If you are coming to the Channel Islands for the first time, and indeed if you are travelling by plane, take a look at the sea beneath you as you come in to land. Watch the visibly swirling currents foam white as they squeeze beneath the many rocks, creating about the most inviting looking fishing grounds you could ever hope to see. Look at the masses of beaches, cliffs, breakwaters, lonely coves, gullies, and tumbling sandbanks, all saying one thing to the angler : fish, and plenty of them !! Also bear in mind that any of the quite wonderful Channel Islands are great holiday destinations; I have lost count of the times I have been lucky enough to fly (or sail) to one of the islands, and still every time you will find me peering out of the window at the outrageously good looking waters beneath me. Yes, the unique Channel Islands are home to some of the richest waters in Europe and can offer some of the finest fishing you will find. They are simply very exciting waters to fish. I flew into Jersey, the largest of the islands, with one thing I really needed to get strong images of shore fishing for bass. Forget the busy St. Helier (great place), leave the tourist trails behind, for I was being taken to some of Jersey's most special bass spots by my guide Andrew Syvret. As we followed the ebbing tide around Seymour Tower, so we waded over crystal flats that looked like areas of the Florida Keys, except that the Jersey water was a little colder, and I don't remember so many rocks in the Keys. But this was essentially flats fishing for bass, casting surface lures over sunken rocks and weed beds, trying to entice the predatory bass to come out from their hiding places. We caught a lot of fish.

But this trip was about one fish in particular : Andrew waded a deep gully on my first afternoon on the island, but I had to wait a while for the tide to go down. When you have all your cameras and lenses on your back, its not the done thing to go and drown them !! But I sat and photographed Andrew as he waded over, and then waited as he sunk from view behind a rock and started to cast his lure over the great looking terrain all around us. Only five minutes later and I can hear excited shouting, I can even see his rod bent over, it looks a good fish, but I just can't wade over yet. Ten minutes later and Andrew is instead wading back towards me, cradling the biggest bass I have ever seen : maybe 11 lbs, perfect in every way, all the pictures I could ask for, and on my first ever afternoon's fishing in Jersey. The Channel Islands are places to get lucky. Jersey The largest and most populated of the islands, Jersey has an extensive coastline offering many different kinds of shore fishing, as well as excellent boat fishing opportunities (some great beaches for surfing as well). If you are prepared to look around you will have no trouble getting far away from the summer crowds and accessing quiet rock or beach marks to fish for bass, wrasse, mullet, bream, plaice, gurnards, various ray species (blonde, small-eyed and undulate), turbot etc. The numerous beaches offer bass, rays and flatfish. You can also catch most of these species at the easily accessible St. Catherine's Breakwater. Do bear in mind that Jersey basically doubles in size when the tide is out and this offers a huge amount of ground to fish over, but do play it very safe with the incoming tide and seek local knowledge at all times if you want to wander these low tide areas. Plenty of perfect ground for bass fishing with lures and flies opens up as the tide goes out; you really have to see the south east of Jersey to see just how much ground uncovers, it is quite amazing. The offshore reef systems of Les Ecrehous and Les Minquiers are excellent boat fishing grounds, but smaller boats are needed to access the maze of gullies. Prime bass fishing areas, but you need local contacts to take you in there as they are potentially extremely dangerous places. But excellent boat fishing is on offer from the two professional charter boats. A local speciality is anchoring the shallow sandbanks and targeting big blonde and small-eyed ray, as well as drifting the rougher ground for black bream. Without a doubt Jersey waters offer the best bream fishing in Europe, and they are great fun on light gear. Bear in mind that the tides can be ferocious around the Channel Islands, so always look to fish with braided mainline. Also some excellent wreck fishing on offer, but for the best turbot and bass fishing you need to think more about fishing the Guernsey/Alderney waters. Huge packs of tope and smoothounds come to feed off Jersey as well and they offer incredible sport on light gear in a screaming tide !! www.jersey.com www.thisisjersey.com www.jersey.co.uk Fishing info (tackle shops, charter boats, where to fish etc.): www.jersey.com/fishing

Guernsey

The second largest Channel Island, Guernsey is further north than Jersey but much smaller and a little more intimate as a result. Renowned for excellent shore fishing throughout the year, this island holds shoals of very large mullet during the colder months, as well as all the other species on offer throughout the waters. As is normal in these waters, shore fishing for bass can be excellent at times, using baits, lures and flies ( I still think a lot more bass fishing is there to be discovered, especially on the fly and surface lures). Boat fishing on the sandbanks for the turbot and brill is more consistent than in local Jersey waters, and the reefs that abound are well known for sometimes huge numbers of big bass. The mid-channel wrecks are closer as well and it was Plymouth boats that pioneered the stopover, long-distance wreck fishing trips, using Guernsey as a base.

www.guernseytouristboard.com www.thisisguernsey.com

Local fishing spots and info : http://www.guernseytouristboard.com/ downloads/general/vgAnglingmap.pdf

Charter boats, fishing tackle shops etc. : http://www.guernseytouristboard.com/whyguernsey/ angling/information.aspx?searchstr=useful%20information


Alderney

This small Channel Island lies near to Cap de la Hague in France and is surrounded by quite staggeringly powerful tides; this in turn affords the fish a certain amount of protection from commercial fleets. Alderney is very famous for the incredible quality of its shore fishing : winter sees huge shoals of massive mullet hanging around, as well as big bass, rays, wrasse, black bream and conger. Plenty of fish are there year round, but autumn, winter and spring are the best times for serious shore fishing.

The boat fishing on offer is very special, but there is only one professional charter boat operating directly out of Alderney (he is a very good skipper). But many UK south coast charter boats run trips that use Alderney as a base, and from Spring onwards they catch huge numbers of big turbot, brill, bass and tope, as well as the usual wreck and reef species. Don't forget the ray and bream. It is not unusual to find over ten UK charter boats moored up on an early summer's evening.

www.alderney.gov.gg
The Alderney Felix, local charter boat : www.alderneyangling.co.gg
Local fishing tackle shop/guided shore fishing : www.alderneyangling.com


Herm and Sark

The smallest inhabited Channel Islands (apart from the privately owned ones), these two lie very close to Guernsey and are very easily accessible via ferries that run all year out of St. Peter Port (Guernsey). You will never hear much about the fishing on offer, but that is only really because so few people actually fish from Herm and Sark. They are so small that no cars are allowed (or even needed, hire bikes instead) and the people could not be friendlier. These two islands will see a lot of me over the next few years, I love the feeling they have, and I really like fishing places that almost nobody else does.

Sark is the larger island, about forty minutes boat ride from Guernsey, and the island is made up mainly of high cliffs and very out-of the way little beaches. Make the effort to get over there and you will be rewarded with some of the most unspoilt waters in Europe, and most likely you will be the only people fishing them. I think that every species that can be caught in Channel Island waters have at some time or another been caught off the Sark shoreline, but really the place is just waiting for anglers. Bream (at least three different species), mullet, ray, wrasse, conger, bass, you name it, you can catch it here.

Herm is even smaller again, but has slightly more diverse fishing terrain than Sark. One side is given over to a big beach that then dries out at low tide to reveal an area very much like in south-east Jersey. Practically nobody fishes over here, but you could spend weeks trying to fish every gully and tide-rip, especially for bass and bream. Herm is where I believe there to be some outstanding fly and lure fishing for bass, both from the shore and local small boats that can access the warren of coves and gullies. Guess where I'm going next...?

www.sark-tourism.com
www.herm-island.com