The happy weight
Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2016 8:38 am
Last week I caught a 5lb 4oz Tench from Stockbridge Pond, one of the pleasure fishing venues of Farnham Angling Society. In many regards the fish isn't exceptional, in terms of weight. But I was fishing for Crucian Carp, with very light line and a size 16 hook and the capture was unexpected. This pond has tench but they generally run to 2-3lb. Its a venue bigger than a farm yard pond, but not quite an estate lake. The tench clearly thought itself a carp, because it led me a merry dance keeping it away from the lilly pads and winding fast enough on the old Ambidex to make sure I stayed in contact when it ran my way.
Now the club offers a prize for the best tench caught in this pond over the season. My fish is a contender. Only twice in 10 years has this weight been bettered. Most years the prize is won by a fish of around 4lb. So I am very excited! Not only did my tench give me the run around on light float tackle, but its a possible star in its own pond. So I am shaking and breathless as I persuade the good Mr Lovatt, another angler to verify the weight of the fish with me. Yes, it is 5lb 4oz on his new scales that were properly zeroed. My hands shake as I try to text myself his name, telephone number and club member number on my phone (like an oaf I didn't have pen and paper). The bloody buttons are so small and my pinkies too big! He wasn't so near either, no one responded to my call, so Tench and I have made a staged trip around to him, revival dips in the net completed regularly to preserve this lovely fish. We are as children again. The fish is huge!! It's magnificent! I am so concerned about the fish getting away safely and well, that i then forget to photograph the tench. I let it go without a photo taken on my mobile phone.
That's crazy I know. We all photograph bigger fish right? We aren't content with any other evidence. Seeing is believing, although I've seen a few specimens that didn't look as heavy as the angler claimed. Still, I have an independent verified weight and we shall see. Its a long wait for the weight…over the season to come.
The bigger point to me though links to something that my daughter said recently. Like some of you I've been trying to shed a few pounds. The clinical target weight seems quite…well….ambitious. My daughter said, 'oh I have another weight, not quite so demanding, I call it my happy weight!' And that is the point may be, just as the target weight in health may be too low for pleasure, the target fish weight in angling is sometimes too high for contentment. Its all relative to the water, the food available and the weight of stocked fish. My tench at a little over 5lb isn't my biggest Tench. It isn't anywhere near a club record. But I think it a happy weight fish. It made me intensely happy and the circumstances of capture were everything.
Now the club offers a prize for the best tench caught in this pond over the season. My fish is a contender. Only twice in 10 years has this weight been bettered. Most years the prize is won by a fish of around 4lb. So I am very excited! Not only did my tench give me the run around on light float tackle, but its a possible star in its own pond. So I am shaking and breathless as I persuade the good Mr Lovatt, another angler to verify the weight of the fish with me. Yes, it is 5lb 4oz on his new scales that were properly zeroed. My hands shake as I try to text myself his name, telephone number and club member number on my phone (like an oaf I didn't have pen and paper). The bloody buttons are so small and my pinkies too big! He wasn't so near either, no one responded to my call, so Tench and I have made a staged trip around to him, revival dips in the net completed regularly to preserve this lovely fish. We are as children again. The fish is huge!! It's magnificent! I am so concerned about the fish getting away safely and well, that i then forget to photograph the tench. I let it go without a photo taken on my mobile phone.
That's crazy I know. We all photograph bigger fish right? We aren't content with any other evidence. Seeing is believing, although I've seen a few specimens that didn't look as heavy as the angler claimed. Still, I have an independent verified weight and we shall see. Its a long wait for the weight…over the season to come.
The bigger point to me though links to something that my daughter said recently. Like some of you I've been trying to shed a few pounds. The clinical target weight seems quite…well….ambitious. My daughter said, 'oh I have another weight, not quite so demanding, I call it my happy weight!' And that is the point may be, just as the target weight in health may be too low for pleasure, the target fish weight in angling is sometimes too high for contentment. Its all relative to the water, the food available and the weight of stocked fish. My tench at a little over 5lb isn't my biggest Tench. It isn't anywhere near a club record. But I think it a happy weight fish. It made me intensely happy and the circumstances of capture were everything.