"Natural fish/cultivated fish" and national records.

[GloucesterOldSpot]

We'll never be able to scrap the lists as I said before, but we can choose to disregard them and set our own standards.

[The Sweetcorn Kid]

I would say the latter FB.....

[SilverBirch]

Given this some thought this afternoon, perhaps we could chalk up a purists list of species that are currently unexploited ( those that have no commercial imperative to be grown on artificially because there is no financial incentive to do so or are impractical to breed for size)

Which indigenous and noble fish do we think have the weight (sic) to be on the list?

Gudgeon
Stone Loach
Bleak
Ruffe
Bullhead / Millers Thumb
Minnow
Silver Bream?
Dace...................................obvious coarse contenders

Pike
Perch
Roach
Rudd........not commercially boosted in weight specifically but benefitting from overstocking/feeding of protein baits on commercial pools and trout fisheries

Ferox
Allis and Thwaite Shad......Loch's, Brackish Water,

Mullet (various)....Saltwater

Blenny, shoreline mini species etc...

OK this could get complex??? Lets keep it to fresh water!

Any other freshwater fish to add?

[Gary Bills]

I don't like eels, but catching a big eel is a real achievement, I would say..?

[Snape]

Bitterling.
3 spined stickleback
12 spined stickleback
Ide?

[SilverBirch]

Eels I like a lot, broad or thin headed, Sticklebacks of various spikage fine to add....

Ide, I know little about but strike me as 'Imports' possibly of Eastern European origin...( not that I'm a xenophobe but I have no recollection of them at all in the 70's..) feeds well in the cold, Chub like and readily feed up in the water so suited to commercial match waters.

Bitterling? ( sorry Snape missed that one in your post) anyone. Pumkinseed, Burbot, Sturgeon???

[Gary Bills]

I think we need to organise a Forum burbot hunt, using nothing but greenheart rods and Nottingham starbacks... :chuckle:

Who knows, we might even catch one..! :thumb:

[Davyr]

I think we need to organise a Forum burbot hunt, using nothing but greenheart rods and Nottingham starbacks... :chuckle:

Who knows, we might even catch one..! :thumb:

Presumably if we were successful, the occasion would have to be captured on a Cam corder? 8-)

[Gary Bills]

I think we need a skilled engraver on the bank, to maintain the heritage theme!
Seriously though, I've sometimes wondered about burbot. The last one was caught, what, in 1969...
Surely in the fastness of the Fens or in the Ouse system there must be a few left? And who's fishing for them? I believe that the method was night-fishing and the best bait was worms, by reeds, in the slower river stretches.

[Snape]

There have been a couple of recent sightings
http://www.gofishing.co.uk/Angling-Time ... reat-Ouse/