aircra and good (for airlines) food. We took o on me, transited in Casablanca before catching the onward ight to Bissau again arriving bang on me in the wee hours of the morning. The airport at Bissau is as ‘African basic’ as you get complete with side room where (1-2-1) you are taken o to ‘buy’ your visa in cash (Euros). Presumably, unknowing tourists regularly get eeced here but our guide made sure that our price was as previously agreed. From the airport to our guest house for a few beers and a couple of hours sleep before climbing on board the speed boats for the 80km trip down the delta to Orango Island. Africa is one of the most incredible con nents on this planet and I never re of its special earthy scent, the birds (including a number of ospreys) or the fabulous scenery. This trip was no di erent (with the excep on of course that our boat engines kept breaking down - More on the boats later). Some four and a bit hours later we approached Orango Island and our hotel for the week.

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Inside an Orango Hotel room

Orango hotel room on the beach

The main a rac on to me of travelling to the Bissau Delta was the idea of catching large quan es of Jack Crevalle on fairly light tackle along with the outside possibility of giant tarpon or monster cobia. Having shed for Jacks in East Africa I knew what fun they were and my expecta ons were high. Richard Sheard of World Sport shing suggested that the rst couple of days should be spent Beach shing as really big des would make boat shing very di cult/ unproduc ve. We were duly landed on a gorgeous and very shy looking strip beach and we all set o with a selec on of poppers and s ck baits. The shing was really hard with very li le visible ac vity anywhere only a handful of sh caught between all of us. I managed to get a couple of juvenile jacks around the 2lb mark despite covering several miles of beach. Having li le success on ar cials the beach casters came out (with grip leads) and soon we were all hurling lumps of barracuda into a deep channel some 50 metres o shore hoping to get a large guitar sh or similar. Unfortunately this wasn’t produc ve either (apart from Ca ish)….but oh my word…what a lovely loca on to not catch sh! Day 2 proved to be even more spectacular. We were going to sh a sandbank as it emerged from the sea in the open ocean without sight of land anywhere. The jacks reportedly patrol the sand bank, o en visibly ambushing the prey as the de washes them out of their refuge. This loca on was simply stunning and I feel very privileged to have been lucky enough to spend me here. Sadly, despite all of us giving it our very best with poppers, s ck baits and then surfcasters, the sh either weren’t there, or were not interested.

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Richard Sheard of World Sport Fishing casting a popper into the rip on the side of the sandbank

Now the hotel…wow!…fantas c…just out of this world! Each room is an African round house on the edge of the beach with beau ful decora ons inside and a view to die for. This wasn’t air condi oned luxury accommoda on, but given the remoteness of where we were, it was fabulous!

Guinea Bissau is known as a proli c Jack shery. Men on of this shery conjures images of large schools of Jack Crevalle in ‘hunts’ ‘mullering’ terri ed bait sh while frenzied birds dive into the white water from above. I wish I could corroborate this reputa on but a er 7 hard days of shing by three boats (8 anglers) my conclusion was that the Jacks were no longer there or there numbers severely depleted. Possibly like elsewhere on the West Coast of Africa, the greed of ne ers had gone too far wiping out whole shoals as has happened in Gambia. The remaining 5 days of boat shing focussed mainly on live bai ng or jigging for bo om sh (that is when the boat engines were working). We caught a lot of sh and had a ton of fun, but this was hard shing and not what I had conjured in my minds eye before se ng o . Having said this, I loved every moment of this trip! A couple of mes I have men oned World Sport Fishing who organised and guided this trip and provided the boats. They were superb throughout. The organisa on was impeccable, their contacts in this backward country were invaluable and the local knowledge they imparted absolutely unique. Special thanks to them and their sta !

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I said I would comment on the the three boats for the opera on….This is going to sound brutal so I will s ck to facts only. Before I departed on this trip, I read blogs of others that had shed here and invariably they men oned boats breaking down and engine problems interrup ng or delaying shing (This seems a fairly frequent occurrence here so I did wonder why there wasn’t a spare boat).

The boat I was assigned to sh from su ered from problems from the moment we got on in Bissau for the trip out to Orango Island. One of the twin engines was wasn’t working properly and by day two this engine had failed completely. At this point it became apparent that the hydraulic steering was also close to failing with oil dribbling out freely and requiring frequent top ups. The engine failure on our boat had a big impact on our shing, with day 3 ac vi es limited to range o ered by displacement speed with an awful lot of me wasted travelling at slow speed to catch live bait (e ec vely a half days shing). Day 4 we sat on the beach was ng another half a days shing wai ng for a replacement speed boat to come (why this hadn’t been arranged earlier is a bit of a mystery). When it arrived we realised that this boat had a working engine but lacked a sounder/ sh nder making nding a bo om mark almost impossible – needless to say it was a very poor a ernoons shing! The thing that caught my a en on most about the boats maintenance (or lack o ) was that they were either missing or didn’t have sacri cial zinc anodes. Galvanic corrosion a acks from the inside of the engine drive train and under load can lead to catastrophic mechanical engine failure with bits of metal ying everywhere. Let's hope no one gets hurt if one of these let y. Conclusion: I thoroughly enjoyed my ten day trip. I suspect that as a shery Bissau is well past its prime. Would I go back again…For a relaxing holiday - de nitely! Would I return to go shing loca on – absolutely if someone else paid, otherwise, there are too many other places I want to visit rst.

The second thing to test on your jigging rods is the propensity for line wrap round the rings. The line on this spiral wrap rod kept looping round the middle rings from the jigging ac on. If this happens and a sh hits there are big problems and at best it will break the line if it doesn’t rst rip the ring o or break the rod. If we cant address this problem I will ask for the rod to be redone in classic style. Worth tes ng before you head out for trophy GT or se le for a spiral wrap rod!

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Jigging rods: Go out and test these before you put them up against decent sh. I had a friend make me a spiral wrap jigging rod which was absolutely fantas c for Guinea….however, the alignment of the reel with the bo om rings was slightly out resul ng in line being directed to the le side of the reel – if you are speed jigging it is impossible to lay the line with your thumb so this becomes an issue.

