The European bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) has a fairly limited world range being found only off the Atlantic coastlines of France, Spain and Portugal, along the north coast of Africa, through the Mediterranean and Black Sea and the west and east coasts of the UK, the English Channel and around the coast of Norway.

Until the 1970s there was no commercial interest in bass as there was, quite simply, no market for them and if caught when targeting other species they were thrown back into the sea as waste.

Anglers, on the other hand, have always valued them as a sporting fish and to this day many dedicated anglers devote their fishing efforts to catching them and them only.

However, all this began to change in the mid 1970s with the increase in high end restaurants and especially the appearance of ‘celebrity’ chefs on television cooking programmes.

This resulted in the bass being classed as a prime species comparable to salmon, sole and turbot and thus commercially valuable leading to it becoming one of the main target species for the inshore commercial fishery, especially along the south coast of Britain.

These high prices have resulted in a strong home and continental demand, thus causing intense pressure on the stocks and, as to be expected, the inevitable decline in numbers.

Bass congregate in large numbers during winter in the western and central English Channel outside the six mile limit where they were caught in high numbers by, predominately, French pair trawlers; catches of 20 tonnes a time were commonplace.

This winter fishery is now banned and since Brexit the fishery as a whole has been better regulated but is still very vulnerable to over exploitation.

The wintering shoals in the western approaches move east in April and May through the English Channel and on up to the Thames Estuary plus some also moving north up to Wales.

In September, October and November they return back to their wintering area.

In recent years stocks have improved quite dramatically to the extent that shoals of bass over half a mile across are seen in Chale Bay in the spring and autumn with this year in early May a shoal off Rocken End for at least three days.

What is more remarkable is that they are being caught by our introduced white-tailed eagles, which is something that has not been seen off the Island for hundreds of years.