With angling now at a virtual standstill across the country, I thought I might bring some cheer over the coming weeks with a series of extraordinary but true stories from over 200 years of angling history.
All are revealed in Fishing’s Strangest Days by Tom Quinn, a collection of anecdotes and fascinating tales that may sound fishy and unbelievable but will have you caught hook, line and sinker.
Here’s a flavour.
England, 1880. The splendidly named Victorian naturalist H Cholmondeley-Pennell was an ardent fan of perch and travelled widely in pursuit of big specimens.
On a trip to the Lake District in pursuit of a record-breaking fish, he encountered a most remarkable example of the perch’s outlandish appetite.
He had just landed a reasonable-sized perch but, as he gently unhooked the fish, the angle at which the hook had penetrated meant he accidentally removed the poor creature’s eye.
Horrified, Pennell thought it would be best to knock the fish on the head, but he was a skilled naturalist and knew from experience that fish are endowed with remarkable powers of recovery.
He gave the fish the benefit of the doubt and gently released it into the lake. It swam off apparently unperturbed by the loss of one eye.
Pennell then discovered he had run out of worms, but it was evening and time to pack up anyway. It was then he noticed the perch eye still stuck on his hook. He flung his float tackle out into the lake with the eye attached and set about packing his bag.
A few moments later he looked up and noticed his float had disappeared only to find he had hooked another perch, about the size of the last.
His amazement turned to wonder when he discovered this perch had only one eye! Not only was it a cannibal, but prepared, not 10 minutes after being caught, to eat its own eye.
Fine pearls
Scotland, 1886. A nine-year-old boy fishing for trout at Tweed Mill, Coldstream, caught a mussel four inches long and two inches broad, containing no fewer than 40 fine pearls of different sizes.
He earned more for this one catch than his father, a farm worker, had earned in the previous five years.
England, 1950. Two Americans staying in London had an argument over whether or not it would be possible to cast a fly from the roof of their hotel, the Savoy, over the gardens and the busy Embankment and into the Thames.
They were so determined to settle the dispute that they went along to Hardy Brothers tackle dealers, and asked them to decide if such a thing was possible.
Hardy’s approached the angler and author Esmond Drury who agreed to attempt the feat on condition that he was tied securely to a chimney on the hotel roof.
Early one Sunday morning, with the help of a policeman who stopped the traffic on the Embankment, he proved that it was indeed possible to cast a fly into the Thames from the roof of the Savoy.
Fishing’s Strangest Days is published by Portico, an imprint of Anova Books.
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Catch of the week
The Irish Specimen Fish Committee recently published its 2019 report, which lists all recorded specimen fish caught in sea, lakes and rivers in Ireland. Over the next while, I intend to publish a selection of these fish.
In July 2019, Terry O’Donovan caught a gilthead bream (as pictured) of 4.18lb (1.90kg) on peeler crab while fishing in Clonakilty Bay, Co Cork.
