Famous at last

With another busy day at work (just in case the boss is reading) out of the way, I was home for a cuppa and a quick scour of the internet. I was met with photos of huge fish and even fell for the new perch record being broken again, yes it's April 1st and I had forgotten. I spotted a message from a fellow fishing fanatic, who was pointing me to this weeks Anglers Mail and a handsome fellow holding aloft a super perch. "Hey, that's me!" I remember getting a private message asking me if I would like my Facebook perch photo in the Anglers Mail but I'm not sure I said "Yes" in such a round about way and in fact I expected a reply before anything was finally decided. However the lazy angling journo decided to just post anyway, it seemed a good page filler I guess he thought.

The story goes that I once posted a perchy photo on Facebooks Perch Fishing page. It was a two pound fish but was quickly jumped on by some superstar angler who didn't think any perch other than his own were big enough to be shown off. The actual story behind my fish was something about me catching it in stupidly crazy weather, 80mph winds and either Christmas eve or New years Eve, I can't remember which. That's the bit that was the story not the two pound fish nor whether it looked two pound or not, but as I mentioned before some superstar wannabe took it on himself to have a crack at a quick self take I'd taken, suggesting the fish was no where near two. Rather than argue with him I amused myself by letting him get a little excited and left it there wishing him a happy new year or whatever it was.

So a few months on from that I go and catch a nice three pound fish. When I get home the photo is tremendous, the perch looks huge as you all saw in my last post and I decide to have some fun. The photo goes on Facebook with the title, "Can't believe I forgot my scales" aren't I a mischievous one? Lolz 'n' all that. I'm inundated with suggestions of it's weight, four, five and even six pounds is proclaimed with just a couple of chaps noticing it's not as big as 99% of people thought it was at first and second glance. My goal is achieved and even better I've proved to myself that photos are often very good and also very crap. Among all the hype I receive a few friends requests, and private messages as to be expected to which most were ignored. However one was from the Anglers Mail who wanted to run a story on my "unweighed" fish to which I replied with it's true weight and the little story of my fun. With the lack of any more messages  from AM after my initial hesitation in allowing them to use my photo, I expected that was the last of it. Forward on to today and I'm in this weeks Anglers Mail. I guess we all need to be a little careful in what we share on Facebook and the rest. No harm done and at least the article does state that I did in fact know the weight and wasn't claiming a "giant". Another plus was the fact they printed where I'm from and already local people are getting in touch and that the "giant" perch hunt is under way in my town. I do reckon there's a good few lumps about if you look hard enough, but I didn't catch any from here.