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Circle hooks: It seems wherever I go shing, I inevitably end up with a live or dead bait on at some point and then I realise I am woefully short of strong circle hooks, with my supply either too small or large. Memo to self to stock up!

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16 strand braid: I decided to try 16 strand braid as prelude to my trip to the Andaman’s later this year. Its great for splicing leaders and/or loops but it is a lot thicker than other braids restric ng cas ng distance. I am not sure how this will play out with the bigger poppers we use for the Andaman’s, but note that you get a lot less line onto the spool which when shing a Twin power may be an issue. I am contempla ng rever ng to 8 strand braid!

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Swivels and clips: I lost a number of rigs to what we suspect were small Spanish mackerel simply bi ng o the swivel or the small ring at the end of the trace. Banish anything that isn’t blackened as there is nothing more frustra ng that having a sh on and being bi en o by a smaller opportunist.

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Tackle lessons and take always:

Jig selec on: I took a selec on of jigs from 70g all the way to 280g. In hindsight if I had checked what des and currents I would be facing I would have re ned my jig choice and not taken so many that were redundant for the condi ons. In Bissau with the strong currents, heavier jigs are the order of the day. The other thing I noted was that single assist hooks caught just as many sh as doubles but there were signi cantly fewer snags with just one hook. I am not sure if there is any science in this observa on, but from now on I will sh with a single.

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Poppers and Cas ng I am o to the Andamans in October and am now really conscious of just how t you need to be to cast for a whole morning let alone a whole day. This is before you ght the sh. The same muscles again and again with the risk that if you strain one you wont be able to con nue shing. I will be spending a lot more me at the gym leading up to the October trip.

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Jon Pa en returns to one of his favourite shing venues A place steeped in the history of vikings and Norse mythology passed by word of mouth from genera on to genera on with tales of fairies and ever present trolls who patrol the mountains and alps that surround the fyords, yes, we were in Norway once more. Our chosen venue was situated deep into the Arc c circle, 300 miles to be exact, and approximately 80 miles from Tromso as the crow ys. Our home for the next 10 days, a camp called Haynes, nestled between the Lyngen ord and Rotsund on the island of Ulloya. Having visited here on more than one occasion, this is a place I am familiar with and it felt great to be back. The Rotsund ord is surrounded by the rolling hills of the island and the mainland. The mighty Lyngen ord is on another level with the rolling hills of the island and the majes c snow covered alps on the opposite side of the ord providing an amazing se ng. All of this plus the added bonus at this me of year of the poten al appearance of one of natures most magni cent displays, the aurora borealis high above the Alps. Havnes is ideally situated and is a working camp dealing in dried sh catering for skiers in the winter and anglers in the summer. Anglers come here to take advantage of the rich Norwegian waters which are blessed with an abundance of all types of marine life from sea eagles to whales, porpoises and large amounts of general sh life in the form of cod, haddock, coal sh and of course the mighty Queen of the a ish and our ul mate quarry on this trip ... The Halibut Our trip got o to a good start and having hooked up with incredible amounts of small to medium size coalie and whi ng, with the occasional mackerel gatecrashing the party, my boat partner Craig and I were deba ng moving to a di erent mark to see if we could connect with something that would pull a li le harder.

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Just as we were about to move I felt the tap of a small sh, then a millisecond later I was hit by something signi cantly more powerful and line began to evaporate at a rate of knots from my small Penn Fierce reel. The rod pulsated in response to the powerful head shakes from the sh some 60 metres below the boat, and showing no sign of ring it once again took line against the heavy drag se ng. The ght con nued for several more minutes before the pale colour of the silhoue e of the sh began to appear. A couple of feet more and it became clear what had taken the lure … a huge cod.

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It con nued to twist and turn un l it nally surfaced. Words like, immaculate, perfect and huge rushed through my head as I manoeuvred her towards the boat. The lure could be clearly seen in the scissors of the those great jaws.

A new PB cod of 45lbs

Grabbing the trace, I passed my rod to Craig so I could grab my quarry as I heard my partner con rming my assessment that this was indeed, a huge sh. The weigh sling and scales were made ready, the sh unhooked and lowered gently into the sling. The sea was at with not so much as a ripple allowing us to get an accurate weight and as we raised the scale to a suitable height we watched the needle rotate just past the 45lbs mark making it a new personal best. The whole procedure took just seconds as we were keen to release this beau ful sh in a t and healthy condi on. It was an incredible sight to see her head back down to the depths with a ip of her powerful tail, and as I watched my respect for the gear grew. It is truly amazing, with good technique and an appropriate drag se ng, just how e ec ve light gear can be, even when dealing with very big sh.

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The holiday had started well, in fact with one new personnel best sh each day, it wouldn’t be an exaggera on to say it had started extremely well. With the shing so varied and exci ng we were all awake early with the rule being the rst one up had to put the ke le on. Our breakfast rou ne included numerous cups of tea, which gets the day o to a good start but is also very necessary to wash down the full English breakfast which was served with copious amounts of toast. You burn a lot of calories with this type of shing so fuelling up is cri cal. Having woken up, refuelled and feeling ready to face the day ahead we would make our way to the quay which was only a short stroll from our house. This is where we would register with the Norwegian Fisheries o cials, providing details of how long we intended to sh, how many people on each vessel, and what areas we would be

targe ng, etc. When we returned to shore at the end of the day we were required to register how many sh we had caught, released or retained. The Norwegians monitor their sh stocks very carefully and work hard to ensure their sheries remain healthy and sustainable. With our days shing plan submi ed we would then collect our fuel, make the boat ready to go, start the engine, cast o , head carefully out of the harbour before accelera ng gently to reach cruising speed and head for our chosen mark in the Rotsund Fjord. This day was to be a general one in pursuit of food llets ie cod, coalie and haddock. Having reached our mark we eased back on the revs, slowly came to a halt and commenced our dri . Our sh imita ons of choice were lowered to the sea bed then retrieved to a posi on approximately 40 turns up before repea ng the procedure again. We employed a wide range of lures from eel like designs to shads and when we felt energe c, pirks.

