THE QUAY TO EXTENDED CHARTERS
MIKE MILLMAN traces the development of these overnight cross channel charter fishing trips from their inception in the 1970s
The concept of cross channel charters from the Devon ports of Plymouth, Salcombe, Dartmouth and Brixham was the brainchild of Geordie Dickson whose boat ARTILLERYMAN became a familiar sight in the port.
It was an inspired idea as it brought the many wrecks that were otherwise out of range for a single day’s fishing into contention. Two- and three-night stays in St. Peter Port were the most useful, allowing for fishing on the journey out and the return and the middle day a two-hour run to the famed Alderney Island banks and tidal race: areas much visited by brill, turbot, bass and fishing for black bream can still be good. The downside is now the cost, particularly for a three-night stay which could amount to £500 or more to cover three days at sea, accommodation, food and other expenses. The way to look at this is to consider the trip to be a holiday, which brings the cost into perspective.
Fishing the Hurd Deep in the 1980s was particularly good for pollack with record fish of 27lb 6oz, 26lb 7oz and 26lb being recorded. Such weights are unlikely today, witness to this being the length of time the record has stood since it was set off Dungeness in 1987 by Essex blacksmith Billy Mayes whose fish was an outstanding specimen of 29lb 4oz.
There is a twist to the story: pollack of size are scarce in the area Billy fished and those aboard were not aware of the fish’s significance. After it was weighed it was turned into fillets the head being dumped in a dustbin. Fortunately, Billy had a number of photographs and it was from these that Alwyn Wheeler of the Natural History Museum, who was the Record Fish Committee’s advisor, identified it.
Ling, once a dominating species, are still available but forty pounders are very much a thing of the past and the cod rarely makes more than 25lb. Conger are still a good proposition at wrecks visited during cross channel charters and it is quite possible that a replacement for the record fish of 133lb 4oz could come from one of these. It was during a return journey from St. Peter Port that I had the experience of putting a bait on the bottom in 500ft of water a mile off the North Wall of the Hurd. We were drifting it as an experiment, my rig was a 4ft trace of 25lb mono to a 3/0 hook coming off a boom. The bait was the largest sandeel I could find in the tub. Within a minute of its arrival on the bottom
