TIME MACHINE

Looking back through 40 years of Britain’s biggest and best sea angling magazine…

A look back through the archives.

2009

■ A 95lb conger eel was caught and released by

Nigel McLoughlin, of

Reading, Berkshire. He took the massive eel on a whole mackerel and calamari squid on a size 8/0 meat hook and 250lb mono trace while fishing aboard Valkyrie, skippered by Glenn Cairns, out of Langstone Harbour, Hampshire.

■ An Essex angler caught two doublefigure bass within three casts, which also produced a 10lb thornback ray. Andy Steel, of Shoeburyness, was fishing the Thames Estuary when he caught two bass, both of 11lb 5oz either side of catching the ray.

■ The new Angling Trust’s level of recruitment had fallen below expectations, resulting in a number of cuts and redundancies to its central operations in Nottingham and Leominster. ■ The UK became the latest country to add its support to an international trade ban on Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna. Some argued the British Government should look closer to home and take drastic steps to ensure domestic species were protected first.

■ England won the Home International Shore Championships held in Aberystwyth, and hosted by the Welsh FSA. England had finished last on a tough first day, but topped the second day. The winning team consisted of Dave Chidzoy, Dave Lane, Bill Lindfield, Rob Marshall, Julian Shambrook and Rob Molyneux, with Norman Berry as manager.

1999

■ All sea anglers should show a united front and stand up for their sport, otherwise it will fade into obscurity within 10 years – so said the new leader of the National Federation of Sea Anglers. Mike North, the new chairman, said no-one should take for granted the right to use the marine environment how they want, when they want and as they want. ■ An angler smashed the Scottish spurdog record without realising it while self-drive boat fishing in the Highlands. Stuart Smith, from Ayrshire, caught and released a 19lb 8oz spurdog from Loch Sunart while fishing on a hire boat out of Laga Bay. The Scottish record stood at 18lb 14oz and the British best at 21lb 3oz 7dr.

■ An Isle of Wight angler performed the solo feat of landing a 200lb porbeagle shark from his own small boat.

Alan Deeming, of East Cowes, had drifted miles away from his favoured Solent hotspot when the fish took his pollack bait on a size 14/0 hook.

■ A three-day trip to the Channel Islands produced a 98lb conger eel for Glyn Joyce, of Lutterworth, Leics, while fishing on Chris Tett’s Peace & Plenty, out of Weymouth, Dorset.

1989

■ Turbot record holder Roger Simcox, of Kingsbridge, Devon, smashed the boatcaught gilthead bream best with a 9lb 8oz fish from the Salcombe River, beating the previous record by 1lb 12oz. He still holds the turbot record of 33lb 12oz and set a new gilthead record with a 10lb 2oz fish in 2015.

■ A group of anglers from Swindon SAC caught more than 2,000lb of conger eels, topped by a 99lb 2oz giant. They were fishing on Crafty K, skippered by Barry Hosking, out of Plymouth, Devon, and the best eel fell to Pat Eaton. There was also a 91-pounder out of Dartmouth, Devon, for Dudley Crossling. The angler, from Torquay, was fishing on Brian Dash’s Jennifer Ann II.

■ The British ling record was broken by an angler who cut the fish into pieces and put them in his freezer, without realising he’d hooked a record breaker.

Jim Webster, of Doncaster, South

Yorks, was aboard

Ian Taylor’s My

Sharon, out of Bridlington, when he boated the

59lb 8oz fish – 2lb bigger than the record. A photo had been taken before it was cut up.

■ Essex plumber Malcolm Hutchings caught four bass for 26lb while fishing from his local Walton-on-the-Naze pier. The best fish weighed 10lb 8oz. ■ Scotland, on home ground, won the Home International Boat Championship, fished off Burnmouth and Eyemouth. For the second year running, the Scotland captain Hughie Smith won the individual title. England, who won in 1988, went from heroes to zeroes, finishing in last place.

1979

■ Keith Roberts, who was press officer of the Welsh FSA, had been doing well with his bass fishing, catching 13 fish from 5lb to 11lb 7oz. All but two were caught on his favoured bait, edible peeler crabs. In one month he caught a bass weighing more than 5lb every time he went fishing.

■ Jorge Potier, the London angler who held the porbeagle shark record of 465lb, caught three years earlier, boated a 295-pounder on a boat trip out of Bude Bay. He was fishing with Dr Charles Reaves, from Exeter, who boated a 196lb porgie on 30lb line, while Jorge’s wife Marie added a 76-pounder.

■ Paul Kerry beat the distance record for a United Kingdom Surfcasting Federation competition with a 228yds 1ft 3.5in effort in the organisation’s 5.25oz event at Norwich.