If you could catch just one of the following...

[gozzer]

With the exception of the chub and grayling, I've not had fish above the weights mentioned.

 

Of the rest, the one I would like to catch is a 2lb roach. It's the 'Holy Grail' as far as I'm concerned.

 

You could double the weights of every fish on the list, and a 2lb roach would still be the one for me.

 

John.

[Team Man]

I think I would like a 9lb Tench, the best I've had is a 7lb, and the feel of that was wonderful.

 

Never tried for a Catfish,.......maybe one day, who knows

 

When I lived in Leighton Buzzard I used to fish Rackley Hills Pit, and that had Catfish, but I was more into the roach there

[wayne baker]

2ib grayling would be very niice, Ive never even seen one let alone caught one.

[MikeT]

I’m weird, because for me the actual weight of the fish really doesn’t matter at all. Of the fish listed, I’d most like to catch a big Roach, but I’d be equally happy whether it happened to weigh 1lb 15oz, or 2lb 1oz. Truth is, I wouldn’t even know, because I never weigh my fish. For me, the most important objective measure of a fish is to be subjectively pleased to have caught it, so its weight is neither here nor there. A big Roach would be a dream come true- whatever accurate measurements could be made of its dimension.

 

The real point of these target weights is so anglers can describe their fish to other anglers in universally recognisable terms. Everyone knows how special a really big Roach is, and we all know that a 2lb Roach is a really big roach. But is a 1lb 15oz Roach really any less special than a 2lb 1oz Roach, except that it artificially and academically becomes so by the process of weighing it and finding it short?

 

There’s a bit of an obsession with size here, and, as my wife always tells me, it doesn’t matter.

[Team Man]

I’m weird, because for me the actual weight of the fish really doesn’t matter at all. Of the fish listed, I’d most like to catch a big Roach, but I’d be equally happy whether it happened to weigh 1lb 15oz, or 2lb 1oz. Truth is, I wouldn’t even know, because I never weigh my fish. For me, the most important objective measure of a fish is to be subjectively pleased to have caught it, so its weight is neither here nor there. A big Roach would be a dream come true- whatever accurate measurements could be made of its dimension.

 

The real point of these target weights is so anglers can describe their fish to other anglers in universally recognisable terms. Everyone knows how special a really big Roach is, and we all know that a 2lb Roach is a really big roach. But is a 1lb 15oz Roach really any less special than a 2lb 1oz Roach, except that it artificially and academically becomes so by the process of weighing it and finding it short?

 

There’s a bit of an obsession with size here, and, as my wife always tells me, it doesn’t matter.

 

 

 

I know what you mean MikeT, it's strange, I've been fishing since a lad in the 1930's, but i've started weighing some of my fish,..not all, maybe it's because so many put their weights up, I have caught the bug

[MikeT]

Yes, I understand one shouldn't knock it till one tries it. But I really can't imagine how much more pleasure I'd feel for knowing the weight of any fish I catch. They're either big or they're small, beautiful or mangy, and their mass under gravity wouldn't seem to alter any of that.

 

Or maybe it would. I dunno.

[Dick Dastardly]

As Ive been lucky enough over the years to have caught all the rest it would definately be the 2lb Roach for me.

 

Ive had many aproaching that magical figure but never managed to break it.

 

Oh Ive not had a 5lb Chub either! Ive had two now at 4 but dont often get the chance to fish for them.That said ii thgink the roach would still be my choice as Ive had a couple of offers over the years from people who could put me on big chub but never big roach!

Edited October 30, 2008 by BUDGIE

[Peter M]

i would like most to catch a 3 pound perch, i have caught a really big one once but didn't weigh it and have wondered what it weighed. i live near the rivers stort and lee which both have signal crayfish in them and the perch do grow big but as yet the biggest i have had on these rivers is just over a pound. This is my current obsession although i plan to have a real go on the lee next year to catch a 6 pound chub.

[DavyR]

Definitely the 2lb roach - I've never even seen one (in real life) approaching that size and I don't think any of the waters I fish contain them.

[Andy Macfarlane]

40lb catfish...never seen one.

30lb carp...never caught one.

20lb pike...done.

12lb bream...lol...not quite no. Only caught my first recently and that was a skimmer.

10lb barbel...never seen one but rare and most likely small.

10lb zander...never seen one.

9lb tench...never caught one but rare and most likely small.

5lb chub...hardly caught any though and never by design but rare and most likely small.

3lb perch...done.

2lb roach...done.

2lb rudd...hardly caught any though and never by design but do-able I'm sure.

2lb grayling...done. Did that when I was 12 or something. First recorded Grayling from the White Cart.

1lb dace...very nearly and very do-able I'm sure. Again, from the White Cart.

 

It's odd that list. I've managed to catch the listed weights of the fish that are most widely available to me and as a result, I've targeted them. Pike (25/8), perch (3/12), roach (2/8), grayling (2) and very possibly dace (only recently realised how rare the big ones are so now they'll be weighed). The rest are very rare or non-existant as a species up here and the weights are highly unlikely.

I think some of the list will be impossible as long as I fish In Scotland.