Which immediately catches the eye when you enter any tackle shop? Hundreds, if not thousands of artificial lures – spoons, centrifuges, twistery, pilkery, streamery, nymphs, wobblers, everything your heart desires. The lures were made for one purpose only – to catch as many fish as possible. Most of them are sold in tiny boxes or on a piece of colorful cardboard with transparent foil. Large inscriptions on each package inform the angler, that "They take great fish only for the provocatively colorful Kakamatsu killers", or "No catfish can resist this lure". However, many cynics are careful, that all these lures look like this, and not otherwise, not for that, to catch fish, but for anglers to catch them.
For a long time I thought exactly the same, until I found out, which really excites us the most. These are specially prepared giant fish hanging on the wall behind the counter or in front of the entrance to the shelter or fishing hotel. For example, we enter such a hotel for the first time in our lives. We came to the village of X for a week's fishing holiday and immediately, without a garden, we asked the receptionist "how did fish last in the immediate area??’’. – Great, better than last year – comes the answer. – Really, and large pieces also took? The man behind the counter smiles and, without turning his head, points his thumb over his shoulder at the glass case hanging on the wall behind his back. – Have you ever seen a fish like this??
So we look stunned at the record trout or almost twenty-five kilograms salmon and after a while we ask the next question. – Where was this fish caught?? – You, not far, under the bridge. – God bless you, but a specimen! The clerk smiles again. – Does my answer satisfy you?, to be? – of course, of course, that yes.
Rental of trophies?
So we burst into the room like a storm, We change quickly and rush straight to the river. After a day of serious fishing, we come back to the hotel with two barely dimensional sea trout. It seems to us, that the monster in the glass case on the wall is grinning at us with its enormous mouth in a malicious smile.
Record-breaking fish in display cases look the same everywhere. I wouldn't be surprised at all, if it suddenly turned out, that they are prepared in some little factory, let's say in Birmingham, and then bought by owners of Scottish hotels. All fish have similar explanatory signs in the style of “Caught 14 September 1933 years by colonel I.. R. Ruperta Wheatherbottom’a w River Where”. Perhaps, depending on the season and the number of guests, Scottish hotels borrow these preparations. Who can know that?
One thing I know for sure, to to, that I have never caught such a fish in my life, which I could even slightly compare with the giants hanging on the walls. And yet such fish really exist. I am recalling a fishing holiday in Scotland. A sea trout hung on the wall of a hotel lobby, which I have never seen before in my life. Well over 8 Kg! In the meantime, I became acquainted with the most famous local poacher. In fact, everyone knew him. His name was Henry, and he owned a small greengrocer on the main street in town. During my vacation I made friends with him a bit, although we both knew it perfectly well, that only one of us ever pays for the licenses authorizing us to fish. So we never talked about fishing.
A glance into the freezer
One afternoon I walked into Henry's shop. He was in the back at the time. From pure curiosity, because how else to explain it, I lifted the lid of the freezer in the store. I looked at the fish lying in it and felt it, that the ground is sliding under my feet. It was a gigantic sea trout, at least twice that, that hung on the wall of my hotel. I quickly closed the freezer. Henry soon showed up to serve me. Trying as hard as I could to hide the impression, I asked casually – “How are the fishing successes, Henry?” – Poorly, takes nothing. It wasn't so hopeless for a long time - he lied in his vivid eyes and his eyelid did not even twitch. – This is how it is with our hobby. Surely you have seen this giant crafted sea trout in my hotel before? That someone also managed to catch something like that with a fishing rod. I have seen, but no one has caught such a large fish here in a long time. Since he was so "convincing" in his responses, I followed the blow. -This fish is probably your river's record? – I asked naively. – Record? So, actually a record, no one has beaten him yet. – Are you sure my friend? He looked me straight in the eye and only answered after a moment's thought.
– If you ever meet an angler, who managed to catch bigger sea trout than the one hanging in the hotel, then you can be sure, that he is a real angler.
