Mike Hodgkiss
Senior Member
People need to be careful when posting photos of fish captures , the swim is clearly identifiable , and that little kid in the background will tell all his pals . Circus will descend soon , you just wait
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A Trent surprise !!!!
- Thread starter Adam Wylie
- Start date
Joe Winstanley
Senior Member & Supporter
That's not a pillow, that's the chunk of spam that was used as bait.
Richard Parsons
Senior Member
I'm fleetingly remember reading of a sturgeon capture from either a Welsh or Cornish river some time in the early 20th Century. It was some fish. And very unlikely that it came from a stillwater or was a discarded pet.
Here it is: Towy sturgeon
Here it is: Towy sturgeon
Last edited:
Steve Kenchington
Senior Member & Supporter
I seem to remember a story about one being hooked in the mill pond at Throop mill on the D stour in the early 1900s.
Steve Kenchington
Senior Member & Supporter
Found it ! Truncated article from the editorial from ANGLING - June1963. Price: 2s 6d. Reproduced on RDAA forum a while ago.
THE latter part of this article may seem to be fantastic. But it is fact, and several residents in River Way and Hurn Way, two miles west of Christchurch, will not forget jwhat happened on the Dorset Stour way back in 1942.
Then he came to me at the mill, saying, "There is a nine or ten foot log under the apron, could you shift it?"
Taking my long boat-hook, I accordingly obliged.
Upon giving the "log" a shove it went away on its own, lashing the surface with a great tail, away into the depths of the pool.
We both stood transfixed, amazed, never in any river had I seen such a fish, for it was a fish.
Then it all came back to me.
A week earlier a parson, living in River Way two miles down river, had told me a strange story. His garden was by the river and he said that he had seen a huge fish, some nine feet long, and not unlike a pike. Two anglers at Moor's Island had also seen some great object moving upstream, much too big to be a pike, so they said.
I was determined to get to the bottom of this matter and I decided to fish for whatever it was.
Home I went, collected a sea rod and reel, a line of 60lb b.s., a conger hook, and three preserved pilchards.
Returning to the Weir Pool at 2pm., I found Mr Woodhouse there, one of our salmon anglers.
Telling him about the "log", I rigged up the tackle and asked him to fish for it.
At first he refused and said I was barmy, so I went after the chap who had been with me, and who verified what we had seen below the apron at the hatches.
Mr. Woodhouse then started to cast, at first finding the rig-up rather awkward, but after a while could throw about thirty yards.
Then the pilchard was taken. It seemed at first as if a sack of coal was on the end trying to slip off the back of a lorry.
The "log", as we will call it, made no sudden movement, resisting with only long slow runs and then stopping dead, immovable for several minutes.
This went on for hour after hour.
We took turns playing the "log". We just could not tire it, only ourselves. Our wrists ached under the great strain. Nearly six hours passed and there seemed no end to it all.
But the end was near at hand.
The "log" had so far kept to the deeper parts of the mill pool but at last it made for the shallow outfall where the water ran fast from the pool, by a silted gravel bank.
Mr Woodhouse had the rod and ran to follow the "log" downstream. It suddenly turned, facing us, and the hook dropped out of its mouth.
Almost aground in the shallow water, it once more turned, and rushed off down river.
We both knew now that it was a sturgeon.
It was plainly visible, twice, in the shallow water. What might it have weighed" We had no idea. It could have been anything between 130 lb. and 180 lb.
The longer you play a fish the larger becomes the hole made by the hook, and the larger the hook the more it wears. Small hooks are much less likely to work loose for they remain firmly embedded. I think this happened with the sturgeon, and the big conger hook dropped out when the line slackened.
THE latter part of this article may seem to be fantastic. But it is fact, and several residents in River Way and Hurn Way, two miles west of Christchurch, will not forget jwhat happened on the Dorset Stour way back in 1942.
Then he came to me at the mill, saying, "There is a nine or ten foot log under the apron, could you shift it?"
Taking my long boat-hook, I accordingly obliged.
Upon giving the "log" a shove it went away on its own, lashing the surface with a great tail, away into the depths of the pool.
We both stood transfixed, amazed, never in any river had I seen such a fish, for it was a fish.
Then it all came back to me.
A week earlier a parson, living in River Way two miles down river, had told me a strange story. His garden was by the river and he said that he had seen a huge fish, some nine feet long, and not unlike a pike. Two anglers at Moor's Island had also seen some great object moving upstream, much too big to be a pike, so they said.
I was determined to get to the bottom of this matter and I decided to fish for whatever it was.
Home I went, collected a sea rod and reel, a line of 60lb b.s., a conger hook, and three preserved pilchards.
Returning to the Weir Pool at 2pm., I found Mr Woodhouse there, one of our salmon anglers.
Telling him about the "log", I rigged up the tackle and asked him to fish for it.
At first he refused and said I was barmy, so I went after the chap who had been with me, and who verified what we had seen below the apron at the hatches.
Mr. Woodhouse then started to cast, at first finding the rig-up rather awkward, but after a while could throw about thirty yards.
Then the pilchard was taken. It seemed at first as if a sack of coal was on the end trying to slip off the back of a lorry.
The "log", as we will call it, made no sudden movement, resisting with only long slow runs and then stopping dead, immovable for several minutes.
This went on for hour after hour.
We took turns playing the "log". We just could not tire it, only ourselves. Our wrists ached under the great strain. Nearly six hours passed and there seemed no end to it all.
But the end was near at hand.
The "log" had so far kept to the deeper parts of the mill pool but at last it made for the shallow outfall where the water ran fast from the pool, by a silted gravel bank.
Mr Woodhouse had the rod and ran to follow the "log" downstream. It suddenly turned, facing us, and the hook dropped out of its mouth.
Almost aground in the shallow water, it once more turned, and rushed off down river.
We both knew now that it was a sturgeon.
It was plainly visible, twice, in the shallow water. What might it have weighed" We had no idea. It could have been anything between 130 lb. and 180 lb.
The longer you play a fish the larger becomes the hole made by the hook, and the larger the hook the more it wears. Small hooks are much less likely to work loose for they remain firmly embedded. I think this happened with the sturgeon, and the big conger hook dropped out when the line slackened.
Richard Parsons
Senior Member
That's an extraordinary extract, Steve. Thanks for sharing.