The joy of returning a bass

I can’t quite remember the exact moment I changed from being an absolute killer of fish, to a grateful returner of them. During my childhood I was incredibly lucky to fish for salmon with my Grandfather in Scotland. We would wade out to his favourite pool as the sun was rising, and there would be fish everywhere, jumping and splashing, and invariably if you made a good cast, you would get a pull, and if you made ten good casts you would probably have a fish on. They fought hard, and if you’d kept your wits about you and got them ashore or in the net, they undoubtedly got clobbered by the ghillies priest before being presented to you with a ‘well done sir’, and then dragged back to the hut to cheers and hollers. I loved every minute of this glory-walk along the bank with a heavy fish by my side, it’s teeth digging into my fingers as I clung to the inside of it’s gills. These were different days, and we were different people.

Nowadays the salmon are scarce, and for many years we have practised catch and release. At first we weren’t very good at it, not realising the energy that the fight had sapped form the fish and not properly re-breathing them. But with the ghillies insistance we steadily learnt, and along the way developing a new found respect for these glorious creatures. These courageous creatures had travelled across vast seas and dangers to come back to their home rivers to breed, and to be able to catch one and share a good scrap, but then also recover them and release them on their true course, was something of a liberation. Feeling the pump in the tail of a fish and letting it go when you know they are ready is a sweet sweet moment for a fisherman, and one that I cherish every tiume I am lucky enough to catch one. And it has now transferred across to Bass. Sure if I’m out at sea and the fish are about in numbers, then yes, we may take one or two medium sized fish back for a family feast. But for the vast majority, especially the big ladies, I treasure the moment I can send them back to their domain.