A quality Norwegian Dab - not unusual to get these over 2lbs

The day turned out to be another fun one with lots of sh but quite unexpectedly the larger sh were not always to be found in the deeper water and we were con nually surprised at the numbers of larger sh coming from the shallower depths. Several mes through the day while dri ing across the deep sec ons we encountered good sh only to have them slip the hook. At one point I no ced an acute bend in Craigs rod which signalled he had hooked into a good sh and on this occasion the hook held long enough for it to be landed. It was quickly photographed and returned as we decided that it was be er this sh be allowed to con nue to go about its business and hopefully contribute to re popula ng the stocks for the future. Most of what we hooked into was iden able by the characteris cs of the ght but one or two misled us on the way up. With the depth increasing I took the decision to change my shad for a pirk with a gummi mack above on a yer. The pirk weighed 450 gram which got it to the bo om a lot faster and with the wind and de there was more chance of the line remaining ver cal. As the pirk reached the sea bed, some 100metres plus below me, I began to jig it, when suddenly there was a savage take and sh on. Although it didn't feel massively heavy, it fought like a demon with powerful ra le like head shakes which con nued all the way to the surface. Once it surfaced I was awestruck as what I had caught was a huge haddock. With it protes ng energe cally at being somewhere it didn't want to be, I called to Craig to bring the net as I didn't want to risk losing it by simply li ing it into the boat on the trace. Once aboard I could be er appreciate the beau ful colouring of this sh. An iridescent blend of silvers, mauves, purples and blacks. With haddock being such a tasty sh to eat it went into the box for lle ng later. Even though I have caught bigger haddock, just missing out on a world record some years back, having not seen a big haddock for a good number of years, meant this one was indeed a welcome sight.

10lb 7 oz Haddock and a welcome sight

Today the bites didn't happen straight away and it took a few minutes before the sh woke up and became aware of our lures. The depth at the start of our dri was 45 metres but as we dri ed the depth changed to a point where it was 120 metres. To work the jigs e ec vely, this variability in depth required us to con nually change lures to maintain a ver cal line between our rod ps and the jigs. As the dri progressed we hit spots with lots of ac vity followed by areas which were either devoid of sh or they were simply not interested in our lures.

We con nued shing throughout the showers and the wind squalls followed by periods of calm, con nuing to catch and release many more quality sh. Being conserva on minded we retained only a small number, choosing to release the vast majority. With the weather star ng to deteriorate towards the end of the day we did the responsible thing and headed back to the safety of the harbour. On the way in we discussed the e ec veness of the sounder without which nding those holes, ledges, and reefs where sh naturally congregate would be so much more di cult. A good sounder is indeed a very valuable tool. Once moored up we reported our catch sta s cs to the authori es and removed the empty fuel tank so it was available to refuel the following day. The shing day now complete we ambled up to the house for a nice warm cup of tea where myself and my seven friends re ected on the events of the day and set plans for the following day. The shery con nued to con rm its world class status by consistently delivering exci ng shing, so following another tremendous day targe ng cod, coalies, wol es, plaice and other species we had our usual debrief over tea and a few beers and it was decided that the next day would be spent targe ng the Queen of all a ish … the halibut In the morning we followed what was now a well rehearsed rou ne of rst up put the ke le on, followed by a full English breakfast and with the target for the day being halibut we increased our toast ra ons. Fishing in Norway is a seriously calorie burning ac vity and we wanted to be ready to deal with some of the enormous halibut which are resident in these waters and that demanded lots of toast…… On the way out we stopped to catch some baits. As live bai ng is illegal in Norway these were to be shed as dead baits and consisted of coal sh, haddock and small cod. Having caught su cient bait we steamed out to our chosen grounds and as we approached the mark we began to see sh on the echo sounder so a er checking the wind and using the relevant boat instrumenta on we set up our dri . Our gear consisted of 20lb class spinning rods in combina on with small mul pliers and/or 8000 size xed spools loaded with braid which terminated in a double line. Thread on leads, heavy duty swivel on approx six feet of 100lb nylon with one or two 9/0 or 10/0 hooks completed the rig. Baited up with the sh we caught earlier, the gear was lowered down into the depths. To avoid constantly ge ng snagged, once the gear hit the bo om it was wound up 8 to 10 turns to allow it to dri above the sea bed.

A prime Norwegian Cod

Halibut are seriously predatory and will y from the sea bed to the surface if necessary to intercept a meal. I have even seen them swimming and jumping to ensure they catch their quarry. With the halibut gear deployed and ratchets set, our a en on turned to lling our me using lighter tackle to target jumbo mackerel, codling and coal sh and of course, with the chance of a halibut, this was a perfect opportunity to try out my new Con ict 40-120gram light jigging rod.

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To avoid tangling the halibut gear we cast our lures to the opposite side, away from the baited lines. As the lures made contact with the sea bed we were regularly hooking sh, nothing massive but great fun and it helped to ll the me wai ng for a halibut on the baited gear.

One of my casts was intercepted by something which felt a li le larger and I was rewarded with a halibut of around 20lbs which was duly unhooked and released. We then broke o shing to top up our energy reserves with a bacon sandwich, a piece of cake and a cup of tea. Constantly manoeuvring to keep our balance and the e ort of jigging and winding in sh rapidly burns calories so it is important you work to maintain an appropriate energy level. By now the halibut were on the feed and we were being intercepted frequently by some nice sized ones. Both Craig and I were very contented with how the day was progressing so far and having just no ced sandeel swimming underneath the boat I decided to “match the hatch” and change my lure to something more sandeel like. I remember thinking that the light Con ict rod, which would be more at home jigging for perch, paired with a Penn Fierce reel loaded with 20lb Berkley braid would be severely tested if something big decided to Small but excellent sport on inhale my three inch lure. Ensuring the drag was set correctly I cast and light gear allowed the lure to sink. As it hit the bo om I started to retrieve whilst jigging to inject it with some life when suddenly it was stopped dead in its tracks. For a split second nothing happened then the spool began to empty rapidly as the sh ran in a bid to gain its freedom. With the spool con nuing to empty fast it was now hot to touch and I began to get a li le concerned. However my concern was raised to another level when I saw a seagull leave the water and y straight into my line! Credit to Berkley, even though the seagull hit the line at full bore at the same me as the halibut was exer ng maximum pressure on the li le Con ict rod, the line kept me connected. Eventually the sh began to re and as its runs became shorter I was able to get it closer to the boat when all of a sudden it switched on its energy reserves and ran again, this me slapping the line with its tail which was a heart stopping moment… From the ini al stages of the ght I es mated the sh to be around 40lb but as I began to coax her from the sea bed once again I realised this was a bigger sh. Using all my experience from previous halibut tussles I concentrated on ge ng the angle of the rod correct to minimise the chances of gear failure which, since it was so light was a real possibility. Eventually she began to emerge from the depths, coming up like a sub. As she got closer to the boat I called Craig to get the chin ga which was a ached to a rope for the bene t of our safety and that of the sh. As she broke the surface I grabbed the trace and saw the li le lure dangling from that gaping mouth. As she took a breath I quickly put the chin ga in her lower jaw. She thrashed the surface momentarily before se ling down and sucking in the water to irrigate her gills.

