But it is Jamie Pistilli's fishing story I am going to tell. Because it has a little bit of everything. Including a world-record fish. (Almost.)
Now, Jamie Pistilli is a regular guest on TSN 1200's Renegade Bass Fishing Show, a former host of Big City Fishing on the World Fishing Network and he loves fishing in Ottawa. Watson's Mill, in Manotick, is a favourite spot.
And that's where he was on a warm, mid-June morning a few years back, fishing for carp in the pools below the dam, letting his fly-line drift, noticing it was drifting slightly across the current when he pulled back and - it came as a complete surprise - he set the hook on the largest carp of his life.
"When I set the hook, right away I knew I had hooked something big. I mean, my line just went screaming off the reel," remembers Pistilli.
He fought that fish for more than 30 minutes, thinking many times he was about to snap his line, somehow managing to turn the carp at the last minute. A crowd gathered on the dam to cheer him on and two other fishermen had to help lift the fish from the water when it was landed, as no one had a net large enough.
The fish was a monster. Pistilli travels with scales and when the fish was weighed it came in at 27.5 pounds. The carp was then released.
The next day he was on the phone to the International Game Fish Association, which confirmed Pistilli's fish was a word record. By a full pound.
He was asked to send a photo of the fish, the scales he used and a sample of the fishing line.
"No problem," said Pistilli.
"We'll need the leader and fly as well."
"Sorry?"
And that's where his dream of holding a world fishing record died. For in order to release the fish Pistilli had cut his line the day before, the fly having been swallowed deep. Retrieving it would have harmed the fish.
And how much would the leader and fly have weighed?
"Less than an ounce," says Pistilli sadly.
So, the bad news first -- Jamie Pistilli caught a world-record fish in the Rideau River but lost the record because of an administrative rule by a Florida-based sports fishing association.
The good news - The Rideau River is still there. So is that fish.
http://www.ottawasun.com/2014/07/20/...water-paradise
