DOE'S ANGLING CLUB - FISH

ROACH

Description:  A streamlined fish deepening in the belly and shoulders as it increases in size.  It has relatively large silvery scales with red/orange eyes and red lower fins.  The general body colour is silver white, but on older, larger specimens, can have goldish tinges.  It has a dark back with a blue or greenish lustre, silvery white sides to a white belly.

Baits:  Popular baits are maggot, castors, small red worms and bread; either punch, flake or paste. Other alternatives are hempseed, tares, stewed wheat, sweetcorn (in all its varieties and flavours), bloodworm, pellets and mini-boilies.

RUDD

Description: Small rudd tend to be quite silvery/white in appearance with greeny/blue-brown backs and can be difficult to identify from roach, but as they mature their flanks take on a beautiful bronze/golden colour and their fins turn a bright scarlet red.  The mouth is distinctive with a steeply angled protruding lower lip.  The eyes have yellow to orange irises as distinct from the red-eyed roach.  Another identifying feature in the rudd is that the beginning of its dorsal fin is set well behind the front of the pelvis fins.  In roach, the beginning of the dorsal fin is directly above the base of the pelvic fins.  Rudd have a tendency to hybridise with roach, bream and bleak, it can often be identified incorrectly.  The best way to tell if your catch is a true rudd is to look at its mouth.  Rudd are surface feeders and, as a result, possess a lower lip that protrudes beyond the upper.  The only positive identification (in the case of a record claim) is to examine its pharyngeal (throat) teeth.  Rudd have two rows of throat teeth, while roach have only one row. Hybrids, intermediate between the two, have only a partial second row.  One way of checking a hybrid is to look at the lips - the roach/rudd hybrid often has equal lips, neither protruding nor receding.

Baits:  The most commonly used bait for rudd is bread, maggots, casters, hemp, sweetcorn and small red worms.

TENCH

Description:  One of the prettiest of our freshwater fishes, easily identifiable by its distinctive shape and colour.  It has a short, sturdy thick-set body with a layer of silky smooth slime, the tiny scales are deeply embedded in the skin.  It has a short pair of barbules on the yellowish-orange upper lip. The dorsal fin is high and convex, the caudal fin is wide and squarish, rather like a paint brush.  Pectoral and pelvic fins are thick and strong, in the mature male, pelvic fins are almost joined together and cover the vent.  The back can vary from almost black to olive green in colour, graduating to a creamy or white belly.

Baits and Lures: Sweetcorn, mini-boilies or full size boilies broken in half, pellets, worms, bread baits of all kinds, maggots (red in particular), casters, paste, meat, cockles (frozen, not in vinegar) and prawns.

BREAM

Description:  Easily distinguished from other species, the bream has a very deep narrow body with the tail fin being deeply forked, the upper lobe being pointed and the lower one slightly rounded. The anal fin is very long reaching from just past the mid-point of the belly to almost the tail. In spite of being well scaled, the bream is extremely slimy.  The back is green/brown, slate coloured or even black in old age. The sides are paler being grey/olive-coloured with a touch of bronze in maturity, becoming darker and brassier with increased aged. The underside is buff, white or cream.  Young bream, called ‘skimmers’, are bright white/silver, extremely slimy and are often confused with silver or white bream, a different species altogether.

Baits: Popular baits are maggots, castors, worms and bread; either punch, flake or paste. Other alternatives are sweetcorn, pellets and mini-boilies.

PERCH

Description: A handsome fish that is easily recognised, having two dorsal fins - the first being greyish/olive in colour and reinforced with hard, sharp pointed rays.  The flat-sided body is generally dark green backed graduating to a white belly, having five to nine striped bands.  The pelvic fins are bright red/orange.  The perch has a range of colour variations, from pale olive-grey and insipid stripes to almost black stripes on bright emerald, depending on the water conditions. The bigger fish tend to become humped backed.

Baits: Perhaps the best bait for large perch is the lobworm, chopped worm, maggots and casters never fail; small prawns and minnows can make alternative bait.

CHUB

Description: A thick-set fish with large mouth, brassy scales, convex dorsal and anal fins, thick white lips and a large blunt head.  The back is olive green, the flanks bronze/silver and the belly white. All the fins, except the pelvic and anal fins which are red, are dark in colour.  Small chub are often confused with dace, but distinction lies in the large mouth and the shaping of the dorsal and anal fins. The chub has a convex shaped fins while the dace is concave.

Baits: Maggots, casters, worms, bread-flake or paste, cheese, boilies, meat and minnows.

PIKE

Description: Details to follow.

Baits: Details to follow.

EELS

Description: Details to follow.

Baits: Details to follow.

CARP

Description: Various, as above.  All carp have teeth - pharyngeal teeth - situated at the beginning of the gullet. 

Baits: Worms, maggots, casters, bread - paste/flake/crust, boilies, lob worm, cheese, luncheon meat, sweetcorn, cat meat, chick peas, tares, chopped liver, chick peas, tares, mussels, cockles, marshmallow floaters, dog biscuits.

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