MY BIGGEST FISH
This beautiful Indian mahseer was caught where leopards walked through our camp and tigers weren't far away either - a magical place!
Sadly, fish are seldom regarded as wildlife but they are both fascinating and beautiful and if we get lucky, we actually get to touch them. What’s more, fish live in some of the most beautiful places in the world, so ‘being out there’ is good for the soul.
Trying to find fish, let alone trick them into taking your bait is the name of the game and even after a lifetime trying, the fascination and frustration increases, including when trying to catch big roach. I'm happy here though as this H.Avon beauty weighed over two pounds.
Anglers call the biggest fish we’ve ever caught of each species a ‘PB’, a personal best, and as I’ve hardly fished recently due to flooded rivers and hostile storms, I thought I’d reflect on my own PB's as an antidote for not fishing. Perhaps next year I might manage to increase the size of some species, though after so many years failing to do so, with one or two exceptions like tench, I’m not holding my breath.
So here goes with a nostalgic look at some of my happiest days by the waterside, though I’ll only glance at the catches from foreign parts like this fresh run salmon and giant sturgeon from Canada, or the mad mullet from just down the road in Christchurch Harbour.
The great mahseer from India had to get a mention as you see, then I'll be moving on to some of my best catches in England.
My largest sturgeon from Canada's Fraser River with great friend Keith Armishaw, holding on tight in the rain.
My journey started in those happy school days on the Great Ouse at Ely beside the magnificent cathedral in which I sang for my supper. I used to love pike fishing then, I don't seem to make the time now, and on one memorable day I caught this lovely fat pike of 18lbs. Since then I've hardly managed one much over twenty pounds, so as I was told at school, I must try harder.
Any roach is a good roach but in the present day when they have declined due to predation, a fish over a pound is a good ‘un, a two pounder is judged ‘a fish of a lifetime’, and a three pounder the stuff of dreams. This one weighed 3lbs 4ozs. How lucky can you get!
I've never been competitive in life, especially with other anglers because I prefer helping friends catch more than me! So the whole business of PB’s is a purely personal affair, with the competition being only between me and the fish. Simple but very enjoyable.
... and this is Bill Penny's record roach, safely preserved at friend Peter Drennan's home.
It was so big it seemed like another species and I was a quivering wreck, the adrenalin overwhelming me, for this roach was just three ounces short of the British record I'd grown up admiring for so long. It was a moment to savour forever and required a strong drink in celebration. Realistically, it is the biggest roach I’m ever likely to catch, though I'm always going to be trying and when fishing, as they say, there's always a chance, especially when lady luck comes calling, bless her!
The other species I have concentrated on since my days growing up at school in the Fens at Ely is the glorious Rudd, simply as beautiful as any creature in England, well I think so, and ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’.
I used to cycle miles around this ‘land of skies’ with my school pal Purdy Hawkes in our quest for Rudd of over the magical two pounds weight and we had success in the Landbeach Pits near Cambridge, along with catching big ‘uns from the River Ouse and Cam and the numerous Lodes which always look magical in the dawn mist.
However, I’d dreampt of catching a Rudd over three pounds since my school days, [the record fish being one of 4lb 8ozs], so in recent years I’ve returned to my childhood haunts and caught lots of two pounders, until a few years back, I fulfilled my ambition and landed a monster of 3lb 9ozs.
It was raining at the time and I was reluctant to get my camera wet, and keen to return such a precious old warrior too of course, so just took this quick happy snap on the bottom of my little dinghy and slipped her back into the lily lined river. What a wonderful creature she was, a lifetimes’ ambition fulfilled.
I’ve always preferred fishing rivers, and two of my three pound roach came from running water, my first one from the Dorset Stour on Christmas Eve many years ago, the second from the Hampshire Avon and while trotting for hours until my hands hurt, I also caught some very big dace to a PB best of 1lb 2ozs. On another days roach fishing, when trotting the upper reaches of the Bristol Avon, I was lucky enough to catch a cracking grayling of 2lbs 10ozs and even though it's poor size for a PB, local expert Dr. Mark Everard told me it was a Bristol Avon record!
Chub I considered to be ‘nuisance fish’ when roach fishing but I did catch a PB of 7lb 3ozs from the H.Avon on a warm and overcast winters day. What a lump it was, and on very fine tackle too.
