flightliner
Well-known member
-- after being caught on rod and line, and which one gets the "wooden spoon" ?
What GB fish specie wise up the quickest--
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steve2
Well-known member
There has always been what we called mug fish the ones that are forever being caught and never seem to learn. Just look at the repeat capture of carp, barbel and all those match catches in some case the same fish caught day after day. Look at our own repeat captures from the places we visit because we know we can catch from certain swims. They must be the same fish.
Big fish have always been more difficult simply because there are less of them.
I would have said at one time carp were wise but now we know the only reason would couldn’t catch them years ago was that the weren’t there in any number to catch. With modern stocking they have become one of the easiest fish of all sizes.
Big fish have always been more difficult simply because there are less of them.
I would have said at one time carp were wise but now we know the only reason would couldn’t catch them years ago was that the weren’t there in any number to catch. With modern stocking they have become one of the easiest fish of all sizes.
rich66
Well-known member
There’s definitely a few carp I’ve come to recognise at my local water. In the summer I’ve caught the same one a few times.
Small perch seem game for anything some days and must be repeat captured too. Probably any fish that has a lot of competition for food will be “easier” as they have less time to inspect a food item. Specimen fish of any species will be a harder catch I suppose just because of the quantity or lack of them.
Small perch seem game for anything some days and must be repeat captured too. Probably any fish that has a lot of competition for food will be “easier” as they have less time to inspect a food item. Specimen fish of any species will be a harder catch I suppose just because of the quantity or lack of them.
sam vimes
Well-known member
It depends on loads of factors other than just the species. The syndicate water I fish has pretty low stock in a big lump of (usually) clear, deep, water. There are carp in there that go several years between gracing the bank. One fish turned up last year that had only seen the bank once in the previous ten years. The biggest known fish in the place is generally caught at least once a year. One year it came out four times (twice to me). Who knows how many times it is lost. Is it thick or greedy? Perhaps it just sees being caught as a minor inconvenience when weighed against a good feed.
I'd suggest that if you put the exact same fish in an even larger, richer, water they'd appear to be even wiser. Put them in a much smaller water with little natural food and they'd seem as thick as two short planks. All that and there would still be differences between different individual fish.
I'd suggest that if you put the exact same fish in an even larger, richer, water they'd appear to be even wiser. Put them in a much smaller water with little natural food and they'd seem as thick as two short planks. All that and there would still be differences between different individual fish.
rayner
Well-known member
The food available decides if fish are easy or difficult. Heavily stocked waters have the potential to be easy to fish. The exact same water can be tricky dependant on how much traffic from anglers there are on pegs.
Venues getting plenty of free food are generally more tricky to fish. I suppose though commercial fishing is, on the whole, easier than natural venues. Those natural venues are so far from overstretched by the number of anglers than they were in the 80s. It was around the 80s when commercial fisheries became the places to fish for many.
It's not the species that are mugs venues certainly can be.
Venues getting plenty of free food are generally more tricky to fish. I suppose though commercial fishing is, on the whole, easier than natural venues. Those natural venues are so far from overstretched by the number of anglers than they were in the 80s. It was around the 80s when commercial fisheries became the places to fish for many.
It's not the species that are mugs venues certainly can be.
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Another Dave
Well-known member
I vote for chub.
Re the wooden spoon, it has to be grayling, imo.
I've knowingly made multiple catches of the same fish within minutes on several occasions, but the cherry on the cake was one I had just released which stayed resting on the bottom right in front of me. After a couple of minutes, out of curiosity, i ran the maggots in front of it, and it took immediately!
I've knowingly made multiple catches of the same fish within minutes on several occasions, but the cherry on the cake was one I had just released which stayed resting on the bottom right in front of me. After a couple of minutes, out of curiosity, i ran the maggots in front of it, and it took immediately!
It very much depends on the venue. Certainly there are carp that never pick up a bait. Overall big roach are the hardest fish to catch because: there are not many of 'em; they are naturally nervous and conditions/presentation/bait have to be spot on!
theartist
Well-known member
Big roach will always be an enigma, I think they are more common than people think after all you can get them everywhere from tiny brooks to canals, tidal rivers, small ponds, large reservoirs etc etc. Not sure there's a type of water that cannot do one, also they are so widespread geographically all over the country and capable of growing large in both hot and cold climates
Like all fish you can luck into one but there's so many quality anglers that have never had a 'two'
Having watched far more than I've caught I can vouch for the way wise roach take baits so carefully, they'd get my vote as a species too, either them or wild carp,
Jim Crosskey 2
Well-known member
I wince a bit about this now but I do remember a day back in the early 80s, I'd have been about 12 and was fishing a relatively urban thames backwater with two or three friends from school. One of us caught a pike of about 8 or 9 pounds (an absolute monster to us at the time) on a livebait... we released it and it just sort of sulked there in the margin. We went back to fishing and as soon as another livebait was caught, it got cast back out for a pike, however we couldn't resist the sight of that pike we'd caught in the margin and eventually ran the live bait gently over the top of it's head. It duly obliged and snaffled it, making a second trip to the bank. And then that whole process was repeated, like I say I cringe at this now but I guess we just didn't know any better!