A sh I will remember for a long time

We quickly cleared an area of the boat before sliding her over the rail for a couple of pictures before she was released. I will remember this sh for a very long me as it truly was a David and Goliath ba le. The Penn Con ict paired with the Penn Fierce when faced with a 100lb plus halibut had delivered well above expecta ons. Perhaps not standard 100lb plus halibut gear but would I do it again .., of course I would … it was an amazing experience.

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I didn't know it then but the best was to come a couple of days later.

With it being our last day in Norway, Craig and I planned to be up early and get away before the others realised we were gone. This way we would maximise our me on the water and have rst choice of marks. I was on breakfast duty, so set about cooking as quickly as I could and soon Craig and I were tucking in to a hearty breakfast which, although I say it myself, was t for a king…… the full English with more than ample amounts of toast and tea. What we hadn’t an cipated was that the pleasant breakfast aromas would waken our angling colleagues from their slumbers earlier than we wanted. This resulted in them drinking our tea and beginning to make their breakfast. As anglers do, we started to talk and with Craig and I being rather par al to a sharing a yarn or two, before we realised it, the other lads had nished their breakfast and were on their way to check in with the sheries people. By the me we got ourselves sorted the others had fuelled up and were already heading out to the halibut grounds. So much for sneaking out … Eventually we sorted everything out and headed out the harbour toward the halibut grounds, stopping on the way out to catch some fresh bait. Even before we cast o , news came in that one of the boats had a halibut, described as a “barn door”, follow up an 8lb cod which had taken a lure but it had lost interest and headed back to the depths so our sense of an cipa on was almost overwhelming. Arriving at the halibut grounds we could see there were six boats working in the same area, and although they were catching halibut, this was too crowded for my liking so we took the decision to move elsewhere. We had travelled no more than 300 yards when one of our friends called to say another, bigger halibut had followed a bait which had become tangled up with some weed but once again the sh had lost interest. Realising that both of these big sh were di erent ones, Craig was keen to head back to where the others were as halibut to 50lb were now being caught quite frequently. A er some discussion, where I presented my view that virgin territory with nobody else near us would be be er, we decided to move to a di erent mark. Once there we set up to dri across some ground that I favoured, and with wind and de doing what we wanted we got the gear in the water. So far it had been a stop start type of day and we hadn’t made the best use of our me. Our plans for an early start had been derailed because of the excellent breakfast I had cooked and our love of having a craic hadn’t helped either. With it being the last day we had to plan in me to clean and maintain the boat, clean the apartment, sort out llets from the freezer and pack for the journey home so we were both feeling the pressure to connect with some halibut. Three dri s later we s ll had nothing to declare. Having previous experience with this ground I knew that sh would be there but it was clear they were not in feeding mode. The phone brought more news from our friends who were s ll catching halibut and one boat had taken the decision to go back to the harbour to start preparing for the trip back home. It was now midday and the me pressure on us both con nued to increase. I was s ll con dent that our mark would deliver but to avoid a mu ny I agreed to Craigs sugges on to return to where the others were. My ins nct was telling me not to chase shadows, and a er three dri s without a bite it was star ng to look like we may have missed out and the sh had went o the feed. With so much to do when we got back ashore we were pushing our luck me wise now but I convinced Craig to go back to where we had just been. Fi een minutes later we were back and had set up a dri . I knew sh were there and were just chilling out wai ng for the dinner bell to ring. About halfway through the dri , both rods bent over with halibut, and one of 35lb was brought to the boat with a second coming just before the end of the dri .

Our mood instantly improved and we enthusias cally set up another dri not far from our rst one. Whilst Craig was on the phone with the lads cleaning their boats, number three came to the boat. Shortly a er his rod signalled another bite, which resulted in number four coming to the boat, which was quickly photographed and returned.

