The
day I returned an English record fish unweighed!
With a crunch my foot hit the solid car park. Not the usual squidge
of mud and water - but then this was fishing in February 2006.
We had driven ten miles in freezing fog so we should have expected
the ice but somehow we didn't.
It was Mark's first visit to this water so we first walked our way
around the lake.
We opted to fish in the middle of the lake because one end was frozen
and the other just didn't give off the right vibes. As we dropped
off our tackle other anglers started to arrive.
In the end there were 12 fishing a 15 peg lake, but they had all left
by 2pm.
We managed to catch four carp each, a mixture of small commons and
mirrors, all caught from the far margin with sweet corn as bait fished
on short hook links.
As we slurped the last dregs of tea from now freezing cups, I had
a bleep on my left hand rod. Watching from under my Realtree jacket
the bobbin moved a ¼ of an inch. As I got ready to strike -
the bobbin started dropping and carried on dropping. I reeled in,
to take up the slack line, until I felt a bit of fight back. I then
struck and felt a bit of a tug. Realising I had not hooked a carp
Mark burst out laughing at the thought of a bream or roach being on
the end!
After a minute or two we netted a silver bream. I pointed out to Mark
it was a huge bream and worth a photo or two. Placing the landing
net onto the unhooking mat we realised this silver bream must have
weighed between 1lb 8oz and 2lb - so we took a few good photos. Not
too many as it was just a bream!
How wrong we were. The fish was released back to his home - so maybe
I can catch him again, I hope!
On the journey home we joked about the English record. But at home
I looked up the silver bream record to find it was 15oz... yes read
that again - 15oz - and the fish I caught we estimated at 1lb 8oz
to 2lb - and we didn’t weigh it!
Gutted, I am, gutted.
Tight lines.
David Williams
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