As for the anti-mug - I'd agree to some extent with the comment above about roach. Whatever the largest roach is in a shoal, that will be the most difficult to catch... and if you do come across a group of larger specimens particularly in clear water, they can have the most infuriating habit of taking every single free offering they see but then melting away when a hookbait gets sent amongst them. They'll always be exceptional days when that doesn't happen (I'm thinking of BJ's net of roach on Passion for Angling, or a more recent report in the AT about a significant roach catch on the Avon) however, it remains the case that catching a truly impressive net of specimen roach - lets say 10 over a pound and a half... its just something that most of us will need to dream about cos it aint happening!
As for the anti-mug - I'd agree to some extent with the comment above about roach. Whatever the largest roach is in a shoal, that will be the most difficult to catch... and if you do come across a group of larger specimens particularly in clear water, they can have the most infuriating habit of taking every single free offering they see but then melting away when a hookbait gets sent amongst them. They'll always be exceptional days when that doesn't happen (I'm thinking of BJ's net of roach on Passion for Angling, or a more recent report in the AT about a significant roach catch on the Avon) however, it remains the case that catching a truly impressive net of specimen roach - lets say 10 over a pound and a half... its just something that most of us will need to dream about cos it aint happening!
S-Kippy
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I only wish bream were as wily as big roach.
flightliner
Well-known member
I'm beginning to think it's big Perch, so so wily . Do the same thing and bites can just dry up.
Wooden spoon-- Trout !
Wooden spoon-- Trout !
no-one in particular
Well-known member
I would say big roach as well, they may be rare but I think they are also extremely wily. I would add tench as well for being difficult (and Mike needs a break). 
seriously, they can be got going sometimes but that's not always easy and even catching the odd one can be difficult. Chub are easy in my opinion, find them and you will catch them in any conditions, any time of the year and on any bait or method, well almost.
seriously, they can be got going sometimes but that's not always easy and even catching the odd one can be difficult. Chub are easy in my opinion, find them and you will catch them in any conditions, any time of the year and on any bait or method, well almost.I think very large bream,probably the hardest to catch of all fish,ones that are 12/13lbs plus,dont get caught much at all,on anything,which must mean they have sussed us and what we do,i would imagine there must be a water somewhere where they are easy....if you know one give me a shout?
rich66
Well-known member
Tbh I never manage to catch many bream of any size.
Therein lies the crux,at times I can get a bag of bream to eight pounds,maybe a nine on occasion,never the hermans,sometimes ive had them on my bait,rolling,or if lucky in sight,no bites,most odd for such a greedy species,probably more so than chub...
no-one in particular
Well-known member
I see biggish bream sometimes, they are usually just one or two fish swimming together. Are they the last survivors of their shoal therefore, the wiliest and smartest of fish. I think it is the same for big roach, it is sometimes written that they become lone fish as they get older, I do not think this is by choice, again just the last survivor, they have dodged many bullets, seen many hooks and anglers; trying to fool them is never going to happen very often.
Alan Tyler
Well-known member
Chub are paradoxical; they are, as Walton put it, the fearfullest of fishes, but they soon twig that anglers aren't really much to be afraid of, a minor inconvenience, as Sam Vimes just said, and become considerably easier to catch than unfished-for chub. The last time a chub was taken for food must have been around the General Strike, so they can't really see us as predators.
Chub that haven't seen an angler before, however, are up there with big roach in the uncatchability stakes.
At Croxley Moor, the river Gade runs into the Grand Union canal, and the only obstacle to chub is a stretch of shallows under a railway bridge, which they can easily run at night. It used to be a popular "alternative" match venue for clubs whose main river matches had been flooded out, the canal system buffering all but the most extreme floods, and the fishery being free.This meant a lot of food going in in the winter, and some pretty good chub-fishing...the lightly-fished canal, however, had little reputation as a chub water.
So smart they're simple - but they still give a good pull, just in case you're using cotton, and they still know where every twig that can be used as a disgorger sticks out of the river-bed.
And, bless them, they'll still take anything from tiny dry flies to huge lumps of crust and four-inch plugs.
Chub that haven't seen an angler before, however, are up there with big roach in the uncatchability stakes.
At Croxley Moor, the river Gade runs into the Grand Union canal, and the only obstacle to chub is a stretch of shallows under a railway bridge, which they can easily run at night. It used to be a popular "alternative" match venue for clubs whose main river matches had been flooded out, the canal system buffering all but the most extreme floods, and the fishery being free.This meant a lot of food going in in the winter, and some pretty good chub-fishing...the lightly-fished canal, however, had little reputation as a chub water.
So smart they're simple - but they still give a good pull, just in case you're using cotton, and they still know where every twig that can be used as a disgorger sticks out of the river-bed.
And, bless them, they'll still take anything from tiny dry flies to huge lumps of crust and four-inch plugs.
Alan,our EU anglers still take chub,they make fish stew/soup out of them,they just sieve the cotton wool type bones out,where there's a will there's a way im afraid,why they just dont buy a load of chicken breasts for next to nothing I dont know,living in the traditions of there home countries doesnt seem to change sadly...