Phil Smith, through Tony Miles, has kindly supplied thesephotographs of three surperb roach that he and a friend caught fromthe Linch Hill fishery this week. Commenting on the forum Tony Miles says, “I am satisfied that allthree fish satisfy the criteria of true roach. Personally, I amdelighted for Phil. As you will see, the big fish has nine rays onthe anal fin and the leading edges of dorsal and pelvic are aboutlevel. The other picture is the close up of the anal fin of a 2lb10oz fish taken a few weeks ago, as part of a brace. I know this isindistinct, but the fin is far too long for a true roach. Could thisbe the second evidence of a roach/bream?
“My summary of this debate is that the overwhelming majority ofthe fish appear to be true roach, with a small percentage of fairlyobvious roach/bream hybrids. I feel the jury is still out on one ortwo fish that look to me like roach/rudd hybrids, but I am willing tobe convinced otherwise on this.”
Phil Smith commented that there appears to be at least eightdifferent 3lb roach in Willow (Linch Hill), as recaptures areobviously occurring. He has personally not seen a fish with a verylong anal fin, but accepts that the James Drewett fish is aroach/bream. He has been in the position to study a lot of fish in a12 day session, including many two pounders as well as the threes,and confirms that he has not noticed anything amiss with any ofthem. Tony’s in-depth comments can be read on the forum: ‘The Hybrid Controversy’
My own view is not a great deal different than Tony’s. I havedoubts about one or two of the fish caught in the past (other thanthe obvious roach x bream hybrids like the one below), although Imust say that Phil Smith’s fish in the photographs really dolook like and add up to (scale and fin ray counts) true roach. What I would like to point out to one or two of the knockers ofthis debate is that I don’t think anybody set out to merely malignthese captures. The whole debate began with a fish that was anobvious roach x bream hybrid, caught from Linch Hill, and portrayedin the weekly angling press as a roach. It grew from there, and the result has been a superb debate, and asplendid study of roach by the man, Phil Smith, who has caught thebiggest brace of 3lb roach ever recorded.
The debate has demonstrated the power of the internet, andwebsites such as this that can bring the news as it happens and,above all, allow everybody a say in an issue that some wished wouldjust go away nice and quietly as such issues have done in the pastwhen paper journals ruled the roost. An experienced journalist working for a daily newspaper had thisto say when commenting on the debate: “You have to look at this inthe context of two weeklies in a market which can probably only nowsupport one. Both have declining sales because three quarters oftheir potential readership has disappeared in a couple ofdecades. Competition is tougher than ever. Both now come out on the sameday and they no longer have a monopoly of breaking news. Most of themajor fishing stories of the last 12 months have been broken bywebsites, not weekly newspapers, for example.” Maybe that’s why one weekly tried to belittle our efforts. In conclusion, the result of this debate, to date, is that most ofthe roach from Linch Hill probably are roach, but a fewcertain hybrids have appeared that should cause future captors tostudy their fish more carefully before declaring what they are. And to cause angling weeklies to also be more careful before awarding them prizes.  When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission, which supports our community.
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