A thread inspired by reading
@Stewie74's match report which included that always exciting first fish after blank last time out. That got me thinking about those fish you catch now and again that you are just so excited/grateful/relieved etc to see end up in the net. I'm sure everyone must have had those special fish (be they PBs, match winners, blank beaters or just a nice fish you weren't expecting or had put real time and effort into catching) that just get your heart pumping a bit more.
Two examples for me were both chub that were and are my PBs. First one was a roughly 4 pounder that I had on the feeder to beat a blank on a borderline flooded and freezing cold Hampshire Avon a couple years ago. Wasn't that fussed about it then being a PB was more that I'd spent the time and money to fish the Avon for the first time only to find it in such bad state that it would have been a relief to catch anything let alone something decent, was even followed by a couple salmon parr lol. Second one was from the Severn at highley last year. Had started the day on the feeder and had a 4 poundish barbel early on followed by plenty of nice dace and few reasonable roach before losing a certain PB dace that could have gone maybe 12oz which rather took the wind out my sails. Switched onto the float shortly after that and carried on catching nice dace and the odd roach before striking into something rather solid that I just instantly knew was a PB chub so my legs went to jelly! Can't remember the exact weight, was well over 5 but a bit shy of 5.5, but more importantly was at least over a pound over my PB and a good few pounds over any chub I'd ever caught on the float before which as a method always means more to me. Probably still my single favourite coarse fish capture to date!
Anyway enough waffle over to you guys, what fish made you sit up, pay attention and shake like a pooing dog whilst you set about landing it?!