Frustrations of losing a big fish
Most anglers have certain memories of the sport that will haunt them for
the rest of their lives.
Often it involves big fish that were played for an interminably long time
before wriggling free from the hook and escaping before they could be
netted.
I’m not sure which is the worst experience ... losing a big fish
without actually catching sight of it or seeing the fish and realising
just how big it was.
I mention this with such an experience fresh in my mind. I was delighted
to share a boat on Ladybower one day in late March in the company of that
extremely capable and enthusiastic young angler Simon Brough, from Chesterfield.
It was a perfect day for fishing with an overcast sky and a light ripple
and not too cold.
Simon and boatman Nick Bundy helped me get my old bones and my tackle
into the boat and we soon started landing lovely pink-fleshed rainbow
trout averaging 2lbs apiece fishing on the drift.
Pausing only for a nice pub lunch, we ‘bagged up’ soon after
returning to the boat following the meal.
At one stage, though, Simon hooked a fish that was obviously very big.
He played it for a long time with no sign of the fish tiring, but boatman
Nick managed to catch a glimpse of the fish and pronounced it bigger than
the 14-pounder that another angler had landed from Ladybower earlier in
the season.
When you tell other anglers about the loss of a big fish (the one that
got away) they often come out with the trite saying ‘‘You
cannot lose what you never had.’’
This is a silly thing to say, and it seems to me that those who say it
have never hooked and lost a big fish themselves.