call me an idiot, but i thought i should ask..

[ben (o )(]

ok, coarse fishing, how do you recognise all the fish you catch? i reckon the teeth on pike will give it away and roach have red fins, i think i could recognise carp and bream but i would never be quite sure. what do you use to recognise them? what are the distinguishing features?

ben

[John S]

This link should take you to a series of very good articles on the commonest species (with the exception of carp) by Dr Bruno Broughton

[Andy Macfarlane]

Should probably tune into Quest (freeview) and Discovery Shed (Virgin and Sky). Plenty of fishing programmes to choose from on either. You'll learn to identify fish as they are in the flesh and how to catch them.

[Barry C]

Very good question ben.

Many of us started fishing with parents and grandparents and gradually accumilated all sorts of knowledge including fish I.D.

I for one as a lad was never without 'The observers book of freshwater fish' along with Birds and birds eggs.

They were all well thumbed. We tend to forget that there was a time when we knew nothing.

I often wonder when seeing a bird how I know what it is, I certainly could'nt describe many of them if you asked me to but I know what they are.

How many of us could describe a house sparrow more than a small bird in multi shades of brown but we know one when we see one.

 

So get yourself a good little book and do'nt be afraid to ask other anglers. You wo'nt look silly but you will if you start calling a bream a roach.

Edited April 15, 2011 by Barry C

[ben (o )(]

ok thanks all for your responce. Barry-im hoping to get my dad to come with me fishing at some point-hes never been! cant imagine him being much help teaching me which are which.

the main thing i need to know is how to recognise a carp, i am going tomorrow and want to know imidiately if whats in the net is the carp i have been searching haha

what are the key things that i can use to make sure its a carp? i know there mouths are very distinctive because of the way they feed, is there anything else?

ben

[ben (o )(]

ok i will do that but im going fishing early tomrrow and hoping to catch a carp. what can i look for on a carp that will mean i know its a carp as i dont want to be unsure or pleased with myself only to be told later that its bream :/

what can i look for?

thanks

ben

[Kew]

Its not a silly question at all, I for one when younger could never get my species correct ( I was always getting asked what you caught mate.Um eh Fish. )

 

But as a returner I invented a little quiz with myself , as I saw the pictures of catches people show in the weeklys I tried to name the fish before I read the information along side the picture. with practice I can now name all my fish and can't see what the problem was before .so practice makes perfect.

[Ken L]

In this country there's not really that many common species that you're likely to encounter - perhaps a dozen.

Even looking a little wider, you're still only looking at two dozen that you're ever likely to catch without deliberatly setting out to catch rare species.

Of the fish that you are likely to catch, it;s really not that hard to tell a roach from a rudd, a chub from a dace or a rufe from a zander.

It just takes a little practice/

[davedave]

Not a silly question at all, when i first went fishing on a local lake i told everyone i had caught lots of dace, they were in fact roach and i later realised that dace only go in fast flowing rivers!

 

It comes with time and apart from a book about all the different species it's just something you will pick up

[Ken L]

It doesn't include trout and Salmon but there's an OK guide to identification of, habitat and catching the common species here.

It's only "OK" because despite being published by Angling Times, they have quite obviously used a photograph of a very imature trout or salmon par to ilustrate the "minnow" on the other species page.