A fishing conundrum. Please advise!

O.K. Lads, I need your help to settle an argument. Whenever my mate and I go fishing we always have a little comp between ourselves (like you do). Last Friday night we were fishing down at Barley Cove in West Cork, it was a bit windy and there was an abundance of weed but that’s got nothing to do with this conundrum.
As it was so windy my mate decided that he would go to the car to roll a couple of cigs, as we were getting fed up with trying to do them on the beach. He baited up and cast out and headed back to the car, thus leaving me to keep an eye not only on my rods, but his as well. After about ten minutes or so his rod sprang into life and his ratchet signalled a good bite. At first I left it but when it hit again I thought that I’d better strike and wind it in. The result was a good Bass which hit the scales at just over 7lb. When Trev comes back from the car and sees me weighing the fish, he realises what’s happened and is over the moon, let’s face it, it’s not everyday that you get a Bass that size.
“Hang on a minute.” Says I. “That’s my fish, not yours; I struck, fought and landed it whilst you were hiding from the wind!” He argued that it was he who baited up and cast out and if he hadn’t put his bait in such a place the fish would never have taken it. I argued that if he hadn’t been pissing around in the car so long he would not have only lost the fish, but possibly his rod to boot. We returned the fish to fight another day but remain undecided as to whom the buyer of the beer would be.
I claim victory for landing the fish; he claims it for baiting up. I know there’s a valid argument for both parties but there has to be a winner. What say you lot?

The person who caught and landed it I'd say , without a doubt . If you follow the other line of logic to the extreme the winner should be the bloke who tied the knots - in the Far East maybe , getting paid numpence for making up traces .
Cheers

definitely the guy who played and landed the fish. your mate was just unlucky, and highlights yet another reason to give up them fags!!! nice fish by the way

I agree.... the person that strikes and lands the fish recieves the beer. When ever I leave my rod for whatever reason I always tell my mate to hit any bites and they are his fish. So to receive my beer I have to hurry my dump :shock:

Kev

hard to say. the guy cast to the right place with the right rig and bait- this takes more effort. you simply reaped the rewards by reeling it in!?

In a competition, neither could count the fish as part of their tally!
jd

Ive been wondering about this, personally I would say you owe your mate the drink.
As Mark said, he sorted the trace, baited it up and cast it out, you just pulled it in. IF it had been an old boot, would you still be saying its your catch or would you be slagging him off? :wink:

If you were in a fishing competition who would get to weigh the fish?
In 99% of cases I'd imagine neither would.
Certainly to claim a world record you cannot pass the rod to anyone else while you're landing it to take a rest as it is no longer an individual catch...

None of you, the Tackle dealer, bait digger and the tax man all have benefitted from you going out in the wind and rain so who cares who landed it or baited up whilst you argue over it the Tackle dealer is driving home in his warm car, the bait digger is taking a nice cold one out of his new fridge and Bertie is flying to yet another junket to get a tan and free Sangrea!!! Now thats an angle you never thought off, me I just be happy one of us got such a nice fish!!! :lol: :lol:

heard a story of a fella hooking a 5lb.+ plaice on an english venue. as his ratchet started to sing another angler jumped on the rod and started to reel it in until he got an earful and passed it back to the owner. he eventually brought in the fish. he could not claim his club record for the fish due to the interference- ouch!! the result was that it was no ones fish really, although i am on the side of the angler that cast the rod out, baited up...

sorry Seagull!

O.K. Lads, there's 9 opinions, 3 for me, 3 for my mate and 3 "Don't know's" Yep, the tackle dealer will always win because there's always stuff to catch fish and stuff to catch fishermen. I reckon that I still have a valid argument as I dug more bait than trev, I was driving and, as usual, it was my 'baccy! C'mon Trev, log on and give your side of it. Looks like it's edging towards a re-match!

Speaking of hurrying your dumps Mac, I heard a story once about a bloke who lugged his gear down to Chesil Beach in the U.K. Set up his beach shelter and then realised that he had a tortoise head on approaching so he took a dump in his shelter, chucked a bit of shingle over it and moved along the beach a bit. As Chesil Beach gets so packed, the next guy on the beach took up the first available space and sat on yer mans t**d for the duration!

I reckon that the guy that baited and cast should get a beer for the excellent bait presentation and the guy that struck and reeled in should get a beer for concerntrating more, that you should both give up smoking whatever you were smoking and you should both count yourselves lucky that you weren't sitting on a t**d!!!!!!!

And I reckon you should both donate your beer to whoever just sent that in .
Nice one

I reckon I should get the beer. No real reason, just that I like beer

I reckon I should get the beer. No real reason, just that I like beer

Now yor Talkin

Kev

Have to say I would side with Seagull.
At the end of the day I would rather be the person that fought & landed the fish than the other guy whose rod it was caught on..

If asked 'what was your biggest bass' you just couldnt say '7lb - someone else played + landed it but... it was on my rod'

Personally, I think you both forfeit the beer & I should get it.

"I'm on the side of the man who actually landed the fish. Posession is 9/10ths of the law and all that.

But in the interests of democracy, why don't we open a poll on this, given the interest. 'Cause we all know it's going to happen to one of us again sooner or later....might be better to be able to say ""ah, the SAI site ran a poll of the finest anglers in the land and their verdict was...."" and avoid all the slagging.

Oh, and kudos to the man who posted the Chesil Beach Dump story. Quality...."

Poll Added..
jd

Yeah,

That Dump story made me laugh :D Nice one.

Kev