Coarse Fishing

[Elton]

Posted on behalf of Mike. Please add all responses to this thread:

 

Excuse my ignorance & this is a genuine question, why is coarse fishing so called & how does it differ from other types of fishing? Hope someone can help!

[Guest Ferret1959]

Coarse fish called this because the scales are larger than those on trout.

[Moggy]

Posted on behalf of Mike. Please add all responses to this thread:

 

The etymology is a bit unclear, but as far as I've always understood it, coarse is to be understood as "Of ordinary/inferior quality or value" As opposed to "Noble" salmonids.

Ferret...What about tench? They have tiny scales but come under the umbrella of coarse fish.

Moggy

[Alan Hammond]

I asked this same question on this forum a couple of years back. The answer then was that it was to do with the way that the scales become rough on Coarse fish during the spawning season as opposed to Game fish whose scales stay smooth. The major exception of course being the Grayling which although technically a Game fish is considered for angling purposes to be a Coarse fish. I am not quite sure where Eels fit into all of this though. I would suggest that they are in a class of their own.

[nomadpaul]

When the missus see's me sneaking out , early on a saturday morning , loaded down with all my gear ( when i should be decorating !!! ) , she often shouts....

 

" ..Are you going fishing AGAIN ??? "

 

my reply......" Of coarse "

 

Self explanatory i would have thought

[Peter Waller]

Coarse as in the language used by us thoroughly coarse types.

[ColinW]

I always understood it to be because they were considered poor eating compared to game fish. I don't know, but I imagine salmonids having an adipose fin was given some sort of religious meaning that made them better suited to consumption by the upper classes.

[Guest Ferret1959]

I asked this same question on this forum a couple of years back. The answer then was that it was to do with the way that the scales become rough on Coarse fish during the spawning season as opposed to Game fish whose scales stay smooth. The major exception of course being the Grayling which although technically a Game fish is considered for angling purposes to be a Coarse fish. I am not quite sure where Eels fit into all of this though. I would suggest that they are in a class of their own.

 

 

Ain't they sea fish??

[Dick Dastardly]

Im with Alan on this one.

[Alan Hammond]

Surely if eels are sea fish then so too are salmon? The main difference being that whereas eels live in rivers and return to the sea to spawn salmon do the opposite and live in the sea but return to rivers to spawn.