UK Rod-caught species list now 104

[Ken L]

My 104th UK species

 

Are there any freshwater species missing from that illustrious list ?

[Tony U]

Vagabond

Well done have you any of the Whitefish species found in the area?

 

 

Tony

[Tony U]

I'm usually very open about where and what when it comes to fishin', I would rather share info than be all secret like many seem to be these days, perhaps they ae right and I am naive? I have kept quite descreet about one very significant catch I have had this years, mostly what I catch is fairly ordinary. However you seem a decent and genuine fellow, I shall send you a PM.

 

Emma

There was a guy who used to post on AN under the user name FranticFisherman, who fished the lake district lot for Ferox, I believe he still fishes their a lot and has a lot of success from a number of the waters. You can pm him and see if he is still around.

 

Tony

[Vagabond]

Many thanks to all who offered their congratulations

 

 

Well done to Norma too, it's taken 3 years for her to teach you how to catch one, but she's succeeded at last.

 

 

It's going to be at least another 33 years before Norma allows me to forget that!

 

A lot of effort for one little fishy but a goal is a goal.

 

Yes, that puts in a nutshell what species hunting is all about.

If Alladin's djinn had appeared to me that morning and offered me a choice of a 20 lb salmon, a 10 lb seatrout, a 15 lb ferox, a 30 lb pike, a 5 lb perch or just a modest-sized charr, then I would have chosen the charr without a second's hesitation.

 

Increase those weights to record size and I would still choose the modest-sized charr

 

Are there any freshwater species missing from that illustrious list?

 

Depends how you define "UK freshwater species", and what "rules" you set yourself

 

I have not yet caught:-

1. Burbot, 2. Houting (both apparently extirpated from the UK but still surviving in Scandanavia)

3. Atlantic sturgeon (still theoretically possible but not a realistic "target")

4. European smelt (working on that)

5. Topmouth gudgeon (has bred in UK but the only population I have located had been poisoned off by the EA)

 

Also, more tenuous:-

Various American basses and sunfish (several species introduced to UK but all AFAIK have died out except pumpkinseed - which I have caught)

 

Of the three British lampreys, I have caught Brook lamprey by hand (and don't count it in my 104) The larger lampreys are theoretically possible on livebait, but don't hold your breath.

 

I don't target released aquarium fishes such as American Black and Brown Bullheads (Poisson chat), nor poach people's garden ponds for exotics !

 

Fish I don't regard as separate species.

I was lucky enough to have caught spined loach and both UK whitefish (Coregonus laveratus and C. albula) before they became protected species - all the various UK whitefish are subspecies of one or other of these two. Likewise I only count one species of Charr. I do however count Seatrout and trout as two species - they make me buy seperate licences for them , so why not!

 

If anyone has any gen on European Smelt or Topmouth gudgeon populations, please pm me.

[Ken L]

Strangely enough I only mentioned the Atlantic Sturgeon a week or so back. Plenty of sterlets as well as various Eurasian sturgeon species finding their way into comercials these days so why not stock the natives instead ?

 

Presumably you have already caught some of these exotics in the UK.

 

There seem to be reports of topmouth gugeon in the Test.

[Steve Walker]

Wonderful, Dave - a delightful insanity!

[Vagabond]

various Eurasian sturgeon species finding their way into comercials these days

 

Are they? or are fishery managers merely claiming "something different" to attract punters ?

 

Reports of "White Sturgeon" from one commercial turned out to be albino Sterlets.

 

Starry sturgeon (Acipenser stellatus) is reared in E European farms and forms hybrids with sterlet,so that or the hybrids may be foisted upon us eventually.

[arbocop]

I'm jealous. Char - or charr as you put it, I'm never sure which is the correct spelling - have been on my list for years.

 

Although deep trolling is the method for them, they do, as you discovered, come up in the water on occasion in response to the plankton blooms. They can even be caught on wet fly on a floating line.

 

However, I think if I was after one, I would do what you did.

 

Congrats, on what is a good fish too - that looks like one of t he bigger ones.

 

Mike

[Ken L]

Are they? or are fishery managers merely claiming "something different" to attract punters ?

 

I was having a read of this site earlier today - so I guess they are.

[Vagabond]

I was having a read of this site earlier today - so I guess they are.

 

Thanks - although at £50 per 12" fish I can't see my local carp puddle investing soon.

 

However, sturgeon might well become cheaper and thus popular - they like luncheon meat, are fairly easy to hook, and fight like the clappers - and species other than Sterlet grow BIG.......bigger than carp.

 

Perhaps the "in" fish of the 2020s, unless angling has followed foxhunting into oblivion by then.

 

You also have p.m.