When fish come adrift.

Derek Gibson · Aug 23, 2016

Many of us will have experienced having a fish drop off, it's always annoying but it's part of the game. Except that when it's an especially large specimen it's more difficult to adopt the cavalier stance.

I was reminded of this a couple of days ago when a friend dropped in on route home from fishing and told me of a fish he had lost earlier that day, which as he put it left him gutted.

Later that evening I was replaying his account in my minds eye and recalling the odd occasions when I had suffered the same scenario. I had to admit that although the last time this happened to me was several years ago the image of that fish is still fresh in my memory. Which suggests to me that whilst we may adopt an indifferent attitude the reality is often the reverse, regardless of experience or past successes.

barbelboi · Aug 23, 2016

I accept it as a part of fishing and never get 'wound up' over what is just 'part of the package'. I did have a friend once who did a Yosemite Sam impersonation whenever loosing a decent fish but I'm not sure if that helped

.

If you didn't have the bad days you wouldn't appreciate the good 'uns...........

Peter Jacobs · Aug 23, 2016

Over the decades I have had many a fish come adrift before the net.

Each and every time the first thing I do is to change the hook for a new sharp one . . . .

In pleasure sessions it is a case of ,"oh well, now how did that happen" however, in my match days it was often a total disaster.

I lost count of the times a framing or winning specimen shook free and those occasions were (and still are) galling.

In France and Norway we would often fish a line-to-hand whip and swing almost every fish in, but inevitably that would lead to a few slipping the (barbless) hook.

It did teach us though to use a pan net for many more fish than we might have done without that experience . . . . . .

Derek Gibson · Aug 23, 2016

barbelboi said:
I accept it as a part of fishing and never get 'wound up' over what is just 'part of the package'. I did have a friend once who did a Yosemite Sam impersonation whenever loosing a decent fish but I'm not sure if that helped.

If you didn't have the bad days you wouldn't appreciate the good 'uns...........

Jerry, the point I was trying to make (unsuccessfully it appears), is not a case of throwing a tantrum more a case of the impact it makes on you. Especially if the lost fish looks close to pushing your PB, in leaves an indelible print in many people.

mikench · Aug 23, 2016

It has happened to me a few times as you can imagine

I view it philosophically and try and address where i went wrong, change the hook( which i do regularly now) and wish a bon voyage to the fish who, metaphorically speaking, lives to be caught another day.

As one contributor on here proclaims in his moniker " it's fishing not catching"

thecrow · Aug 23, 2016

Its not the loss of the fish that I cant stand its part of fishing, that horrible feeling of helplessness though is another thing entirely, I do admit to having had the odd bout of rod throwing in the past but as it never achieved anything to alleviate that feeling I stopped doing it.

Lord Paul of Sheffield · Aug 23, 2016

why is the fish that gets away always a good 'un?

mikench · Aug 23, 2016

That is Murphy's law at work; it is also usually the biggest!

barbelboi · Aug 23, 2016

Derek Gibson said:
Jerry, the point I was trying to make (unsuccessfully it appears), is not a case of throwing a tantrum more a case of the impact it makes on you. Especially if the lost fish looks close to pushing your PB, in leaves an indelible print in many people.

In respect of the impact? I've thoroughly enjoyed my fishing for over 60 years now, losing the odd lump or three isn't going to get me down and I certainly wouldn't dwell on it...........

I might have a good laugh about it though with any friend/s who may have been there at the time...........

103841 · Aug 23, 2016

I recently lost a large tench, would have well beaten my pb which was only around the three pound mark, what made it all the more frustrating was the fact no large tench have ever been recorded from this lake. I had the lake owner standing behind me as I played it and after a few minutes finally losing it, he was as gutted as me and has not stopped reminding me since!

laguna · Aug 23, 2016

We've all lost a few but we live to fight another day!

A mate of mine loses at least 20% of his fish in reeds, its expected of him and he doesn't seem to mind? Clearly they like what he puts on his hook and his rigs are working correctly - but hes a lazy type of angler. His problem (though he doesn't see it as a problem other than the cost of losing rigs), is that he's too slow to react with his rods set far apart... and his constant dilly dallying. Plus if he's using alarms he can't bloody hear em either...

His attitude is right for him, but not for the fish, many of which are swimming around with lips adorned with hooks and trailing hook links such as his care-free attitude. I once grabbed his rod while he was messing around setting the other up on his rod pod, saying to me "what you doing? it'll be all right, I'll reel it in when its had chance to run a bit" but not realising it was heading for cover. I've even told him to clip up so they can't get in the reeds but he won't change and insists on a slack line.

Ive dropped a few myself, its inevitably part and parcel of angling though I'm still upset at snapping my 40+ year old glass rod and loosing the end tackle with fish attached to boot. I'd struck into what was a ferocious bite one day on the river, and as I did so hit a nearby tree trunk and broke it. It was a rod my dad bought me when I was a kid.

theartist · Aug 23, 2016

s63 said:
I recently lost a large tench, would have well beaten my pb which was only around the three pound mark, what made it all the more frustrating was the fact no large tench have ever been recorded from this lake. I had the lake owner standing behind me as I played it and after a few minutes finally losing it, he was as gutted as me and has not stopped reminding me since!

