I was flicking through the February issue of Trout & Salmon which I procured today and came across Mr John Aston's letter in response to a recently caught Big Grayling from the Tweed which was not weighed but guestimated and have to agree with every word that he wrote in the letter, as its not just the normal everyday anglers who are doing this now but seems the guys who should know better who write for the angling fraternity...
There will of course be guys who think its a load of old tosh but the way I see it if your passionate about a fish that much and dont carry scales to weigh them then you are only short changing yourself, as you will be forever wondering what the actual weight was, I know I would.
I keep telling everyone who asks me about fishing for Grayling " take a set of scales with you" but the comments in the letter beat that and I thought it first class as a saying" If you dont weigh it, Dont say it"
It goes without saying no matter how long you have been fishing you cannot guess the exact weight of a fish purely from measurement, no matter how good you are.
My passion is Grayling and it makes me chuckle when you talk to anglers on the bank who say, "Yes I've caught a 3.5lbs Grayling from that swim there" and asked if they weighed it & comes back "No I just know it was that weight "
If you have any thoughts please feel free to post a comment
Anyway on a lighter note another new club joined this year with extensive lengths of water on a few rivers here in the North East so am eagerly looking forward to treading on Pastures new for the ladies and I suppose the brownies too.
Now I just hope these next 7 days pass quickly so I can get back to fishing.
I think that comment sums it up brilliantly. This 'saying it without weighing' seems common amongst the sport fishing fraternity here. My son Dominic caught what the skipper confidently estimated to be 90 kgs weight but I am pleased to hear him respond to questions about the biggest fish he ever caught by saying, I don't know how heavy it was but it was big, so big we would never have been able to lift it out of the water and would not have had room for it on deck.
ReplyDeleteNow that is so much cooler than claiming an exact weight!
Besides, who gives a shit anyway? I am more than delighted if I can say, 'It was a nice size' Actually, I am more than delighted if I catch anything!
Hippo the weight matters to some folk, me being one, I've fished for over 40 years for Grayling and got close to the 3lbs magical mark lots of times, I could have quite easily said it was 3lbs and leave it at that and go look for another challenge, I didn't and a few months later got my 3lber, since then I've had a few with my latest of 3lbs 3oz it does matter maybe not to everyone and folk who claim that's its a certain weight without weighing are in my eyes all mouth.
ReplyDeleteI hear Dominic is out fishing you anyway so you better go for quantity and not weight...take care mate
George, he is beating me both on quality and quantity! He's the new master now. In fact, he is considered so lucky (superstitious lot these angler's are) that he gets invited on all the trips. To us normal folk, a day on a fully equipped sport fishing boat is a thousand dollars, this bugger's fishing for free!
DeleteGood on him too, your just jealous.....lol, take care mate
DeleteI carry my scales but have yet to weigh a grayling on the bank (weighed one a few years ago before I cooked it) if I catch something that looks like it might go 2+ then I'll weigh it until then I'll carry on enjoying catching fish of a lesser calibre, big or small there still beautiful
ReplyDeleteThats exactly what I do martin, if I think its going to beat or come close to my personal bests then it gets weighed & released, if not I take a picture and slip them back, haven't killed one in a long time but do not condon anyone talking one for the pot.
DeleteIt would be a shame to reduce something so beautiful to mere numbers anyway.
ReplyDeletePiscator Non Solum Piscatur
I've only ever taken the one just to see what they tasted like, much prefer pelagic species so I've never taken anymore since.
ReplyDelete