Having reached a very respectable tally of een “bu s”, we calculated we were two dri s away from having to call it a day as with only a few hours before dark we s ll had to schedule in me to clean the boat and other du es. On the second to last dri Craig set his rod in the holder high on the bow but forgot to set the ratchet. When the halibut took the bait it was a struggle for Craig to get the rod out of the holder with the result that the sh dropped the bait. As he looked at me in disbelief the sh took the bait once more only for Craig to miss it again. A lesson learned the hard way. He put the rod back in the holder and once more it bent over double as the sh made o with the bait. Frustra ngly he didn't manage to connect this me either. Now, I know I should have been sympathising with my mate at this point and although I was, well maybe just a li le, I was also thinking that there is a very hungry sh down there. This was con rmed a couple of minutes later as my rod took the strain of a sh star ng to take line. As I put the reel into gear the rod loaded up and the sh con nued to take line but a er 40 yards or so, it spat the hook. My ins nct was that this was the the same sh and that it was a good one. Having lost his bait Craig proceeded to take the biggest of the two remaining baits from our bait bucket and sent it to the bo om. This le me with a ny bait. It was smaller than the hook! I told him to wind in so we could set up for our last dri and I cant deny I ge ng a small amount sa sfac on watching him wind that bait all the way up as he had taken the last bait. We were now both feeling the pressure of needing to get something big. While I steered the boat to the start of the dri my rod somehow became in mate with another and tangled up. This meant Craig got his bait down rst while I worked on untangling mine. Perhaps this was payback for my inappropriate feelings earlier? We were about halfway through the dri before I had managed to untangle my gear and send my appe ser sized bait to the bo om. I laid my rod between the steering wheel and the rail, securing it with a strap and set the ratchet before se ng about cleaning up in prepara on for our journey back to the harbour when I heard a noise. I turned around to see my rod bent over but it was stuck fast. Moving quicker than with hindsight I thought I was capable of, I released the rod and held on to the spool while pulling for a break as it had all the signs of a snag. Most halibut run a er taking a bait but this one only woke up when it felt me pulling hard for a break, and boy, it really did wake up. From my previous encounters with these sh I know that all giant halibut behave the same when hooked. They head for deep water and this one was doing exactly that. My li le 8000 reel, which wouldn’t be out of place in a pike anglers tackle bag, had about 500 yards of line on it and the sh was headed at an increasing rate to a piece of ground I knew was 900 feet deep. I knew that I had to stop it and that I didn't have too long to do that. Craig had previously told me that he wanted no part with landing a giant sh as they made him nervous so I knew I was on my own. Slowly I began to gain some control on the sh and managed to pump her to the surface where she held brie y before running hard again. Having now had sight of the sh Craig was even more con dent in his decision not to take part in landing it …… it really was a big sh. The challenge facing me was not only that we were in a fyord with a drop o to 900 feet but we were also bearing down on a boat which had six rods out. We shouted to the guys in the boat whose looks of bewilderment rapidly gave way to them retrieving their gear like mad men. Sixty feet from the anglers boat and 150 feet from the deep gully I nally managed to stop her run. She had taken us three quarters of a mile from where she was hooked. A long series of short pumps enabled me to gain line once more.

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I told Craig that I would get one shot at this sh and asked him to get the rope ga ready. Winding in a li le more

I saw the trace which I grabbed whilst Craig held my rod. The sh was red and I knew I had about 20 seconds maximum to set the rope ga before she would recover su ciently to run again. With her six to eight inches under the surface I slid my hand further down the trace and as she opened her mouth I managed to set the chin ga . She immediately protested in the strongest terms and for a short while thrashed about vigorously on the surface. The bene t of a rope ga is that there is no leverage from the sh to the leader man and it therefore doesn't allow the sh to twist o the ga . It didnt take long for the sh to calm down and I took the decision to tow her back to the harbour which meant water would be passing through her gills to irrigate her and help her recover. Phoning ahead we made sure things would be made ready. We towed her at around 2 knots for just over a mile and half to the harbour where people were wai ng excitedly to see this leviathan. Arriving at the harbour we moored up and with addi onal help, towed the sh to a small shallow beach area where she was photographed, admired and released. Our host was having dinner with the Bishop of Norway who came out to see the sh which he blessed and then with a ick of that powerful tail she was gone into the depths of the ord. Landing any halibut over two metre in Norway is illegal but with mine being kept in the water the whole me it complied with the regula ons. My arms were aching from the tow so when the measurements

the smile says its a father and son thing gave her an es mated weight of just over 300lb I was ecsta c. My youngest son Reef, and I are the only two anglers to land giant halibut, 300lbs plus, from the camp which made this sh even more special.

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A true leviathan - over 300lbs of prime Norwegian Halibut

Bigger sh have been hooked though and with the biggest being caught on a long line, 200 yards from the shore being 450kgs (900lbs) all I can say is watch this space ……

Steve Murphy reports on the Blue n Tuna UK team progress The last day of shing for the CHART2021 program was the 14th November, and it marked the end of a three month program which by pretty much all metrics exceeded all expectations. That 3 months was the culmination of work that began in February 2020 and entailed a lot of work from a lot of people. As we have agged before, our own David West played a key role alongside Simon Thomas, John McMaster and many others. We didn’t get too much downtime after shing ceased however, and within weeks we were once again active on a number of fronts. I was asked to provide the membership with an update on what has been going on, where we are at, and our hopes and aspirations for 2022, so here it is. CHART2021 Review. This began just a week after shing ended with a survey for participating skippers, then in early December a workshop was run by DEFRA/CEFAS for skippers to discuss this in person, at which myself, Simon and John were asked to assist as ‘facilitators’ of the discussion. The CHART Steering Group, (Governments agencies and the Stakeholder reps platform to design/ discuss etc), review process kicked off in January and saw the last meeting in late February. It was a chance for us all to provide feedback on what WE felt had worked and not worked. Hopefully the conclusions drawn will help ensure we build a better version of any future ‘science shery’ such as CHART. I think there were a lot of positive developments from the Review process which hopefully will result in positive changes in any future CHART style program. Devolved Administrations. We also spent time working with Welsh and NI stakeholders and Fisheries Of cials through late 2021, setting the groundwork for CHART style programs in 2022. The Political Commitment in NI is secured and we are working with DAERA/AFBI (their DEFRA/CEFAS) to put something in place. I have a call with a number of NI skippers mid March. Wales has been more problematic with resistance from some Welsh Fisheries of cials to Recreational Fishing of any sort for ABFT, and a Labour Fisheries Minister who whilst forcing her Civil Servants to the table, has yet to formally endorse a Welsh CHART2022. We did achieve, (at short notice) a crucial experimental operation to act as a platform to assuage some concerns Welsh Fisheries (WF) had re Dolphin and Gannet bycatch risk. Andrew Alsop and Rob Rennie in November each undertook three day pilot trips targeting BFT in different locations using different techniques, (‘inshore’ trolling, ‘offshore’, deadbaiting). These short pilot trips were a great success, allaying the worst fears of WF and several ABFT were actually caught and tagged. All credit to Andrew and Rob for stepping up and undertaking this work at short notice under very constrained conditions. I can’t really say much about Scotland. The stakeholders there took a different path last year and set up a ‘hybrid’ program of oy and satellite tags with 7 vessels authorised under Marine Scotland derogations. They haven’t engaged with us through that program, and seem to have been hampered by weather, uncooperative sh and other handicaps. Politics are quite an issue it seems between Edinburgh and Westminster on ABFT. To an outsider it appears that Holyrood are keen to establish their share of the 48.4t of TAC and then operate outside of any in uence from London. Putting aside the politics of that it is in contrast to what the other DA’s are doing. We remain ready to assist in any way we can but there is something of a radio silence from Scottish stakeholders at this stage.

