personal worst

whats the smallest or worst fish you have ever caught?

about 10 years ago me and a friend had a 2 week trip to france on the river soane with luke moffat. we had 1 weeks fully guided fishing and 1 week on our own. we got to the river when the fish was spawning and also it was in full flood so lack of research didnt do us very well at all. the very first session my mate had a 109lbs cat out and it was the first fish luke had managed to get out on the bank for 10 days so maybe the river was changing and going back to being fishable? erm nope no such luck. lukes guides budgie and ryan did every thing they could to help us out but with 6 of us fishing in total we only had 3 fish all week and i wasnt lucky at all.
the next week we was on our own kitted out with a boat and echo sounder from luke we set out to try and find a part of the river that we could feed up with the tons of boily and pellets we had brought with us and on the penultimate day we had set up in a tributary with nice slack water and good features under our bait. i had a run on monster crab boily and it turned out to be a nice sized carp then it managed to get into a sunken tree and snap me up. ok no worries we are in a good swim had 1 run bound to get more. not long later i had a take on my cat rod and struck into hmmmm have i got a fish or not? i reeled in a 9lbs 4oz cat fish its the smallest cat ive ever caught and all these years later ive stil not managed to catch a cat as small as this.
went back to luke the next year and managed to get a new pb of 125lbs, luke pulled out all the stops that year and between the 2 of us we had 13 cats on the bank both catching a fish of 125lbs

Nice to see someone else using "personal worst" - years ago it was a longstanding joke between a fishing pal and me. As in "Looks like a personal worst, that one, to me...".

Smallest and worst has to be a stickleback; weighs ****** all and then you've got to unhook it....... 4 of them gained me a section win on the Oxford canal, so maybe not all bad?!!

My PWs are the only records i seem able to beat these days..

A 5oz Swan Mussel on flavoured luncheon meat.
Jerry

An electric ray that must have weighed 30 kg at least.

It gave me a hell of a jolt.

My 2kg dead cat in an onion bag still takes some beating.

Any fish is most welcome at the bottom of my landing net.

I've also caught a swan mussel. Mine was caught on a size 2 mepps spinner:w

Er....when I was a kid fishing the Trent near Swarkston. All I had was one stickleback. I only hooked it while my maggot dangled in the edge while I was adjusting my float.

Then there's the blinkin puffer fish (many of them) near Capetown.

3 little perch down the edge in a winter match on a flooded Thames at Child Beale for 9oz...
Won me the cash on a very hard day.

Bullheads. They only seem to get a look in when the rivers are high,cold & coloured and nothing else is feeding. I've learnt to pack up & go home if I get one.

I also once had a bream of around 5 lb that was crawling with lice...and by crawling I mean it's flanks were absolutely covered in the damned things. It was in such a terrible state that I did what I thought was the decent thing and knocked it on the head. I've never seen such an infestation of lice before or since.

on the Trent whne I was about 14 - rain bucketing down, caught one small roach all day and that was foul hooked

I caught an extremely poisonous coral snake in Oz once. Pink and turquoise. And so was the snake

OK, enough of dead cats (catfish, not).
My memory banks have lurched into a life more relevant.
A gudgeon that won me a match and a silver cup big enough for it to swim around in, at Torksey lock on the Trent in 1964. A blooming freezing day and the only fish between a dozen of us. I've been paying for the curse that that bad-luck fish put on me for the last 40-odd years.

Loads of 4 inch Ruffe .My Father used to like to go to the Thames at Laleham and no matter what size bait and hook used I always seemed to get into the Ruffe and every single one seemed to be able to snaffle the bait and the hook and swallow it so you could see a bit of it coming out of its "bottle " all with a tiny tap on the quiver .Oh those were the days :wh

peter crabtree said:

Then there's the blinkin puffer fish (many of them) near Capetown.
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They are known as "Blaasies", locally, which is short for "Blaasop" (Blow Up). The darned things are supposed to be poisonous, but the Japanese eat them,

Ron The Hat Clay said:

The darned things are supposed to be poisonous, but the Japanese eat them,

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No surprises there then..

Is there anything they dont eat?

chub_on_the_block said:

Is there anything they dont eat?

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Dairy products.

Ron The Hat Clay said:

They are known as "Blaasies", locally, which is short for "Blaasop" (Blow Up). The darned things are supposed to be poisonous, but the Japanese eat them,

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Had one in October in Fuerteventura but the darned thing never puffed. Bit like lighting a squib that doesn't go off.

I don't subscribe to the notion of personal worsts or bests for that matter... A fish is a fish. Happy not to blank