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I've emailed Tommyruffe!


Martin56

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Everyone - I've emailed my old friend tommyruffe (Matthew Foster) who builds the most Beautiful, bespoke fishing rods anyone has ever seen. I've invited him to join the forum.

 

He tells it how it is in Angling terms, so please don't be offended, he really is a great guy - Not to mention his rod building skills!!.

Fishin' - "Best Fun Ya' can 'ave wi' Ya' Clothes On"!!

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Martin,

 

I'm sure we will welcome him - and - we'll be able to straighten him out in no time. Few on here are offended - opinionated yes - but always up for a discussion.

 

Come and join us tommyruffe. Say ! Isn't a ruffe one of those dink fish Englishmen angle for?

 

Phone

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Say ! Isn't a ruffe one of those dink fish Englishmen angle for?

I don't think that anyone actually fishes for them on purpose Phone but on a freezing cold morning on a canal in the middle of winter when nothing is feeding they can save an otherwise blank session Lol.

 

I hope Mathew joins us, it will be nice to have another contributor on here.

 

Keith

Edited by BoldBear

Happiness is Fish shaped (it used to be woman shaped but the wife is getting on a bit now)

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Back in my teenage match-fishing days, I remember ruffe being a damn nuisance on the Lower Medway. taking worm and maggot at all depths, at the rate of "a fish a chuck"

 

A few years ago, I was involved in a "Species Hunt" and decided to return to a former match swim on the Medway to chalk up a ruffe. I hadn't fished it for fifty years, but... "Ten minutes," I thought.....

 

It took me all day, and had to try a dozen or more swims to find one - and only the one. Small perch everywhere, but no ruffe.

 

Last year we had a boat on the Severn, and although the four of us had stacks of fish (of over a dozen species) we only caught two ruffe between four of us in a week's fishing..

 

So, any thoughts on the present scarcity of ruffe ? Obviously, ruffe can be caught if you know where to look, but they are nowhere near as plentiful as they were sixty years ago.

Edited by Vagabond

 

 

RNLI Governor

 

World species 471 : UK species 105 : English species 95 .

Certhia's world species - 215

Eclectic "husband and wife combined" world species 501

 

"Nothing matters very much, few things matter at all" - Plato

...only things like fresh bait and cold beer...

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I've always found ruffe to be generally scarce and locally abundant. The few places containing them were crawling with the buggers. Hard to say whether there has been a decline or whether they are just found elsewhere now.

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I've always found ruffe to be generally scarce and locally abundant. The few places containing them were crawling with the buggers. Hard to say whether there has been a decline or whether they are just found elsewhere now.

 

There has certainly been a decline in the Yorkshire rivers Steve. There was a time when you could catch them in almost any swim, especially on the Yorks Ouse, but they are few and far between now.

It was strange but back in the late 60s, early 70s. Just after the foot and mouth outbreak caused many waters to be out of bounds for most of the season, the River Authority, (remember them?) decided to allow river fishing during the then closed season, if the landowner agreed. When the season proper opened, the larger species seemed to be pretty scarce, especially roach. Club matches were being won with a mixture of tommies, gudgeon, bleak, with a couple of small roach and perch thrown in. It wasnt uncommon to need catches of 5,6,7lb of the little things, going up to 20 to the lb to win a match. Then the chub became the dominant species, and along with the odd bream, or couple of roach/perch, they made up the winning weights. Soon after this, the small species went into decline, (predation I assumed). The gudgeon eventually seemed to make a full recovery, but the bleak weren't as numerous, and the tommies became pretty rare.

It could be down to the methods used now, as opposed to back then, but, when I've been and fished in my 'old fashioned' way, I've still not seen the tommies back in any number, in fact it's been an event when I have caught one.

 

John.

Angling is more than just catching fish, if it wasn't it would just be called 'catching'......... John

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Back in my teenage match-fishing days, I remember ruffe being a damn nuisance on the Lower Medway. taking worm and maggot at all depths, at the rate of "a fish a chuck"

 

A few years ago, I was involved in a "Species Hunt" and decided to return to a former match swim on the Medway to chalk up a ruffe. I hadn't fished it for fifty years, but... "Ten minutes," I thought.....

 

It took me all day, and had to try a dozen or more swims to find one - and only the one. Small perch everywhere, but no ruffe.

 

Last year we had a boat on the Severn, and although the four of us had stacks of fish (of over a dozen species) we only caught two ruffe between four of us in a week's fishing..

 

So, any thoughts on the present scarcity of ruffe ? Obviously, ruffe can be caught if you know where to look, but they are nowhere near as plentiful as they were sixty years ago.

I remember them as well but a 100 years later ,I am sure they had a red tinge perhaps decades has dulled my memory?

I used to fish the open matches that gathered in a car park by a bridge in Maidstone just opposite or just upstream on the other side was an old building

I was about 13 so it would have been 1966 ish ,one time the river was to high so everyone went to mote? Park I couldn't get there so walked all the way back to the station and back home ,no internet then to find out before you left

 

Thinking about it I am sure itvwasnt Maidstone victory but some other club? Kingfisher or name to the effect?

Edited by chesters1

Believe NOTHING anyones says or writes unless you witness it yourself and even then your eyes can deceive you

None of this "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" crap it just means i have at least two enemies!

 

There is only one opinion i listen to ,its mine and its ALWAYS right even when its wrong

 

Its far easier to curse the darkness than light one candle

 

Mathew 4:19

Grangers law : anything i say will  turn out the opposite or not happen at all!

Life insurance? you wont enjoy a penny!

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical." Thomas Jefferson

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Known ad "Daddy Ruffe" around these parts for some reason.

I was having a conversation a few weeks back with my father who was saying he hadn't seen one in years. It may be that the Zander have hammered them (along with the gudgeon) but more likely it's that nobody goes closed season eel fishing with worms anymore - and that's how we used to catch most of them.

Species caught in 2020: Barbel. European Eel. Bleak. Perch. Pike.

Species caught in 2019: Pike. Bream. Tench. Chub. Common Carp. European Eel. Barbel. Bleak. Dace.

Species caught in 2018: Perch. Bream. Rainbow Trout. Brown Trout. Chub. Roach. Carp. European Eel.

Species caught in 2017: Siamese carp. Striped catfish. Rohu. Mekong catfish. Amazon red tail catfish. Arapaima. Black Minnow Shark. Perch. Chub. Brown Trout. Pike. Bream. Roach. Rudd. Bleak. Common Carp.

Species caught in 2016: Siamese carp. Jullien's golden carp. Striped catfish. Mekong catfish. Amazon red tail catfish. Arapaima. Alligator gar. Rohu. Black Minnow Shark. Roach, Bream, Perch, Ballan Wrasse. Rudd. Common Carp. Pike. Zander. Chub. Bleak.

Species caught in 2015: Brown Trout. Roach. Bream. Terrapin. Eel. Barbel. Pike. Chub.

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There are several species that use to be a regular catch which now thinking about it i haven't caught many of if at all in recent years.

Gudgeon, Ruffe, Crucian carp and even rudd. waters that use to be abundant in them now seem virtually devoid.

everytime i catch a fish i'm lucky when i blank i'm a hopeless angler.

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