So what for 2022? In our proposal for 2022, delivered mid December, we called for a Pilot Recreational Fishery, (lighter touch, less constrained techniques etc), to be operated by the 15 CHART2021 ‘Graduates’ alongside a revised CHART2.0 This ‘twin track’ proposal was the result of many months work through Autumn 2021.

What DEFRA DID offer was the establishment of a working group to scope out the feasibility of a Recreational Fishery (RLRF) for 2023. This was the process we undertook in Sept-Dec 2020 that turned the CHART program into reality. Fingers crossed that this is similarly productive. We start work on this towards the end of March. There is a wider consultation on future ABFT policy getting underway this spring, and both the CHART2021 results/review and the RLRF scoping group work will feed into that. CHART2022. Whilst the ’twin track’ proposal was rejected, CHART2022 work has continued with a strong political commitment to its operation this year. A ‘CHART2022’ program appears in the UK’s Blue n ‘Fishing Plan’ that has to be delivered to ICCAT each year by mid February. DEFRA are still stressing though that there is no guarantee it will take place and at the time of writing, funding has not been assured. I am pretty con dent that the intense political lobbying we have undertaken will ensure some funding is found. The amount however is still of concern and I fear our objectives re scale, and the inclusion of a pilot private recreational boat component will fall foul of funding issues. We continue to ght that corner. Meanwhile, work towards a 2022 English CHART program continues with regular meetings so that as soon as we get the green light DEFRA/CEFAS can kickstart the process with opening up for applications etc. Away from the day to day work that is ongoing, we are working on setting up a funded, professional association to represent our interest in a sustainable future for ABFT and a world class Recreational Fishery. More colour on that soon. Thanks again for the support and encouragement the Club Committee and individual members have offered to our efforts over the last 3-4 years. English CHART2021 was a milestone and we hope to continue to move forward this year, step by step towards our aim of a Recreational Live Release Fishery across the UK accessible to both Charter and private recreational boats. Please note this is for the use of SCBI Club members only.

A Royal Slam inspires Andy Atkins to propose a club trip to Kenya Kenya has been an established staple in the big game shing scene since shermen started searching the pelagic rich waters that exist off the East African coast. Watamu has long been held as the go to venue on the northern coast with stable catches year in year out of up to 6 bill sh species including blue, black, stripe, sail, broadbill and occasional short bill spear sh.

To the south those with a decent memory will recall great catches of big tuna from Pemba Channel close to the Tanzania border. Unfortunately with heavy commercial shing and a change in direction Pemba slowly slid off the map and became a memory with most switching their focus towards the on shore potential of the area. Diani beach sits north of Pemba but south of Mombasa, serviced by two internal airports and lled with world class hotels on sugar sand beaches. To the best of my knowledge it has a very limited sport shing eet and a search of the internet shows few if any stable catch reports. Add two years of covid related restrictions, and you have a limited resource to base a trip upon.

Despite a major lobbying campaign that proposal was rejected in early February by DEFRA. Various excuses were provided, several of which we consider to be totally disingenuous. We haven’t totally conceded on this point yet and we have some solid campaigners and supporters directly engaged with both Victoria Prentis and George Eustice. A long shot but we aren’t conceding defeat on this yet.

In early March the club received an invitation to sh a prestigious tournament planned to launch from the new Diani Beach shing club. Giles Adcock a world renowned big game hunting guide, and secretary for the club, extended an invitation to the SCBI and with 24 hours notice I booked ights for myself and family and jumped on a plane to nd out about this new shing venture! The new raft of changes for travel meant a crazy 24 hours of PCR tests, visa applications, travel itineraries more forms, and forms for the sake of forms. We arrived at Heathrow early for the ights which we had secured for less than £500 a person return and using Kenya Airways the generous 2 x 23kg luggage allowance made packing an easy affair. We ew straight into Nairobi and then took a connecting ight to Mombasa although there are far nearer airports had we had time to book differently. The joys of Kenyan traf c meant a 3 hour transfer but made bearable in a comfortable air conditioned taxi. We were greeted as always by the wonderfully friendly and hospitable Kenyan staff and residents. A quick shower and it was time to get on with the important stuff. Giles called and we went over to Safari Beach Hotel where the new club has been built. He explained that the original tournament had fallen through with 40 of the competitors visa’s not having come through from Pakistan leaving them with a potentially huge nancial hole. Disappointing as this was, the alternative plan was just as inviting with a proposed weekend tournament made up of charter boats and local boats shing the clear blue waters out of Diani.

A Kenyan sunset Clearly a chance which was too good to miss so plans were made and beers consumed. Raymond, the owner of Safari Beach has a rich family history in the area being the son of the joint owner of the Alliance hotel group. English educated and a sublime guest he offered to take us out for the two days aboard his well equipped Bertram which is tted out to a high standard (he even has onboard wi ). Our plan was to go south initially towards Pemba and then sh back up towards Diani over the course of the day. The waters were alive with bait and the sounder was packed with huge shoals of sh (we later discovered these were small puffer sh). Lures were set, shing a traditional belly strip bait and lure spread with large Hawaiian style teasers.

The rst morning was fairly uneventful for us, circling bait everywhere we went. Around midday Raymond decided to steer away from the bait and troll south basing the idea that any bill sh around the bait balls (we could see plenty) were probably gorged on the huge amounts of sh. This proved to be the breakthrough we needed, as a marlin came up on our right rigger immediately engul ng the bait.

The sh started to empty the 50wide Shimano reel at the usual alarming pace and before 30 seconds had passed we were down to the backing. We started to back down hard on the sh and I had to work extremely hard to keep up as water crashed the transom and we narrowed the gap on the sh. A few acrobatics from the marlin showed, a solid sh of about 200-220lb and within 4 minutes we had the sh to the leader. A quick look con rmed it was the elusive black marlin I had been searching for. 23 years of missed opportunities and lost sh had made the black marlin my nemesis and the last of the marlin species needed for my royal slam!

