While I accept that for some the “take” alone is enough, the landing of a fish is important to me. I have to have properly landed it for me to count it as caught. That said I am not adverse to trying to shake fish off in the edge …the solitary Bream that comes right at the end of an otherwise blank and you don’t want to go home with a stinking wet net for example ! I have shaken off some quite substantial fish when I think back. That’s not to sound complacent or that I didn’t think they were worth landing, it was more to do with where I was fishing. If the handling of the fish will be difficult, steep concrete banks for example; and I have seen the fish, know what it is and don’t really want to weigh it or take its photo then shaking it off or unhooking it in the edge saves allot of hassle both for you and more importantly the fish.
It does remind me of a rule of thumb that I worked on as a kid and sort of still follow to this day which was that I had to have touched the fish for it to count. This stems from the days of tiddler snatching when you measured your days success by how many you caught. Inevitably some fell off as you were swinging them in and led to endless arguments with your mates as to whether it counted or not so the “have to touch it” rule came into force. This worked quite well although it did lead to some quite amusing incidents of kids literally throwing themselves in, in an attempt to do a goalkeeper-esque finger tip flying dive trying to touch a Roach that had unhooked itself on the in-swing so that it counted towards the days total.
...Ah yes, those were the days !
It does remind me of a rule of thumb that I worked on as a kid and sort of still follow to this day which was that I had to have touched the fish for it to count. This stems from the days of tiddler snatching when you measured your days success by how many you caught. Inevitably some fell off as you were swinging them in and led to endless arguments with your mates as to whether it counted or not so the “have to touch it” rule came into force. This worked quite well although it did lead to some quite amusing incidents of kids literally throwing themselves in, in an attempt to do a goalkeeper-esque finger tip flying dive trying to touch a Roach that had unhooked itself on the in-swing so that it counted towards the days total.
...Ah yes, those were the days !
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