Loch Ness Monster Caught!
That's right, a real live monster was caught in Loch Ness over the past weekend, on a rod and reel. A salmon estimated to weigh about 100 pounds is not an everyday find.
A massive salmon thought to be the biggest caught in the UK will not enter the record books because its weight cannot be verified, officials said.
The angling community hoped the fish would break the UK's rod catch record, set 85 years by the daughter of a Scottish ghillie.
Witnesses to the weekend catch said the huge salmon, caught in the River Ness near Inverness, was 56 inches long and 50 inches around the girth.
The angling party which caught the male salmon released the fish back into the water after photographing and measuring it.
But they had no way of confirming its exact weight because the set of scales they had on the river bank could weigh up to only 30lb.
Ghillie Grant Sutherland, who witnessed the catch, told The Scotsman: "I have never come across a fish like that before.
"We couldn't weigh the salmon because we didn't have scales big enough.
"All I can say is that the measured length was 56 inches. It was the biggest fish I've ever seen - by a mile.
"The man who caught it was an experienced angler and his reaction was one of shock - it took about 45 minutes to land."
Because the fish was not weighed, it cannot be considered for the record. But judging from the picture they have, it sure is a big fish. If the ginormous salmon take to the air like the sturgeon already are, we'll suspect yet another Russian plot.
By feeblemind, Tuesday, 16 October , 2007 @ 9:13 am
Gaius! Have you seen it? At the Daily Mail via Drudge, they are serving grey squirrel pancakes (road kill?) in the UK.
By Gaius, Tuesday, 16 October , 2007 @ 9:13 am
Yep. Post coming up.
By Sam L., Wednesday, 17 October , 2007 @ 8:38 am
I looked at it–and don’t believe it. Unless the guy holding it is huge, that’s not a 56″ fish. And a 50″ girth equates to a 15.9″ diameter, 28% of the length–doesn’t look like that, either. I’ve seen pictures of huge salmon, in Astoria, OR, from around 1900, when they used to be common.
And might those be Crepes écureuil (Squirrel), not pancakes?