Andy with his elusive Black Marlin and son Harry As a second twist of fate it was exactly 10 years to the day and almost to the hour that Natalie caught her rst sail sh in Kenya. At that time she was 12 weeks pregnant with our eldest son Harry. Now aged 9 he was sitting in Natalie’s place with the black marlin that I had been after for so long. The other boats in the tournament were also reporting catches and sail sh, blue’s and stripes being called up over the radio con rmed a successful rst day of shing. We had a couple of lazy dorado come into the spread but nothing would commit to our lures. Day one completed, we returned to the new club house which is a beautifully built Florida style open venue with views to die for. The bar has been cleverly designed to look like the back of a sport sher with blue acrylic ooring nishing the look and starlights built into the roof resulting in a very pleasing and comfortable space. The club ethos is progressive and forward thinking which is something I feel has been missing in Kenya for some time. The aim of the club is to draw sponsorship and interest from further a eld, provide a competitive series of tournaments and draw more international interest to the area.

With abundant bill sh and an attitude to succeed I can see no reason why Diani can’t become a new staple for shing.

Day 2 started with a lot more green water than day 1 and we elected to try close in rst up for sail sh before moving slightly further north. We raised a couple of lazy sail sh that would not commit and that was our lot. The boats who pushed south hit the jackpot and saw up to 4 marlin hitting lures at a time. They landed a mix of marlin and sail sh to take a well deserved overall tournament win. I have been fortunate to have shed most of the top bill sh tournaments and locations around the world over the years but there is always something special about coming back to Kenya. With affordable quality shing, cheap ights and accommodation combined with excellent hospitality, Kenya is an ideal venue for a club trip. The proposal is for a club tournament shed around 10th March 2023 onwards shing 3 anglers to a boat. With a raft of quality boats ranging from smaller centre consoles to larger sport shers it offers everything the travelling angler could ask for.

The creatively designed clubhouse Once con rmed I will look to secure 50% deposits from interested anglers and I will be able to arrange accommodation if required, which comes at discounted rates. The club also bene ts from 15% discount with Kenya Airways which can be passed on for bookings. The upshot of this as well is the truly unexplored element of the shing potential. Pemba was amongst the rst locations in the world to produce a fantasy slam (5 bill sh species in a day) and one of the few places where possibly 6 could be caught….let’s hope one day we get to see that incredible achievement realised!

If you are interested please contact Andy as soon as possible please.

SCBI Skipper comment……. Just when charter skippers thought they might get back to some semblance of normality with Covid 19 being under more under control, Russia, or perhaps more accurately, President Putin decided to start a war. In the UK, chartering was hit by the 2 metre distance ruling reducing the amount of anglers who could share the boat, which resulted in either a lower charter fee for skippers or increased anglers individual charter fee. Not ideal either way. One of the consequences of Putins invasion into Ukraine is the huge increase in oil price which has very quickly worked its way through to fuel prices and is another unwelcome squeeze on charter skippers margins. A large sector of our sport requires a vibrant charter eet and I know that members of the SCBI will join me in wishing our skipper members all the very best during what are di cult times ahead. We caught up with some and asked them to share their 2021 experiences and their plans for 2022 so here they are.

Vince Riera, Charlo e and Mad Max 2021 was a great shing year for Mad Max especially when it came to bill sh. We caught more sword sh than we ever have before, and once again won awards for Spear sh. We also won Top Tagging Captain and Top Tagging Mate for Spear sh in the Atlantic from The Bill sh Foundation.

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Vince receiving Top Tagging Captain Award

Charlotte receiving Top Tagging Mate award

Although we are based in the Mediterranean, the Bill sh Foundation groups the seas with the closest ocean so we are included in the Atlantic. We hope to win this award for the third time this year by tagging and releasing as many Spear sh as possible.

This year we are also beginning 2 day shing trips to ‘El Banco’, which is an underwater volcano, 45 nautical miles from the nearest shore. This volcano is 4.5 miles long and has a depth range of 80 to 800 metres. It's surrounded by numerous chimneys and located just on the edge of the drop o from 800 to 1500m. El Banco promises incredible shing……….

We are looking forward to see what this year has in store for us shing wise and hope to see a few faces from the club. Hope to see you all soon - Vince & Charlotte You can contact Vince at: +34 675 44 73 05 0r +34 667 93 09 02 Email: capt.vinceriera@gmail.com Website: www.fishing-mallorca.net ~~~ *** ~~~

Shawn Trinder sets out on a new Lyme Bay venture…….. Although I know a number of the SCBI members there are many whom I have yet to meet so let me start by introducing myself.

My name is Shawn Trinder. I have shed for over 30 years, 5 of those being commercially. I have been very fortunate to sh with some top skippers in some tremendous destinations including Cabo, Zihuatenjo, Cape Verde, Kenya, South Africa, La Gomera and the Caribbean Islands with a trip to Marathon being an annual event since the early 2000’s.

I was lucky enough to have Dicky Leggett, the well known and respected Littlehampton skipper, take me under his wing and I have crewed for him of and on for 15 years. During these trips he taught me a huge amount about chartering and sea shing in general. Alongside all that I spent a bit of time on the deck in the Florida Keys. All this has led to me to take the decision to become a full time charter skipper. Over the last couple of years I have shed Lyme Bay both commercially and recreationally and I know I have just scratched the surface of what it has to o er. With a large number of reefs only 30 minutes from the harbour, long steams are not a necessity, having taken good bream at the harbour mouth and a 52lb eel only 300 yards from the shore. The bream shing is exceptional, both in terms of numbers and average size and we have had specimens to over 4lbs. The shery regularly delivers good sh with skate over 20lbs, eels up to 63lbs and huss to 16lbs to mention a few. When I was shing commercially I located several marks which hold more elusive sh including John Dory and monk sh. I plan to spend some time targeting those this year. I have also been involved in the boat match scene since 2003 and am o ering practise days and club competitions for interested crews. Lyme Bay is a tremendous venue for species hunts and specimen hunting so I can see an exciting year ahead. The Susie B is a Star sh 8 capable of getting to the shing grounds fairly quickly whilst providing comfort and the all important tea urn. She is coded Cat 3 for 10 anglers but my preference is to have 6 anglers. This gives everyone additional space and a more relaxing atmosphere whilst minimising the tangles. I will be o ering charters from 4 to 12 hours (more if you can handle it) from April right through into the new year. The trips on o er will include on the reefs, the banks, species hunts, wrecking and o shore reef trips but I am happy to tailor the trip to suit your needs. I am also looking into the possibility of sharking. A standard 8 hour trip will cost £450 to charter the boat but SCBI members get a 15% discount. The price includes mackerel and squid/cuttle bait. Given enough notice I can also provide other baits which I will o er at cost price. Lyme Bay is a tremendous shery providing a wide range of species, many of specimen size and I am very excited about getting in among it and look forward to meeting many SCBI members. Shawn You can contact Shawn on 07752 325 693

