Finally, the proof we’ve all been waiting for...

ONE of the biggest mysteries in our sport, something that’s inside every angler’s book of fishing folklore, has finally been solved.

This week, scientific research has emerged confirming something which has always seemed too remarkable to be the truth – yes, birds DO transport fish or, more accurately, their eggs, from water to water!

And I can tell you now, it’s a welcome relief as it’s the proof I’ve been waiting for since a surprising catch I made the early 1980s.

I can remember the older guys who ran my junior fishing club telling an eight-yearold novice that ‘a visiting heron probably brought that fish with them’ after I caught a decent-sized rudd from a local club pool.

It was a venue that had never been stocked with the species and, as far as we all knew, no-one had caught a rudd from there before.

At the time I thought the older lads were pulling my leg with the heron story, but it was something my angling mind wrestled with for ages.

Did the bird regurgitate a live fish or was it a lone, fertilised egg that had stuck to its legs while it had been wading in the margins of a nearby fishery?

Watching how herons eat persuaded me that the latter was far more likely.

However, this week we reveal that scientists have proved that wildfowl can distribute fish eggs from water to water, remarkably, even after they’ve eaten them!

Remember, we’re talking about the movement of tiny eggs here, so anyone claiming that the overnight appearance of a 20lb carp in your water is ‘thanks to the heron’ could be in a spot of bother.

Whatever you’re fishing for this week, I hope your dreams come true.