Fishy things you wish you had done !

[Worms]

Sailfish on fly gear!

[Dales]

There are so many places I would like to fish and new species I would love to catch, like others many of these will only ever be pipe dreams. I do manage to tick off the odd destination or species each year as travel is another one of my passions and I have been lucky enough to catch Rooster in Costa Rica, Tarpon in Mexico and other similar stuff that as a kid I would dream about but never thought I would get a chance to do.

 

As I get older I find the desire to fish for new species and new destinations more and more appealing. Maybe its the added excitement that it is often a now or never moment. How many times are you going to get a chance to fish certain destinations or target some species?

 

A few things that are on my current might happen in the future or at least I hope to get a few chances at are.

 

Snook, tried a few times but never works out. Lost a monster last year.

 

Marlin, been trawling a number of times but again no luck so far.

 

US Catfish Blue, Flathead and Channel, would love to catch any of them.

 

Sturgeon, Salmon from Canada

 

Bass fishing USA or anywhere else that may have them.

 

Chao Phraya Catfish, Featherback, Giant Snakehead, Bighead Carp, Catla Catla from Asia.

 

 

 

A few that I would like to do that I don't see ever happening any time soon if ever are listed below. I doubt I will ever get a chance or if I do it will be one shot of achieving it.

 

Murray Cod from Aussie

 

Arapaima, Piraiba, Jau, Traiarao, Niger Catfish from the Amazon.

 

Peacock Bass and Dorado from South or Central America.

 

Cichlids from lake Malawi, Tanganyika or Victoria.

 

Nile Perch and Vundu from Africa.

 

Giant freshwater ray in Asia.

 

Plus always wanted to catch a Tiger Shark,

 

I know I will never get to do them all but I get a great deal of enjoyment from the planing and preparation that goes in to these fishing dreams/targets. They are all just about achievable and most can be incorporated in to a standard holiday, it might just be one or two days fishing in a 2 week holiday but that makes it all the more special if you succeed and if you fail well it's often in amazing settings and with methods I have not used before.

 

I don't think we are supposed to do everything we want in fishing, it's the dreaming, looking forward to, and willing to happen along with the missed opportunites, the what might have beens and the ones that got away that make fishing special.

 

I am not sure if time and money was not an issue whether I would find fishing for exotics so much fun and exciting. If I could block book a month with the best boat and crew in the best destination at the right time of year to go after a certain target would it be as special as one of my cobbled together trips?

 

[Steve Walker]

Cichlids from lake Malawi, Tanganyika or Victoria.

 

I might go and dip a line in my fish tanks!

[Dales]

I might go and dip a line in my fish tanks!

 

I think a hook and line might be the best way to get one out a tank. All that rock work and a net just does not work out.

[Steve Walker]

Yes, put a net in there and they all vanish!

[gozzer]

I must be having another 'senior' moment, I could have sworn that I'd posted on here.

 

 

Seeing as Bob asked about things we wish we had done, mine aren't as exotic as most. I wish I'd been in a position to fish the R Avon during it's roach heyday, before the barbel got a stranglehold. The same with the Tweed roach, although there's a chance, (a very slim one), that I might be able to see how it's fishing now. Another thing I regret, is putting too much faith in my fellow anglers, and not making the most of the good stillwater fishing I had access to, before it was eventually ruined.

 

John.

[BobH]

John,

 

Interesting answer, when I was young I was fortunate to be around a group of very good budding anglers (we called ourselves Specimen Hunters) and was fortunate to fish the North London Reservoirs for the huge Roach.

 

Under the tutorship of Ray Taylor and Roy Child, fishing legered bread flake or crust I caught numerous Roach over 2lbs and never thought it to be special, a "3" was my target.

I also caught some huge Roach and Dace from the River Rib and River Bean, never realising that this would be the end of hey days of Roach Fishing, as our rivers were destroyed by abstraction and later predation.

 

Looking back I realise how lucky I was.

 

I did fish the Royalty back in the 1960tys, the trip from North London to Christchurch on a Tiger Cub being more of a highlight than the gallon of maggots I used to catch a number of decent Roach instead of their intended target the Barbel !!

 

Now of course if I was a youngster it would be to Carp that I turned to get my fishing thrills, but nice to look back and dream of past captures and places we should have fished !!

 

Bob

Edited October 15, 2014 by BobH

[Vagabond]

Very interesting thread.

 

I have been fishing longer than most of you, from bullheads at age seven to a world species list of 471 at age 80, and have already fished many of the places mentioned in the posts above.

 

I cannot honestly say there are places/species that I wish I had fished in addition to those I have done already - during my working life I fished as much as possible, consistent with having a career, other interests, and a family life, so any extra fishing would have had a cost to one or more of those.

 

Our world travels in search of birds and fish did not really start until I retired in 1999, and two major trips per year abroad are all that can realistically be afforded on less than a millionaire's resources. I set out to try to get a reasonable representative sample of the world's gamest fishes and have succeeded with most of them.

 

So I don't wish I had fished for something else, I concentrate on what fishing I can realistically do in the future. At the moment, catching a decent perch from as many small ponds as possible is exercising my efforts.

 

.

[BobH]

Vagabond,

 

I suppose it all comes down to health as much as anything ?

 

Having worked abroad quite a bit I should have taken advantage of the opportunity, but to be honest I was usually to tire on my day off to go fishing, having said that I did catch some nice Carp and Catfish from the Ebro and some of those European Barbel, plus Ide and lots of odd looking things in Florida.

 

Now my main target is to make it to my next birthday, with my fishing friends dropping like flies, it makes you realise every day is precious and fishing comes a distant second to my family.

 

Hope to be out fishing next week on the Lea !!

 

Bob

[gozzer]

Hi Bob, the sixties were my teen years, so I never had the chance to travel as far as I would have liked. Apprentice wages didn't run to my own transport. We used to get a lift to an annual opening week on the Yorks Swale.

The roach thing, is a bit of a sore point with me, never having had a 2lber. I posted on here before about my attempts at catching one, including a six year campaign, (in between my match fishing), that had me land several 2lbers for other people, but 1lb 13oz is still my best. I'm now limited in my number of sessions, so barring a lucky encounter, I doubt that I'll ever get that 2lber, but I've had plenty of good roach to just under that and I'm pretty glad about that.

 

The stillwater thing is something that angers me, and my feelings are well known on here. It's the ruination of good established mixed lakes by over stocking with carp.

 

John.