Unlucky mate but you need to remind him that it was HIS fault that you lost that pb as a watched angler is naturally more tense than one left to his or her own devices.

Blame the lake owner with as much gusto as you can get away with

mikench · Aug 23, 2016

I know that feeling of being watched; scary particularly if it is the bailiff!

Bob Hornegold · Aug 23, 2016

Derek

I know exactly were you are coming from, months on the bank can turn into years if you are fishing a difficult venue and to have the fish of your dreams drop off at the last moment can be soul destroying.

Simon King and myself had spent ten years trying to catch an 8lb Chub from the Fishers Green complex, I had had 6x7lb+ Chub and Simon had 7x7lb+ Chub, but we could not get over that 8lb barrier.

2013 and I had added 3 more 7lb + Chub, then Simon landed an 8lb 14ozs Chub and the week later I hooked a huge fish, which got tethered on a set line.

I kept pulling the fish to the surface just out of reach of the landing net, but it would not go in the landing net, it was just out of reach.

Simon went round to the other side of the Relief Channel and cast over my line but still could not release the tethered fish, in the end he managed to run his hooklink up to my hook and pulled for a break.

Fortunately the fish was caught the following season at 9lbs +, I was distraught at loosing this fish, but Simon had another Chub of 8lb 6ozs a week later and four days later I had a 9lb 1ozs Chub.

But that loss of the first Chub still haunts me, as does a Huge Carp that went around an island on Landridge after a titanic battle that lasted for ever.

Another saga of a story, I will not bore you, but it's the ones that get away that stay in the memory.

Bob

terry m · Aug 23, 2016

Losing fish is part and parcel of the game, but for me that does not soften the blow when it is definitely a very good fish.

A couple of recent instances come to mind. A couple of winters ago I dropped a large smelt into a clear Hants Avon and a submarine shot out from under my feet, I watched it grab the bait and struck quickly as per usual. The fight was spectacular, and if the pike was not a 30, it was close as dammit. Eventually it shot upstream and whilst trying to turn it the Partridge double hook straightened. (Will never use those again!). Gutted? You bet.

Wind forward to Sunday night just gone. Fished into dark on a slow water known to contain some vey large carp. At 21.15 the left rod rattled off and when I lifted into the fish immediately you know this is something special. It stayed very low and swam around pretty much at will, my 2.75TC rods were folded double and not making much inroads. The fish was on for about 3 minutes when suddenly it woke up, tore off and the line let go. I never saw the fish but I know what it is like to catch carp to mid 30's. This was definitely a 30, and perhaps a PB.

Gutted? Yep, but sweet FA that can be done once it is gone. Shake yourself down and go again!!

Fishing? Pah!!

flossy · Aug 23, 2016

Happened to me only last night,after stalking two really nice mirror carp close in ,just into darkness i had another take ,this time from something altogether different the power was amazeing ,couldn't stop it ,think i lost me bottle a bit ,if i,m honest, and then the hook pulled ,i,m blamed myself for letting it do what it wanted ,but thats fishing ,gutted though

S-Kippy · Aug 23, 2016

I'm still not over that sea trout

Don't think I ever will be either. Fish of a lifetime and my own stupid fault.

dorsetandchub · Aug 23, 2016

There have been several fish that I'd simply love to know what they were. One that felt like a fully stocked refrigerator falling out of a fifth floor window, smashed 6lb test like cotton. That was on the Frome. Carp, pike, bass, mullet, sea trout? Would love to have known - for certain.

Oh well, as the late c20th philosopher Jagger put it "You can't always get what you want....."

103841 · Aug 23, 2016

theartist said:
Unlucky mate but you need to remind him that it was HIS fault that you lost that pb as a watched angler is naturally more tense than one left to his or her own devices.

Blame the lake owner with as much gusto as you can get away with

Can't blame him really, up until he arrived I had been fishing lobs hoping for a big stripey and was having no joy whatsoever, on his advice I switched to bread flake in the hope of catching anything and within minutes struck into the tench.

Tee-Cee · Aug 23, 2016

Some months ago I lost a very big roach at the net and to this day I'm still gutted whenever I think of it, BUT I don't DWELL on it day in, day out. At the time I know I muttered a few expletives ( oft repeated at the time ! ) and it did spoil that day and probably some that followed, but now it's a shrug of the shoulders and a determination to put the matter right....
Other losses in the past have been treated in the same way, including a huge tench, but let's not spoil my evening - okay ??

ps If nothing else it helps empathize with others who suffer the same fate..............Take Binka and his very big perch, but hell's bell's lets not spoil his evening as well !! ( FFS is I believe, the common vernacular.................)

When fish come adrift.

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