The Mighty Minnow

by COLIN FERNANDEZ, Daily Mail

Last updated at 08:19 16 December 2005

It 重さを計るs only half an ounce and 対策 no more than four-and-a-half インチs from 長，率いる to tail.

But compared with a normal 見本／標本, it is a monster of the 深い.

会合，会う Mighty Minnow, believed to be the largest ever caught in Britain.

What's the smallest fish you've ever caught? Tell us below on reader comments.

It is more than twice as big as the 普通の／平均（する）ありふれた minnow, and 10 per cent heavier than the previous 記録，記録的な／記録する支えるもの／所有者.

The man who landed it is Dr 示す Everard, 47, an aquatic scientist from 広大な／多数の／重要な Somerford, Wiltshire.

His proud picture the minnow in the palm of his 手渡す might not be やめる so 劇の as the usual fishing トロフィー snaps featuring 抱擁する catfish or マカジキ dwarfing their human captor.

But the look of pride on Dr Everard's 直面する is unmistakably the same.

Unusual small fry

Yesterday, he told how he （機の）カム to 炭坑，オーケストラ席 his wits against the smallest member of the carp family, known in the 貿易（する） as Phoxinus Phoxinus. Dr Everard, who 作品 for the 環境機関, said he was walking 近づく his home when he spotted a shoal of unusual small fry in a pond.

"I know my fish but I couldn't tell what they were and was 関心d they had been 捨てるd from a home 水槽. So I decided the best thing to do would be to catch one. I went 支援する with a friend to 行為／法令／行動する as a 証言，証人／目撃する and took a camera and some very 極度の慎重さを要する規模s.

"It fought with Hemingway 割合s, but I managed to land it 安全に after a few seconds and identified it as a minnow."

Dr Everard used a red worm and a tiny hook. 単に雇うing a 逮捕する would not have worked because the water in the pond was very （疑いを）晴らす and the minnows would have been 脅すd off.

After 重さを計るing and photographing the catch, Dr Everard threw it 支援する to fight another day. "This was caught by design and is a 合法的 British 記録，記録的な／記録する," he said. "It 重さを計るd 15 grams - anything under a 続けざまに猛撃する has to be 重さを計るd i n grams."

Dr Everard has 接触するd the British 記録，記録的な／記録する Fish 委員会, based in Devon, who are to 立証する the 記録，記録的な／記録する.

The previous 記録，記録的な／記録する minnow was caught in Spennymoor, 郡 Durham, and 重さを計るd 13.5 grams.

FISHY FACTS

MINNOWS are the most abundant of British freshwater fishes.

THEY are so 極度の慎重さを要する to 化学製品s that scientists use them to 実験（する）影響s of 汚染 in rivers.

AT mating time, males を受ける a みごたえのある change - from 淡褐色 brown to having vivid red fins and golden bellies.

THE 女性（の） lays 1,000 eggs at a time, and they take between five and ten days to hatch. The babies then hide under 石／投石するs where they eat their yolk-sac.

DESPITE its 欠如（する） of stature, the 2in minnow is not the smallest fish in British waters. That honour belongs to the stickleback, which can be いっそう少なく than an インチ even when fully grown.