Fishing that same stretch a few days later, trotting a single maggot on a size twenty hook, I hooked something that had me running up and down the river for ten or more minutes. I suspected a salmon but when it finally tired and I could see it, I was in awe of the huge rainbow trout, which when eventually engulfed in the landing net weighed 11lbs 8ozs. So I suppose that counted as a PB too, with curses added.
Bream were a special fish as I grew up catching many bronze beauties when at school beside the Great Ouse at Ely. More recently, I have enjoyed catching bigger ones from my local Hants Avon weir pools because they use their broad bodies in the fast current to make landing them an exciting struggle.
But my biggest ones have come from lakes, and while filming our Ch4 series ‘Catching the Impossible’ with Martin Bowler on a lake near Reading, our ‘impossible’ target was fifteen pounds. Nothing in fishing is impossible of course, and the title was just a device to help tell our story, but on this occasion we came short, our biggest being a respectable 13lbs 14ozs. I returned the following week to gather some more shots to complete the sequence, and it would have been rude not to have a cast while waiting for the sun to rise, and I got lucky and landed a PB of 13lbs 11ozs. Here’s Martin with one a bit bigger for the film, and what an impressive bronze beauty it is too.
We all love a perch, those bristling warriors that brighten so many child’s early years while they explore the outside world. Catching them over three pounds like these from the Dorset Stour means the love lives on and with the decline of roach on our rivers due to excessive predation, let alone pollution, perch provide an exciting alternative. They are one of Chris Yates’ favourite fish and here’s a River Stour beauty of well over two pounds.
Size wise, the current record fish both weighed 6lb 4ozs, but a two pounder is a good fish, a three pounder is most anglers target, a four pounder a very special fish and as for a five pounder, a fish of dreams. So while filming the Ch4 series ‘Catching the Impossible’, when friend and colleague Martin Bowler caught an extraordinary brace weighing 4lb 6ozs and 5lb 4ozs, we were blown away.
And during the filming, on a rare occasion when I had time for a quick cast, I did manage to winkle out a beauty from Chris Yates’ swim at dusk, that fish of 4lb 7ozs becoming my PB. Sadly, we have no pic of that one as it was dark, but this one of 3lb 12ozs is a beautiful specimen isn’t it.
As I’m getting older, I feel the cold more, so summer fishing is increasingly appealing. I don’t fish for carp much as it often means fishing at night and I can’t watch wildlife in the dark. Daytime stalking is a very exciting way to catch them, so if I feel inspired, that’s what I’ll try, and sometimes succeed.
I’ve never caught one much above twenty pounds myself and this mirror falls well short, but it was quite a long battle in the lilies on delicate crucian tackle.
I should fish for carp more often but I find trying to catch tench a more enjoyable challenge, so invest my time in searching for the big 'uns.
Well, the British record weighed more than 14lbs, but most of us try to catch a ten pounder, so bearing in mind the record stood at 7lbs 8ozs from the Leicester Canal when I was growing up, I thought I was doing quite well when I’d caught tench of 8lbs 9ozs from five different waters, including the famous Sywell Reservoir.
Despite trying hard recently, I haven’t even reached the dizzy heights of a nine pounder yet, though this summer I raised my PB by an ounce to a splendid 8lb 14ozs.
Those anglers who are ruthless use bolt rigs to overcome the problem and the crucians hook themselves and I believe this is how the British record of 4lb 14ozs was caught recently. However, for those of us who prefer to be driven mad using little floats, a two pounder is the target and my friends like Chris Yates and Chris Wild have been lucky enough to catch several larger than that, Trevor too.
Happy days with friends, and my personal best, using a delicate pole rig, was a lovely fat one of 3lb 12ozs. from the crucian godfather Peter Rolfe's gorgeous lake.
Fish are an essential part of any fully functional ecosystem and anglers do more to protect them than most folk, so we invest millions of pounds every year because we care passionately about their survival. I won’t bang on about pollution and lack of clean water now but suffice to say:
‘we can live without gold - but we die without water’!
All of this leads to the conclusion that the survival of any fish is a miracle and in these days of endless environmental challenges, any fish we’re lucky enough to catch is a good fish, so size doesn’t matter ... but with a nod to the panto season, Oh Yes It Does!
But remember, as ‘A Passion for Angling’ told us: "It’s not about how to catch, it’s about how to enjoy”!
And over the years, I've certainly been lucky enough to enjoy catching many beautiful fish, some of them biggish too, and if my luck holds, I hope to catch a few more fish with my friends before I have my last cast.
So here’s hoping that life is kind to you all this coming year. Just keep well ... and be lucky. Hugh.