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Leading up to the start of the 2021 season the endless list of boat maintenance kept us very busy and included new cutlass bearings, engine realignment, propellor shaft balanced and polished and rudder bearings replaced alongside the usual annual jobs. A lot of work but we were glad of it later in the year when the Blue n arrived as they challenge the boat as well as the anglers….. April/May time in Looe provided a tremendous run of feisty reef Pollack which served as a warm up for a number of our customers after their long winter hibernation in addition to lling the fresh sh gap in their freezers. This year we have a new lleting station on the Sowenna designed to make it easier for our customers to llet their sh. The set up also has a large ice bin to keep your sh fresh Our new logo, along with the mackerel, arrived in June. Prior to this they had been sporadic so they were very welcome. Ree ng continued to deliver quality Pollack and some nice Ling.

My youngest crew member - son Vince

14lb Hake - an impressive hard ghting predator On one trip we had a couple of small blue sharks follow whiting and mackerel to the boat when suddenly one of the anglers rods signalled something a lot bigger. We initially assumed we had connected with one of the small Blues. To our surprise it turned out to be a cracking 14lb Hake. Our instinct was to return it but with a failed swim bladder it was kept for the table.

Blue sharks started to show in numbers in July and we had a number of good sh. Perhaps the most memorable is the big male which took us round the boat eight times. Simon Thomas gave us an estimated weight of 200lbs by scaling from pictures of the sh in the water. It wasn’t brought aboard. We are still tagging for NOAA and it was nice to hear that one of our tagged sh had been recaptured 40 days later in Falmouth Bay when it was released once more. Events like this emphasise the

importance of adhering to catch & release best practise. fi

Dan Marge s Sowenna - Cornish for Success

In 2021 we took part in the SACGB festival in Looe and managed second place for the number of sharks across the three day event. We also took part in the SCBI festival out of Plymouth for the rst time. The weather reduced the event to two days but that did not dampen the members enthusiasm and with Sowenna having the most sharks over the two days that was a bonus for us.

Simon Thomas with me at the SCBI festival - each ag represents a shark The reefs continued to deliver quality Pollack, Ling, Conger, John Dory and Huss throughout the year. A pleasant surprise was the number of Bream on the reefs with Red, Black and Couches all being caught. The best Blacks were close to 5lbs and Couches up to 3lbs. We also had a Comber and Ribbon Fish.

A Comber sh

A good day on the reef targeting Bream Our work with the CHART2021 programme started in style on the 16th September with our rst hook up being a double. Both sh were brought to the boat, recovered, tagged and released.

Watching the spread - a moment of calm

Our rst CHART 2021 Blue n - a double hook up - baptism of re…… We shed for Blue n for a total of 26 days and caught, recovered, tagged and released 55 sh with estimated weights between 200 and 500lbs. The average size was between 300 to 400lbs. To comply with CHART rules all shing was done using spreader bars with large squid stingers, although we also had a lot of success with deadbait stingers. All our sh were caught on stand up using Penn International 80 gear.

Blue n shing is the most exciting and the most emotionally draining form of shing we have experienced in the UK. We often found ourselves in the middle of huge feeding frenzies with Blue n, dolphins, sea birds and even whales all joining in … an incredible sight to see.

We even had a Thresher in the trail twice with one launching itself 10 feet out of the water giving us a perfect side pro le.

A prime Cornish Blue n

On the last day of CHART2021 - we had one angler aboard - he caught and release six Blue n singlehanded

So 2021 was a tremendously exciting year for us with lots of new experiences and we are really excited for the 2022 season. Our pre-season work includes upgrading our electronic systems and giving the deck and windows some much needed TLC. With last years ree ng delivering good numbers of quality sh plus some more unusual ones, we are excited to see what surprises the reefs have in store for us this year We are very much looking forward to joining the 2022 SCBI shark festival and catching up with everyone again. Let's hope the weather gods are kinder and we manage the full three days this year. At this point in time we don't know if there will be a repeat of CHART2021 this year but if there is we intend to apply to be part of it and if selected its our plan to remove the aft gantry for the CHART programme to give us better accessibility and enhance the angler experience. Dan Contact details: mobile 07738 057 115

Thats all Folks…………… We hope you have enjoyed the rst 2022 quarterly newsletter and on behalf of us all, a huge thanks to all the contributors. Before I became a member of the SCBI, I had assumed it was a big game club which is of course absolutely not true. The club is blessed with members who are experienced in coarse, game and general sea angling as well as big game which makes the SCBI quite unique so we are very keen to receive articles and material across all of these disciplines. SCBI members have stories from many years back as well as more recent ones and with such a depth of experience and knowledge it would be wrong of us not to try our very best to capture this material which we hope this will inspire other members to try for di erent species and venues as well as attract new comers to our sport. Some of you may be concerned about writing an article but you shouldn’t be as the committee have the necessary skill sets to edit your material although, David West is still attempting to educate me in the di erence between practise and practice .. so perhaps not all the committee have these skills? So please dont worry about your writing abilities, we can sort that out for you. The important thing is that you share your stories and experiences and better still some pictures if you have them. We would also be very interested to hear your ideas for the content of future newsletters going forward. We dont need to restrict ourselves to shing trips, we could include venue reviews, gear and technique discussions etc The next Newsletter is planned for the end of June and already we have the rst article but we need many more so we hope to hear from you all very soon.

Johnmac