23LB BASS

[sam-cox]

Just got word from a good sause that a 23lb bass was caught in nets just out side the river blackwater. Acording to my old man it one of the last 1976 fish if the word is true.

[teebee]

sam-cox:

Just got word from a good sause that a 23lb bass was caught in nets just out side the river blackwater. Acording to my old man it one of the last 1976 fish if the word is true.

Lots of safety pins and spikey hair ?

[skippytheroo]

lol @ teebee

 

Is this a good or bad thing sam?

[guernseybass]

skippy,

 

at that age/size the fish would have been sterile so the only bad thing is that angler didn't catch it.

 

but its positive that a fish can beat the trawlers for that long though.

 

Sam - any idea what depth the fish was caught in ? the 25 3/4lber taken here last year was trawled in very deep water.

 

Mark

[sam-cox]

it was aparently caught in a place called the wallet, this is quite a large area with varying depths from 0 to 60 foot.

[Sharkbyte]

Another sad end to an utterly phenomenal fish.

 

 

quote:

---

Acording to my old man it one of the last 1976 fish if the word is true.

---

The ages of some of our fish species truly amaze me. My decision to return any large bass I'm fortunate enough to catch was greatly influenced by discovering how old they can be, they certainly deserve some respect. Now I even treat any eels I catch at the local river with the utmost care after finding out through AN that 10 years per pound is an accurate estimation of their age.

If eels had ears I would have appologised to the 3.5lb'er I caught the other week for the inconvenience and sore lip, even though he 5hagged my rig an disturbed my swim. I was always told to respect my elders

[Leon Roskilly]

Sharkbyte:

If eels had ears I would have appologised to the 3.5lb'er I caught the other week for the inconvenience and sore lip, even though he 5hagged my rig an disturbed my swim. I was always told to respect my elders    

er, it would have been a she!

 

Large eels (like large bass) are always a she.

 

Their sex is determined by the population density of returning elvers.

 

Most of them run into the west of the UK, so most eels that side of the country will be small males.

 

Whereas relatively few make it into the 'shadow' of the eastern side and become females.

 

(The fact that the sexes are seperated doesn't matter because they don't need to get together for most of their long lives, only at the end when they meet up again back in the Sargasso sea to breed)

 

It's one of the worries that only 5% of elvers are now coming back, compared to not so long ago.

 

The chances are that few will become males, so there's going to be an awful lot of lonely female eels swimming back to the Sargasso sea in a few years, with no one to breed with.

 

Another interesting fact is that the further some eels go up rivers (some stay their whole lives in coastal salt water), the sooner they return to the sea to breed. So eels that stay not far from the estuary will return after just 5 years, whereas those that go a long way up river may stay for 20 years.

 

Fish that make it to a stillwater lake, lose the urge to migrate back to sea, and those odd 7+lb eels, are over seventy years old!

 

Tight Lines - leon

[Toerag]

guernseybass:

 the 25 3/4lber taken here last year was trawled in very deep water.

Mark

I hadn't heard about that one, tell me more!!

[Sharkbyte]

Thanks Leon, you learn something new everyday.

[guernseybass]

Toerag:

 

Toerag:

 the 25 3/4lber taken here last year was trawled in very deep water.

Mark

I hadn't heard about that one, tell me more!!

trawled off sark but sold to a Jersey fish monger.

 

same as the 19lb and 21lbers taken off the spawning mark last February :mad:

 

still, hopefully after saveourbass.com's meeting with the States and the SeaFisheries tomorrow, it won't happen again next year.

 

mark.