Strange Catch

[Robert]

Last Wednesday I went for a quick dive in the afternoon, mainly to check out how my gun was performing as I had changed the shaft. After concluding that it was shooting rather low, mainly because of the barb (which I now altered and have to check again), I decided to visit a very shallow area where I have been seeing brown meagres for quite some time. I always pay a visit to this place when I am in the area, always hoping to see a large member of the group, but I end up never shooting as the fish that show up are always too small. So I went to the place and as usual I saw the small meagres hovering in front of their hole and after enjoying the show for some time, as I was going up for air, I saw what appeared like a larger meagre. So I aimed and shot. When, from the suface, I pulled up the shaft I noticed that it was not one large fish that I had seen but two smaller ones that were superimposed. The larger one missed a tail, and as the area was rather dark, I thought that the tail of the smaller fish was part of the larger one.

I think that this fish has not lost its tail by accident as the dorsal fin continues down the stump and the stump is very well covered in scales.