Family's delight as crabbing trip lands them with an 'extraordinary' bass for dinner
AN AFTERNOON of crabbing gained a Waterlooville family more than they bargained for when they pulled out a large bass.
Stephanie Carpenter was enjoying an afternoon catching crabs at Warsash slipway with her partner Andy Wilkinson and her son Joseph when they made the unexpected catch with a small crabbing basket.
The family love to take part in outdoor activities like crabbing, and 11-year-old Joseph, who has complex special needs, was very excited at their catch of the day which was nabbed after they noticed something fishy kept happening to their chosen bait of bacon rashers.
Stephanie, 42, said: ‘This particular day we took the crabbing baskets and we were just on the jetty. Joseph was pulling up crabs and having a whale of a time.
‘I put a basket down with a rasher of bacon in. I pulled it up and the whole rasher was gone which isn’t normal while you’re crabbing, they usually take a little bit. The same thing happened again and I said this was odd.’
After vowing to catch the elusive bacon-scoffing creature, Stephanie sent the bucket down a third time but pulled it up much quicker than before to try and see what was going on.
She said: ‘The water was murky, you couldn’t see and I have no idea what was lurking beneath. I knew straight away there was something else in the basket because it was so heavy.’
Splashing about in the bucket was a large bass, which surprised the trio and caused a bit of a commotion.
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The excitement drew an audience of other families who were enjoying their day on the jetty, and Stephanie was not sure what to do with the unexpected catch.
A nearby fisherman came to the rescue of an excited but shocked Stephanie, and helped the family out with the fish, getting it ready so they could take it home to eat for Andy to cook up for their dinner.
Stephanie, who is a physiotherapist, said: ‘It was a lovely meal. It was a real experience, even the fisherman said this doesn’t happen. It was an extraordinary size.’