Big Fish Angling - Chasing the Monsters

[FishingMagic]

This is a dedicated thread for discussing article: Big Fish Angling - Chasing the Monsters

 

[chav professor]

Super article from a well respected specimen hunter! Thanks for sharing your thoughts on 'big fish angling. Liked your comments on doing things differently, it is often the little changes that add those special fish on the bank. I wish I can look back on my angling career with the same pride that I know Bob must. Amazing captures - by design!

 

[barbelboi]

Nice one Bob, a most enjoyable read.
Jerry

 

[Simon K]

Edges.

Time, single-mindedness, creative thinking, cross-species method adaptation and application.
The will to succeed.

Although there are some excellent single-species anglers out there, I also think many more could emulate their success by fishing more regularly outside the single species. So many techniques and "edges" have come from successful targetting of species other than the chosen quarry, I believe many anglers miss out on enhancing their angling experience and catching success.

Perhaps more anglers need to think about what they didn't do right (when they blank or lose fish) rather than what they did when they caught. Most of us blank more often than we catch, I'd say?

Great piece Bob, if I could show half that success in 15 years time, I'll be happy.

 

[Morespiders]

Good read Bob, some nice fish there mate

 

[Graham Marsden]

Excellent read, I enjoyed that.

 

[904_cannon]

A really enjoyable read, Bob.

Chub immediately spring to mind and when I think back to all of the hours I have sat watching a Starlight grow dimmer on a cold winter’s night, holding a very soft quiver tip rod, hour after hour and then, when that bite has finally come, I've been too frozen to strike! Madness I know, but the true specimen hunter will fully understand!

... and then you find that your still unable to move because of all the $loody Velcro

 

[cg74]

Thanks Bob, a cracking read.

 

[Trevor Sawyer]

Good stuff Bob,
I enjoyed the article very much - the size of some of the fish was very impressive, but the thing which REALLY caught my eye was your almost passing comment about catching a Bream/Chub hybrid...
I have yet to see a photograph of such a beast and wonder if by any chance you took a snap? Chub are known to hybridise with Roach, Rudd and more commonly Bleak in the wild, but although it would seem possible, I have only ever heard rumours of a bream/Chub hybrid. I am very intrigued as to what iot would actually look like. Being in the Chub Study Group, I would be very keen to see evidence of one and I know for a fact that Mark Wintle and Andy Nellist would give their high teeth to see such a photograph too, so if anyone has one, can they post it for us to see? Such fish have, I believe, been produced under laboratory conditions, but catching a naturally-occurring one would seem to be like a quest for the golden fleece. You will certainly never catch a rarer fish than that one Bob!

Trev

 

[dezza]

Excellent Article Bob.

 

[chub_on_the_block]

Great article Bob

I have only ever heard rumours of a bream/Chub hybrid. I am very intrigued as to what iot would actually look like.

Trevor - the pictures i posted recently re. the thread "What is this fish?" (Coarse Fishing section) appear to me to be a bream/chub hybrid, but the photos are rather old and poor quality. Taken from Thames at Kingston in 1980.

 

[Trevor Sawyer]

Bob's fish does seem to have a very large tail fin, but apart from that, looks very chub like to me. If it is a hybrid, my guess would be potentially a roach/chub? Chub_on_the_block's fish does indeed look very strange and potentially "breamy". I wonder if Mark Wintle has seen this fish? - I may drop him a line and see what he says.

Cheers,

Trev

 

[Simon K]

Hybrids count for nothing in Specimen Fishing.

 

[Trevor Sawyer]

I suspect Chub_on_the_block's fish (posted on his gallery) is probably an Ide, but it would have been good to see a better photo. I suppose back in 1980, the only cameras most anglers might have carried would have been film compacts, which would have been less than ideal for recording close-up details of fish. In those days, compact digital cameras were the stuff of science fiction, but hopefully if an angler catches a weird fish today, he is more likely to be able to get a sharp photoof it. The quest continues to find a decent photo of a Bream/Chub hybrid (

Trev

---------- Post added at 08:06 ---------- Previous post was at 08:00 ----------

PS: Simon K says: "hybrids count for nothing in specimen fishing"...
Probably largely true as far as the record lists are concerned, but they are extremely interesting and news-worthy in their own right. As I have said elsewhere, it is a pity they are often classed as second-class life forms when compared with pure-bred fish - most are fantastic-looking fish and scientifically, very intriguing.

Trev

 

[Bob Hornegold]

There you go !!

We will never know, in future I will refere to it as a Chub Hybred :wh

It's of very little interest to the article and certainly looked like a Chub/Bream hybred to Non Chub Study Group Member

Bob

 

[The Sogster]

Great article Bob, thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

 

[john step]

This is a dedicated thread for discussing article: Big Fish Angling - Chasing the Monsters

Interested in the query by chub on the block re the rarity of bream/chub hybrid. I had one of 4lb + from the Ancholne in Lincs about 4 years ago whilst trotting bread for chub. It came in a bag of proper chub. I had no idea they were rare and never took a photo...sorry.

 

[Bob Hornegold]

John,

They are only rare because they are some sort of freak of nature and off No real interest to this article.

Other than some Geek type who wan't to catch one, just to Say-- I told you it was a Roach-Chub ?



Bob

 

[Tee-Cee]

Some very interesting stuff in the article on rigs that had to be thought out and probably made to work with much trial and error. I really like that!

A thinking mans angler that Mr Walker would have been proud to know...............

Great stuff Bob and thanks for sharing it with us!

 

[Bob Hornegold]

Tee-Cee,

Thanks mate.

Some of my Big Catches of Barbel were caught a few yards down stream of Mr Walkers house, I often thought he would have had a great time fishing that swim ?

Bob