a new record!

[peter mccue]

Of course going by the letter of the law Alan you are correct, & looking at the statement I should have wrote a moral right to know so the literal interpretation was probably deserved if unexpected. However, what a narrow minded outlook that is when you see what we have here, a major news item destined for the history books lost to rumour because of some slavish dedication to the rules. Commonsence dictates there is a wider responsibility here & as I said earlier, the essence of the rule - anonymity for the water - can surely be maintained.

 

Absolutely I want to know, who doesn't? but thats not quite the point.

[peter mccue]

I missed the last two sentences of your post Alan hence the second post.

 

Sorry mate thats absolute rubbish, I have a passion for angling history & folklore & that includes facts about records throughout the generations.

 

No way does that make me, & the many people like me, soulless trophy hunters which is what you imply. I love the misty dawns & midsummer nights as much as any one & will happily fish for Gudgeon one day & Salmon the next!

 

I seem to remember Chris Yates dreaming of record Carp at one time so is he a soulless angler? talk about painting with a broad brush!

[chappers]

Alan Stubbs:

 

Alan Stubbs:

Angling history has a right to know whether or not this is for real.

Erm, why?

It is a club water that has it's rules by which it operates. Non-members have absolutely no rights to know.

 

What you mean is: you want to know.

 

There's a big difference, as it's only important to those that hanker for records rather than thos who motivation is escapism, relaxation and pure angling pleasure.

Just because we strive and derive pleasure (and most of us do)from catching bigger fish doesn't mean we don't enjoy the escapism, relaxation etc of fishing.

There are trophy hunters out there but not everyones motives for wanting to know more about the capture of these specimens is misguided.

I for one, having seen a 7lb eel on the bank would like to at least see a photo and I hardley do any coarse fishing nowadays.

 

[ 29. September 2005, 07:51 AM: Message edited by: chappers ]

[Alan Stubbs]

I am not sure that people have really understood my point.

 

The report of a 13lb eel is just that. The release of the report was contrary to the club's rules, and nobody outside the club has a right to know even as much as they purport to do.

 

People's interest in records, angling history or just generating copy for a weekly comic, confers no right to know. I accept fully their reasons for wanting to, but unless they were members of the club concerned, they have no right whatever to the information.

 

Just imagine the frustration of catching the fish of a generation, certainly of a lifetime, and being expressly forbidden to publicise it because it's one of the club's rules. Still the alleged captor agreed to them as a condition of membership. I genuinely feel for the captor's situation, but have no sympathy for those merely wanting to know.

[Peter Waller]

I fail to understand the agro. If a picture is released then so what? So long as the captor keeps mummmmm about the location then he is not publiscising the club or its fishery, so where's the problem?

 

That said, whether he does publish his pictures is his, or her choice, and we should respect that.

 

Does the angling world have a right to this information? No.

 

Okay, so its exclusion from the 'record' lists does rather devalue such lists, but it happens in the pike world too. There are those who keep quiet, by choice, Nev Fickling's famous list can never be complete. Its no different with other species either. It all down to the individual.

[trent.barbeler]

Dear All,

 

I find the prospect of a 13lb freshwater eel capture extremely interesting although admittedly, I don't purposely fish for eels myself. Who would have imagined only a few short years ago that such a magnificent fish existed? And having said that, who would have imagined the many other freshwater species that have grown on to the sizes they have today? It’s really quite incredible when you think about it.

 

Publicity bans? I very much doubt in this day and age that such a thing is actually possible? Or achievable?

 

The angling "grapevine" is far more effective at reporting its own captures well away from the pages of the angling press. News travels along this grapevine at almost the speed of light especially now we have the internet and mobile phones. I'd bet a gold clock that within an hour of some leviathan being netted, weighed and photographed anywhere in the country, a hundred "in the know" anglers will have received the glad tidings. Within a whole day, probably several hundreds if not thousands.

 

I can't really say much concerning the reporting of such fish in the angling press without being a hypocrite because I don't buy them. And as such, I guess a whole batch of "hot off the press" record fish wash right over my awareness.

 

Frankly, I don't care about any controversy these big fish "might" get puddled with; I'm merely interested in the angler’s good fortune and of course, the magnificent fish themselves.

 

UK specialist anglers of all types live in perhaps the most exciting times where any species seems capable of turning up at incredible weights. Great days indeed.

 

And I know one or two specialist eel anglers that have lost sleep many nights dreaming of such monster fish.

 

Well done that angler who caught her.

 

Regards,

 

Lee.