Australian coarse fish

[Vagabond]

1.There are records of an English perch weighing 10 Kg from way back.

 

 

2.The Yellow belly or Golden Perch is a very different species.

 

1. Yeh - the operative phrase is "way back"

 

The link you give in your subsequent post generates the same information as the earlier one by Comus, as does one of the reference books that I happen to own. The fact that several sites and books repeat the same information does not make it true - writers of reference books (and websites) copy from older reference books !

 

eg Travis Jenkins (1936) records a 10 lb perch from Bala, and one of 8 lb from the Wiltshire Avon. That was copied word for word from Tate Regan (1911)

 

We need the original source of this tale of the Aussie giant - and a photograph.

 

2. True - but there is enough resemblance to English perch for the non-expert to get the identification wrong. Again we need to see a photograph, or at least have some idea of the competence of the person who identified the 10kg fish.

[The Flying Tench]

Have a look here:

 

http://www.amonline.net.au/fishes/fishfact...sh/pfluviat.htm

 

Cahal

 

It says it's common up to 45cm. I don't know how heavy that is, but it looks pretty massive to me! It's still puzzling. It doesn't grow big in USA, grows pretty big in Holland and Sweden (and elsewhere in Europe?) and bigger still in Oz. I wonder if there's less competition from other predators of comparable size in Oz?

[Vagabond]

It says it's common up to 45cm.

 

Yes - but their illustration is of one of 18cm ! That's only 7"

 

I had a perch of 18" recently - that is 45.7 cm It weighed 2lb 10 oz. Hardly a giant!

 

OTOH here is an 17.5" perch I caught earlier (44.5cm)

 

 

This one just scraped 4-0

Edited March 7, 2006 by Vagabond

[Dick Dastardly]

Surely if our Perch grew to that sort of size in Oz Chevin would be aware of it and have mentioned it?

 

Very good point about "Internet facts"! Great though the Net is anyone can make a web site and give their interpretation with out any qualification.As Ive mentioned in the past try doing a search for "the worlds biggest freshwater fish" and see for yourself the amount of contradiction and plagarism!

 

"Can reach sizes of" in books etc doesnt necasarily equate to sizes caught.For example Wells Catfish are often quoted at reaching 600lb......Ive fished every major Wells Catfish venue in the world (well nearly!) and not only have I never seen any evidence of fish any where near this size caught by anglers past or present more importantly Ive spoken (as part of my trip research and during my travels) with many commercial fishermen who have been doing it all of there lives taking many tons a week and theve only ever seen/or even heard of a few fish any where near 300! But if you just take a look at a small sample of books you will see this is much the same for all species.

[Newt]

I'm not sure if the 10Kg perch is a Perca or not but occasional giants can certainly show up.

 

In the US, largemouth bass are heavily sought after and there have been years of breeding to get strains that grow large.

 

Even so, the current US record fish of 22lb 4oz was caught in 1932 in Georgia. At that time, any bass much over 5-6 lbs was considered huge.

 

With lots of work, lots of catch & release, and hundreds of thousands of hours on the water chasing large bass, we are now seeing a few fish over 20lbs from certain lakes stocked with new strains and having ideal growing conditions but the nearest anyone has come is still a couple ounces shy of that old record.

 

Since the angler who breaks the record stands to realize several millions of dollars from the catch, you can rest assured that large fish are being carefully weighed and that a new record fish may not exist yet but certainly has not been caught.

[Dick Dastardly]

Thats interesting Newt.The ceiling weight was higher but the average size lower.

 

I found very much the same when first researching into the Alligator Gar.Many more fish of between 100lb and 150lb are caught now but its been a long time since many if any of the 300lbrs have come out.

 

The only logical explanation is that although the fish were bigger in the past (well ultimately any way) these were obviously the ones that had avoided capture.The big lack of the middle weight (100-150) in any numbers being down to the lack of catch and release? These days with catch and release being more common more fish get to the middle weights thus effectively reducing the chances of many actually becoming giants?

[Vagabond]

Back to Australia and the Redfin (British) Perch

 

The Australian National Sportfishing Association runs a national record fish list

 

Their record for Redfin (British) Perch is 2.37kg - that's a few drams over 5 lb 3oz (D Wickham, Lake Mokoan, Victoria, 1982)

 

Check the link http://www.ansa.com.au/Sportfishing.htm and click on ANSA records, then select "sportfishing"

 

So where are these 5 to 10kg monsters?

 

I can't see any red-blooded Aussie angler passing up the chance of a record - I'm increasingly of the opinion that mis-identification is at the root of the stories from "way-back".

 

"I'm Peewee from Murrumbidgee, born in a storm in a hay-rack,

 

and if you want to know about me,

 

I'm a boomerang-bender from way-back"

Edited March 8, 2006 by Vagabond

[Steve Burke]

We had an Aussie write a chapter on Australian perch for "The Book of the Perch". Unfortunately, due to the size of the book we had to leave out the overseas contributions.

 

The article says that a consignment of 10 perch, of which only 7 survived, was introduced to a reservoir in Victoria from England in 1868. The population has now reached nuisance proportions and is known as redfin.

 

Apparently, in the author's area at least, redfins mostly range from 1¼ to 4½lbs. The 22lber referred to came from a book by John Lake called "The Freshwater Fishes of New South Wales". Unfortunately I haven't got a publication date, nor can I find a copy for sale anywhere.

 

As soon as I have time (I'm very busy at Wingham at the moment) I'll hunt out a few more references.

[Vagabond]

The 22lber referred to came from a book by John Lake called "The Freshwater Fishes of New South Wales". Unfortunately I haven't got a publication date

 

Lake's book "Freshwater Fishes of Australia" was published in 1978 Can't find a book by him on NSW though.

 

The book I referred to in post #8 above, is "Freshwater Fishes of South-eastern Australia", edited by Robert McDowall - revised editiion of 1996

 

It refers to the 10kg fish as "unusual" I would wager that it is a straight reference from Lake, and would be surprised if Lake says any more than that. ie if Lake had said more, then what he said would have duly been included in McDowall. As I said, reference books tend to include material from previous reference books.

Edited March 8, 2006 by Vagabond

[The Flying Tench]

The article says that a consignment of 10 perch, of which only 7 survived, was introduced to a reservoir in Victoria from England in 1868. The population has now reached nuisance proportions and is known as redfin.

 

Apparently, in the author's area at least, redfins mostly range from 1¼ to 4½lbs.

 

Well, Vagabond has shown pretty conclusively that the Aussie record is actually less than here. Shame, I can't castigate you catchers of 4lb perch as 'minnow hunters'. Nevertheless 'redfins mostly range from 1.25 to 4.5 lbs' sounds quite good to me!