Biggest and smallest???

As a person who used to go fishing, I have had the privilege of catching a big Conger down to a tiny Dace.

The conger which nearly caught me was in Scotland near Dunoon, when diving off the side of a floating dock. This one near as damn it took my diving mask off my face and nearly had my mouthpiece too.(known to the locals as Black Betty)

The biggest fish I have caught was a Conger eel off Devil's point in Plymouth weighing in at 110lbs line caught from the shore using a 30lb boat rod and 50lb line and 100lb wire trace and a 3/0 hook. The bait was a cocktail of peeler crab, sand eel, and Squid, I think it was around 10:30pm and lasted till about 11:45pm.

The smallest was a Dace which I thought was not even a fish at first, that is until my mate told me to look at the worm on me hook. We laughed at this small fry which had latched onto the worm, clearly wanting to have it all. It was weighed by some one who had a set of digital scales with them. Wait for it, yes people it weighed in at .25 of an ounce. Poor little thing was put back in the hope that it will grow to a big Dace.

What sort of fish have you caught and what is the best catch?

 

Oo, missed this one Landi,

i've hooked into a few conger off the stone pier at Weymouth, but despite struggling for half an hour or more, never managed to land one.



Not often you see a 30lb class boat rod bent like that. At times i'd think i'd snagged until they let go & make a run.

Caught a 6lb Cod on Mackerell feathers. Also caught an inch long cod

 

I've only really coarse fished all my life (30+ years now).

I've caught bream, barbel, carp, roach, rudd, perch, pike, catfish, eels, dace, chub, orfe, grayling, tench, golden tench, grass carp, trout and probably a few others....

I class myself as a specimen angler (fishing for the larger of fish rather than lots of small ones).

One catch I'm proud of was a British Record for the heaviest Orfe ever caught at 8lb 5oz, that was in April 2000 and it still stands to this day

There are too many other catches to single out my best ones, but catching 12 chub in 5 hours all over 6lb and the biggest 7lb 7oz was a particular favourite..

The biggest fish I've caught was a Wels Catfish of 35lb 8oz...

 

Just a question what happens to the huge fish that I are cought. Do people eat them and if so how are they cooked?

 

All the freshwater fish I catch are returned, different case with sea fish, I believe most are 'taken for the table' but I know many are now returned as well, particularly smaller fish due to minimum size limits etc..

 

If the line caught Conger is alive then it is released back, but most other fish are taken home and eaten. As Bilbo states the freshwater fish are returned unless its a game fish, these are only taken from areas that allow them to be caught and only if they have reached a size that permits them to be taken.
Woe betide those that take a freshwater fish for eating if they do not have permission.

 

There are signs in Polish along a lot of the local rivers here, i'm assuming they say no eaty fishy or similar

 

Over in America they leave these around.

 

Landimad, I would have thought they'd be more aggressive if they weren't fed. Strange!

 

Actually it's very rare for the human to be more aggressive

 

Is that a Girt Manx Starfish in your Avatar Sheal?

Good eating on one of them.

 

The strangest has got to be sea cucumber with salad. Yuk

 

Nooooo Zigs! It's somebody's interpretation of the 'Triskelion' (Manx Legs), I can see it would pass for a starfish though. The bigger picture is in my 'Out and About' thread in Members Gallery.

 

Hi Zig - found you! .... Biggest was a conger of about 70lb (put it back) but best was a 50lb Cod and 16lb Bass off Charmouth. Smallest - Gudgeon in the Dorset Stour, although I foul hooked a 1" fry on a toby spoon once!