St Caths Breakwater - Jersey by Simon Gavey
St Catherine's Breakwater is a venue for everyone. Easy access, free parking, and public toilets at either end make it very user friendly, there's even a café.
There is access to deep water close in making it an ideal venue for junior or beginner anglers as you can catch plenty of fish close in, it is also a fantastic specimen venue which over the years has produced some outstanding fish. Once upon a time it was famous for its Undulate Ray fishing and has held the British record on several occasions including the current record.
Sadly, today Undulate Ray have become a rare catch but there are still plenty of other species to target.
Daylight fishing from early spring through to late autumn will produce specimen size Wrasse all over the breakwater, plenty of Black Bream as well as the occasional White Bream if you're really lucky.
Float fishing will produce plenty of Garfish and Mackerel as well as Thick Lipped Mullet if you ground-bait.
Bass can be caught on live baits and there is great sport for Irf anglers and species hunters. In recent years we have started to catch the occasional Tope, which is an exciting addition, not huge numbers as yet but they are well worth the effort.
Once dark, the Conger fishing can be excellent. There have been numerous Conger over 40lb over the years, they are rare in that size these days but there are plenty of smaller ones and during the recent Conger festival eels of 29-14 & 26-0 were caught.
In recent years the Autumn has also seen large numbers of squid from all over the breakwater.
There is limited access to the water, so a drop net is recommended if targeting the larger species.