most memorable catch

[Davy Holt]

Ok the heading says it all... what is it??

 

Mine is a 3lb Common skate (smallest ever tagged)

[Andrew]

5lb BASS Lynmouth beach,released may i add,

i support catch and release

Andy

[spasor]

You`ve got no chance.

Went a long way offshore wrecking with Paul Whittall. Decent pollack were coming up, so I stepped up from 6 to 9ins orange shad. Guess what?

Only a joey mackeral smaller than the shad!!!!

At least I had the presence of mind to cry `fish on`, so the skipper was included in the joke as well.

Paul.

[Mad Mike]

Sorry lads, but I've got you all beat so far. I had a 1 inch goby, hooked on a size 2 Kamasan, right in the bottom lip. The hook was bigger than the fish! It was weighed and released to give pleasure to another lucky angler.

 

Top catch!

 

Tight Lines

[Newt]

My most memorable was because of the vast amount I learned from it.

 

Sheepshead (ugly bugger that eats mostly barnacles and prepares them by crushing the shell with it's teeth - which I did not know at the time). Big flat teeth designed for serious crushing of hard objects.

 

Now bear in mind I grew up fishing fresh water and way too far south for pike so the standard way method of gripping a nice-sized fish (up to around 10 lbs or so) to unhook it was a thumb in the mouth and fingers below the mouth. Opens the mouth up nicely with largemouth bass.

 

Well, it has been well over 30 years and I can still remember that lesson. I did get my thumb back and after a visit to the local emergency room, there was no lasting damage.

[Vagabond]

Yes, I rember my first perch, when I was about eight years old. I could see the spiky dorsal fin, so held the fish carefully from below, between finger and thumb.

 

It then shook its head a couple of times, driving its opercular spines into my thumb and finger. I said a couple of words I really shouldn't have known at that age!

[davidP]

I know this is the sea fishing forum, but hey, what the hell....

 

Fishing deadbaits at night on Lake Nasser in Egypt, continually getting single bleeps on the alarm but no runs. Kept winding in to discover not only no bait but no hook either despite the hook being a 30lb wire trace! After about 2 hours and 6 traces I got a 'run' of about a foot which I half-heartedly hit. Lo and behold - fish on! I played it carefully in and up popped the biggest pufferfish I've ever seen - about 1 foot long but nearly the size of a football when inflated.

When I came to get the hook out I discovered that there was 1 strand of the trace still connected and 1 look at the teeth on the puffer showed what had been chewing through steel wire - 4 chisel-like teeth, 2 in each jaw. I tried to get the hook out using forceps only for the fish to bite the forceps and bend them! (I tried to straighten them later with pliers and struggled!). I managed to land a few more during the trip including 1 on a small Rapala that was basically destroyed, but that first one was a pretty memorable fish not only for it's dental power but also for my complete surprise at landing a fish I didn't even realise existed in the lake.

 

[ 05 March 2002, 11:41 PM: Message edited by: davidP ]

[Alan Taylor]

Davy Holt:

)

Had to be my Turbot last year from Gurnsey, 13lb 11 oz and 9lb ish.

 

On sunday I was trying a 1lb pirk, 40 odd miles from the Dutch coast and foul hooked a Herring on one drop and a sand eel on the next. I wonder if these were the first of the year?

 

Alan(nl)

[Salar]

Alan Taylor:

Alan Taylor:

)

foul hooked a Herring on one drop

 

Alan(nl)

I wonder what the herring was trying to do with the pirk?? Not trying to eat it I bet!

[ragfish]

Must be the 16lb conger off Looe whilst feathering for mackeral.

 

Bob