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What would you do?

P

Patrick Cooper

No Longer a Member
In light of the recent record shaking barbel, should you catch a barbel or any species really what would you do?

There will always be somebody who knows where you caught a fine fish like the barbel recently. A few years ago a river record threatening barbel was caught several times on our syndicate. Only a few people knew about it as its limited numbers, theres a total press ban on any captures so it wasnt advertised in the weekly comics. Yet I had several people ask me about it and what peg/bait/etc etc.
So by putting it in a national magazine even though you havent named the river/club/venue you will have given the location away not directly of course, but it doesnt take someone with a little local knowledge of the venue to narrow it down. Shame really but for some barbel stardom is the be all and end all. Me I'm now with a syndicate I can trust with my life let alone a record fish location, and if I was to catch a fish of record size it would stay with the clique im afraid.

Your opinions gents??
 
Hi men,

If you don't want it known , 1- don't tell anyone ,2- don't put it in all the public weekly papers , 3- don't advertise a guiding service with it . It's human nature to try a find out where a big fish comes from , as in my case out of curiosity , as I don't want to fish where the latest barbel came from .

Hatter
 
I doubt any river will throw up record shaking barbel without the grapevine already being well aware of its potential. Reporting a fish from is hardly going to be the first time other anglers will have heard about big fish coming from a particular river.

Take the Dove - it's hardly a secret where the big fish get caught and anyone can join the controlling club. A report of one of the big fish getting caught at a very big weight in March is not going to make any difference to the numbers fishing - you often can't get a swim on the stretch as it is!
 
I haven't experienced fishing a stretch of water which suddenly acquired national notoriety and many more anglers because of an outstanding capture. If I did, I have no doubt I would be a very strong advocate of secrecy. But we need some balance here. Personally I enjoy the greater sense of community you get hearing of others captures on this forum or directly on the bank. Hearing about multiple catches for example or especially large fish can be hugely encouraging and inspiring. I can honestly say that hearing of the big captures wouldn't drive me to start switching venues and chasing fish. But I understand that many do so a meassured approach to disclosure is needed. However, saying all that, if I caught a record fish-that's a difficult one and if it was a new British record, on balance I think I would claim it.
 
Howard Cooke said:
I haven't experienced fishing a stretch of water which suddenly acquired national notoriety and many more anglers because of an outstanding capture. If I did, I have no doubt I would be a very strong advocate of secrecy. But we need some balance here. Personally I enjoy the greater sense of community you get hearing of others captures on this forum or directly on the bank. Hearing about multiple catches for example or especially large fish can be hugely encouraging and inspiring. I can honestly say that hearing of the big captures wouldn't drive me to start switching venues and chasing fish. But I understand that many do so a meassured approach to disclosure is needed. However, saying all that, if I caught a record fish-that's a difficult one and if it was a new British record, on balance I think I would claim it.
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I agree Howard, though the likelihood of a British record coming out of the blue and not having been caught and reported from about 14lb onwards is highly unlikely. Even keeping the venue out of a report won't work as the very few big fish around can be recognised from existing photographs. It's a case of you can't fool all of the people all of the time.
 
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