THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

This comprised a penn progression rod paired up to a daiwa LD50H reel loaded to the brim with seventy
pounds breaking strain braid. To this I attached a trace borrowed from Johan, lashed a large chunk of
still frozen mackerel to the hook, then sent it out seaward into the mirror calm water which had a shelf
a short distance off where the colour changed from pale to dark blue signifying depth.
The bait hadn't been in the water more than a few minutes when the characteristic pull down on the rod
tip marked the start of business, and off I went being dragged along the beach. From the onset it felt
like a particularly hefty fish, though it was difficult to say with any degree of certainty as I was fishing
with a very much lighter outfit for the very first time.
A good half hour or so later, Johan sent someone up the beach telling me to work the fish harder and
turn its head before I completely vanished from view. "Doesn't he think I'm trying to do that already",
I asked.
So I piled on as much extra pressure as I could, and thankfully the fish duly responded by suddenly
heading off back towards the main base area where everyone else was fishing. That fish came out of
the weight estimation formula at two hundred and twelve pounds beating my previous best of one
hundred and ninety two pounds, finally taking me beyond the double ton.
Associated audio interview numbers: 49.
A FISH FROM MY TRAILED BOAT IN EXCESS OF TWO HUNDRED POUNDS
Bucket List status – result
Catching a big fish from your own trailed boat, so far as the bucket list is concerned, doesn't
automatically have to mean fishing UK or Irish waters, though taking account of the logistics involved,
along with the availability of suitable target species, realistically it probably means exactly that.
Actually, this is no bad thing, as home
waters offer as good if not better
opportunities of success than a great
many more distant so called big fish
venues.
A two hundred pound fish anywhere
worldwide is not to be sniffed at. The
beauty of home waters is that you can
more easily incorporate repeat attempts
as a natural part of the learning process,
which unless you get immediately
lucky, could otherwise eat up a great
deal of time, not to mention money.
Quote: ‘I think we need a bigger boat’. Chief Brody, Jaws
shark, six gilled shark, common skate, and blue fin tuna.
The home water species theoretically
capable of putting this particular tick
in the required box, are mako shark,
porbeagle shark, thresher shark, blue
All potentially viable targets on paper, but in reality, and for various reasons, some more likely potential
targets than others, particularly if you either need to do it quickly, or want to verify the size of the fish
accurately and safely, while in some cases complying with the constraints of the law.
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