Are Rudd in decline?

[BoldBear]

We used to have loads of Rudd on our shallow estate lake in Hertfordshire, and it used to be great fun following the surface shoals around the lake, they weren't stunted fish either, but since we started to get trouble with cormorants a few years ago they have slowly dimished and we no longer get the shoals of rudd that we used to get.

Edited April 8, 2008 by BoldBear

[gozzer]

They are certainly in decline around here.

 

We had a small millpond that held plenty of 'true' Rudd. The guy who ran the place stocked with loads of small carp, (surprise, surprise). This forced them to change their habits. They became almost uncatchable. The only way we found was to fish from upwind of a large surface weed bed.

You then had to introduce floating casters, this drew them out. After 20 mins or so of feeding, you could then put out a very small float, with an 18 and single or double caster, fished near the surface.

By letting the wind take it down to the weed bed, you could get a few to take. Try casting to them and they disappeared back into the weed for an hour or so.

They weren't big, (nothing like the ones Mark has), but they went up to about 1lb and averaged around 8-10oz, good fun if you had the pond to yourself.

 

They certainly went into decline when the pond was filled in and a housing estate built in it's place.

 

John.

[The Flying Tench]

For some reason I get the impression rudd quite often go with tench. Maybe it's the lack of carp, and also the presence of a lot of weed. Has anyone else found the same thing?

[dant]

I also know where you mean Robb. A good head of roach, perch and pike in there too. And very underfished. I nearly got shot last time I fished it.

 

Not on purpose I hope Mark Crame. I fished it quite a few times and have never seen a soul. They've looked after the marshes round there so you can get a real sense of old fashioned fishing. The Rudd have prospered from being left alone too.

 

Mark Barrett, they are some of the nicest fish I've seen in a long time! A 3lb Rudd is some fish. I've come reasonably close in the past without getting over the line, not that, that detracts from the fish in any way shape or form.

 

Flying Tench I think the Tench and Rudd seem to go together as they both like very similar habitats, slow moving weedy rivers, weedy drains, dykes and weedy lakes. Tench being in the main crepuscular like to hide in the gloom of the weedbeds during the day and both species benefit greatly from the weedbeds natural larder. I've watched shoals of Rudd cruise round weedbeds in a definite pattern picking tiny snails and the like off the leaves of pondweed plants.

I know quite a few old lakes in Norfolk and Suffolk that contain little else apart from legions of small Rudd, dark coloured Tench and a few predators.

 

The presence of a few stocked Carp on some out of the way farm ponds dosn't seem to have had too much effect on the Rudd.

[Jeffwill]

There's no fish better looking than a big RUDD! Gold flanks and all that, absolutely stunning.

Edited April 8, 2008 by Jeffwill

[mark barrett]

W O W Mark... got some Beauties there mate... Cambridge aint that far from Great Yarmouth

I could get up in there in a couple of hours ... coarse have to get from California first.

What beautiful fish they are...

 

Daft question here... I keep hearing on various posts... about canals... and drains... What is a drain exactly ? and the difference between the two please ?

 

Thanks

Rob J

Palm Springs Ca.

 

 

Rob,

 

basically theres only a small difference, as both are man made, but drains are far older.

 

the main difference is that drains are quite often pumped and can run off quite fast, and they are primarily used to keep the water levels low on the fields around east anglia in the winter.

[Rob J]

the main difference is that drains are quite often pumped and can run off quite fast, and they are primarily used to keep the water levels low on the fields around east anglia in the winter.

 

Thanks mate... appreciate the info.

Rob J

Palm Springs Ca.

[The Flying Tench]

You beat me to it i was just going to mention Frensham,but fishing there is akin to being on Brighton beach so i dont bother.

 

Am I right that you have to be a member of Farnham A.s. anyway to fish Frensham?

[Anderoo]

Am I right that you have to be a member of Farnham A.s. anyway to fish Frensham?

 

Yes, that's right: http://www.farnhamanglingsociety.com/ourwa..._great_pond.htm

[Pangolin]

Rudd shoals on the Aylesbury arm of the Grand Union seem down in the last couple of years but I think its likely to be cyclical and in tune with how hot the summer is. There are still enough of them for it to be a real problem to get a small bait to the bigger fish below. Rudd are thriving at two commercial carp fisheries I regularly visit: i prefer to target the carp with floating bread, so I find the rudd are a nuisance fish. There are no pike or even large perch in either fishery and, with a lot of feed going in from anglers, its hardly surprising numbers are so high.

I agree about the beauty of large rudd, having caught a 2lb specimen in N Ireland, many years ago. I thought it was a bream until it was on the bank. If the commercial fisheries are supporting large shoals of rudd, as my experience suggests, the fishery owners ought, perhaps, to thin those shoals down by netting, allowing some to reach a good size.