What would you really, really love to catch?

[JV44]

Massive river Pike just as the mist Burns off late Autumn morning and as the first bits of sun hit the float it does that bob/ twitch /sliiiiide away thing as your heart goes up a couple of beats as you realise the size of the thing in the net/boat,Does it for me anyway .

Would think that really big river Pike [high twentys or even the 30+ holy grail ] and really big Roach are about as rare as each other Steve

[Sean77]

A huge stinky catfish

[Anderoo]

The roach, pike and chub were just examples, you can choose anything you like, but no more than one

 

I expect the way you caught it would be important too...

 

It is very interesting seeing what everyone picks. Personally, although I would dearly love a great big roach or pike, they never sneak into my daydreams. Chub fishing is my all-time favourite, but again, I'm not obsessed about catching a really big one, I just love the venues, methods and atmosphere of it all. Similarly with tench - a double would be fantastic, but they don't keep me awake at night.

 

I have two species at ludicrously high weights, captured against all the odds, that I am currently trying to decide between!

Edited October 6, 2009 by Anderoo

[Peter M]

Can't we have one from fresh water and one from the sea?? Mine would be a very large perch (four pounds would be nice) caught in the back end of the season from my local river. In the sea i would like a double figure smoothhound say an upper double. I have chosen these because i can actually strive to get them. Whether i will is another matter but my local river does lots of three plus perch and the Thames estury does very big smoothies in the summer.

[tiddlertamer]

A 2lb - or even 3lb! - roach, trotting an avon float down a crystal clear chalk stream? A 30lb pike from the deep, weedy margins of an old, secret gravel pit? A wily old 6lb chub on link-legered crust on a beautiful and bitter winter's afternoon, after a perfect cast under the willow branches?

 

What one fish and scenario would you choose? What species, weight and situation forms in your mind when you're miles from the nearest water and daydreaming takes over...?

 

Over to you!

 

A friend of mine has caught many barbel during his life but has never had a double figure fish.

I however, although only having caught one, trotted a stretch of the river Lea in only my second season of fishing, and snared a 12lb 2oz specimen. An incredible experience – and when I first sighted it after over ten minutes of an incredible fight, the sight was jaw dropping. But an incredible experience already under my belt so another fish would have to be the one I really wanted to catch.

 

The same friend caught a 2lb roach growing up next to the river Stour in Suffolk. In the three seasons since I started this pastime, I haven’t had a sniff of a roach over half a pound. Though I did see one over 1lb breeze past me in crystal clear waters on the Hampshire Avon only a few weeks ago, before it spotted me and bolted off. A 2lb roach would be a dream. Well catching it would...

 

Chub are my favourite quarry but a large one eludes me. Maybe my preference for trotting all year round and reliance on maggots rather than bread means I need to focus on altering my tactics for the rest of the season. I do prefer the mechanics of long trotting a float though, even though I’m more likely to catch on a legered bait especially in winter months. But if I do snaffle a large chub, I hope it is while trotting.

 

Big perch are lovely fish. They look so bristling and also so magnificent with their stripes. I’ve lost a big one at the net too which hurt.

 

I can’t finish though without writing about the grayling. I once fished alongside a river keeper on the Avon who briefly had a go on the rod I was wielding without any success. And he immediately hooked into something big which, to my embarrassment, he insisted I play and land. And after a few minutes a grayling appeared close to the net. The river keeper cried out exclaiming it was a monster grayling, the largest he had ever seen and surely a record for the river. At which point I hauled on my rod as if trying to drag the fish from the water rather than subtly trying to bring the fish over the net being held by the river keeper. And so with inevitable consequences the fish escaped the hook. I had failed to hook but had lost the largest grayling in perhaps the whole of the land...

 

So a grayling please Anderoo. A very large grayling...

Edited October 7, 2009 by tiddlertamer

[poledark]

Roach for me as well. I have had a "Two" but that happened so fast (first put in) that the anticipation was lacking.

 

I want one just as the light is starting to fade and the wind has died off, and the float (which hasn't moved all day) just slides away, followed by the "jag jag" of a big fish. Got to be stillwater though, preferably a large gravel pit with the element of the unknown..........................

 

Den....the magic is still there

[Anderoo]

It's nice to see roach coming up so many times I would also love a big (2lb+) roach caught by design, but I don't feel any urge to go out there and make it happen. At least, not yet.

 

Perch (4lb 8oz+) was a close second, on float fished worm from a small river, the only fish of the day, right at dusk - the float, sitting next to the reedbed, just off the current, would bob and zip away, and the excited strike would hit into something strong and heavy which jags around, making a couple of strong runs and trying to bury into the reeds. But after a while it would come up and roll on the surface with a flash of green, black and red, and angrily shake its head, flaring its huge gills...and in the photo it would hold its fin up proudly and look as huge as it did in real life!

 

But wouldn't it be magical if I had found a nice spot at a big gravel pit and carefully baited it, and had three baits out on the baited spot. And at dusk, I had a slow, jerky bite, waited as long as I dare, and then lifted into a heavy weight. It didn't fight much, but once it got under the rod tip it's just light enough to see a huge bream, slowly and powerfully shaking its head...it goes into the net and looks a big fish, but weighs a ton when lifting it onto the mat. In my dream, I don't have a weight, but it's somewhere around 15lb. The elation after all those blanks is incredible

 

I don't recast in case there's a chance of a second, and at 3am I get another bite, and after a short and feeble battle in the pitch black I net another huge bream.

 

Two!!

 

Again, I don't recast, and at dawn, when the mist is steaming off the lake, I get the final bite, and play in huge bream number 3.

 

Three!!!

 

Well, it might happen

[gozzer]

Sorry to be boring, but it's roach for me as well.

I've had plenty up to 1lb 13oz, but never a 2lber. Ideally mine would come from the river Ure, or Ouse, on a mild autumn day, with little wind. I would be trotting a stick or avon float in about 6ft of water in one of the sandbed swims I like. Just as the float reaches the end of the swim, it would slowly lean to one side and disappear. I strike and think it's another chub, until it surfaces, and I nearly soil my pants with the shock!

That would be the pinnacle of my angling years, the only thing that could possibly match it, would be a bigger one in the same session. No carp or pike of any size could give me as much satisfaction, as that first 2lb roach.

 

John. (50 years and still dreaming)

[wayne baker]

A thirty five plus pike is my realistic target. As long as it beats my personel best i would be happy. I like to think it would come on a mild November afternoon, With leaded skies and a bit of drizzle in the air. On a drifted 6oz live roach. On a lake with very few anglers and maybe the company of one good friend just to help me enjoy te moment.

[Dick Dastardly]

Considering that people on here have caught 40lb pike, 50lb carp,10lb tench,15lb bream not to mention several 100lb+ exotics it tells a story that a 2lb roach is still the most desired.