The One


Like all anglers out there I am hoping that one day I will be able to land “the one”.   To those who are not familiar with angling or who occasionally wet their lines for a bit of fun and even to some experienced anglers, “the one” is the biggest fish you have ever caught.  But like most things in life it is not that simple.  “the one” means different things to different anglers and in fact there could be many “ones”. 

To put it into perspective the concept originated with the indomitable captain Ahab who, seeking revenge for the loss of his ship and his leg, pursues the legendary white sperm whale Moby Dick. In terms of “the one” many would consider this to be the ultimate “one”, from an anglers perspective, restricted down to a particular individual, even though I may say that a whale is a far cry from a fish.

In more recent times the movie Jaws, in which the late Robert Shaw plays the part of the shark hunter, Quint, hunting the great white man eating shark in the open ocean.  Another “one” this time not only in terms of size but restricted to a particular species of shark and not just any shark, but the man eating great white shark that was merrily making a meal of the holiday makers at Amity Island Beach.

But both these are works of fiction and in the real world an anglers “one” would usually be restricted to species and size.  And for the true angler it’s more about the species than the size.  

So here I am, an angler, damn I have all the gadgets to prove it.  Today is the day, the day that I land “the one”.  Unlike most anglers who are very particular about “the one”, I am less concerned and anything resembling a fish or a reasonable facsimile of a sea creature would fulfil my classification of “the one” ;-) 

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