Personal Best Individual fish & Multiple Catches
I rarely weighed my fish when I was young because a set of scales was an expense I simply could not afford, in fact the following list of modest fish is compiled mostly of specimens caught and catches made during the life of Idler's Quest, that is, since August 2008. The exceptions are Carp and Pike, both fish that were caught around 1979-80, weighed on other peoples scales and which have stood in the memory all that time and a catch of bream I made age 13 that must have been 50lb or probably much more, so that weight is given here as a target to beat!
FRESHWATER RECORDS
The above is a table of my modest achievements since Aug 2008. The weight of my largest fish (of the 15 main British coarse species - no micro species) is expressed as a percentage of the current British record and the average of those figures is an indicator of my overall achievements thus far. With some good catches and 8 new overall PB's set last year I'm now over the 40% hurdle (up from 31% last year) but even the most successful specimen anglers will struggle to ever get past 70%...
At bottom is the annual percentage increase over the figure set last year. It's very hard to make a significant improvement in that figure, believe me!
The figures in red are those currently under my total average figure and dragging the average down - they are the current targets to beat. The figures highlighted in green are new records set this year in the three categories, and those in blue are those set last year.
_____________________________________________________________
BARBEL (Barbus barbus)
12 lb 4 oz - Warwickshire Avon, Lucy's Mill, Stratford Upon Avon - ledgered meat
6 fish for 30lb catch - Warwickshire Avon, Harvington - ledgered halibut pellet
This was a memorable capture. Fought hard and was trouble to net, but we got there in the end.
_____________________________________________________________
BLEAK (Alburnus alburnus)
2 oz individual, Wye, Whitney on Wye - floatfished maggot
11 fish for 5 oz catch, Wark's Avon, Stratford - floatfished maggot
______________________________________________________________
BREAM (Common Bronze) (Abramis brama)
7 lb 1 oz North Warwickshire gravel pit - ledgered sweetcorn
20 fish for 50lb catch, Warren, Stanford le Hope - float fished breadflake
Terrible picture... I had the camera set up for flashless evening shots of something or another, had the ISO rating set really high and forgot to return to auto for this shot, hence the graininess and poor definition.
_____________________________________________________________
BREAM (Silver) (Blicca bjoerkna)
1lb 5oz, Coventry Canal - float fished breadflake
2 fish for 1lb 13oz catch, Coventry Canal - float fished breadflake
One of my proudest moments was catching this rare specimen. I'd been working really hard at these fish, couldn't get past a pound and then finally had one in the end. This fish followed on and proved that the canal could produce real specimens. After a two pounder now, and that is quite possible.
_____________________________________________________________
BULLHEAD (Miller's Thumb) (Cottus gobio)
> 1 oz individual, River Blythe, Coleshill - ledgered maggot
______________________________________________________________
CARP (King) (Cyprinus carpio)
19 lb 12 oz, South Weald Park, South Weald - ledgered boily (pic above is a 15lb fish from same lake, same time - late 1970's)
3 fish for 39lb catch, Point Clear Lakes, St Osyth - ledgered boily
_____________________________________________________________
CARP (Crucian) (Carassius carassius)
2lb 5oz, Marsh Farm, Surrey - float fished prawn
7 fish for 5lb 14oz, Parkers Pool, Exhall - float fished sweetcorn
Top fish of a great day at Marsh Farm where I broke my record three times in succession and set a new tench record too.
_____________________________________________________________
CHUB (Leuciscus cephalus)
5 lb 9 oz - Severn, Montford Bridge - ledgered halibut pellet/bread cocktail
4 fish for 17lb catch - Wark's Avon, Bretford - ledgered meat
Another phone picture and badly framed. A lovely fish that gave me stacks of trouble in a big snag but was landed and then weighed on the most unreliable set of scales I have ever possessed. I still think it was bigger than they said it was.
_____________________________________________________________
DACE (Leuciscus leuciscus)
7.5 oz, Wark's Avon, Saxon Mill - ledgered bread
20 fish for 5lb catch, Wark's Avon, Saxon Mill - float-fished maggot
It's hard to find large dace in Warwickshire but the Saxon Mill has thrown up ten-ouncers so you never know...
_____________________________________________________________
EEL (Anguilla anguilla)
3 lb individual, Mersea Island - ledgered shrimp
_____________________________________________________________
GUDGEON (Gobio gobio)
4 oz Wark's Avon, Saxon Mill (no picture) - float fished halibut pellet
7 fish for 14 oz catch, Brookfields, Bedworth - float fished halibut maggot
The Saxon Mill gudgeon was simply enormous but I threw it back without weighing it so the weight is an estimate. However it was much, much longer than my hand - it could have been a British record for all I know...
_____________________________________________________________
BROWN GOLDFISH (Carassius auratus auratus)
10 oz, Brookfields Fishery, Bedworth - float fished maggot
3 fish for 2 lb catch, Brookfields Fishery, Bedworth - float fished maggot
Not exactly 'brown', but brown goldfish all the same...
_____________________________________________________________
GRAYLING (Thymallus thymallus)
1lb 0oz , River Itchen, Lower Itchen Fishery - trotted sweetcorn
40 fish for 30 lb catch, River Itchen, Lower Itchen Fishery - trotted sweetcorn
_____________________________________________________________
MINNOW (Phoxinus phoxinus)
1 oz, River Sence, Mythe Farm - ledgered maggot
_____________________________________________________________
PERCH (Perca fluviatilis)
3 lb 2 oz individual - Blenheim Palace - float fished lobworm
5 fish for 5lb catch, River Sowe - freelined lobworm
_____________________________________________________________
PIKE (Esox lucius)
15 lb 12 oz, South Weald Park, South Weald - ledgered sprat
_____________________________________________________________
ROACH (Rutilus rutilus)
1 lb 15 oz - Oxford Canal, Hawkesbury - ledgered lobworm
6 fish for 5lb catch River Sowe - freelined breadflake
This is the one record that keeps me awake at night as I just don't seem to able to beat it. A cruel weight for a roach, the worst possible really...
_____________________________________________________________
RUDD (Scardinius erythrophthalmus)
1lb 0oz - The Crater, Exhall - float fished sweetcorn
10lb 8oz catch The Crater, Exhall - float fished sweetcorn
'
Big rudd are extremely hard to find locally. This not a big rudd by any stretch of the imagination but its big for round these parts!
_____________________________________________________________
RUFFE (Gymnocephalus cernuus)
> 4 oz - Coventry Canal, Longford - float fished maggot
Another monster tiddler. Not weighed, but Keith and I were astonished at the size of it.
_____________________________________________________________
SALMON (Salmo salar)
STICKLEBACK (3-spined) (Gasterosteus aculaeatus)
1 oz individual, College pond, Basildon - float fished worm (that's a big claim for what was a matchstick tied to a length of cotton hung off a twig and no hook!)
_____________________________________________________________
STURGEON (Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus)
2lb 8oz, approx (unweighed, unpictured) Weston Lawns, Bulkington.
Fish above is a smaller specimen from the same fishery
TENCH (Tinca tinca)
Female - 6lb 1oz, Marsh Farm, Godalming - float fished Prawn
Male - 3lb 4oz, Wark's Avon, Harvington - ledgered sweetcorn
5 fish for 24lb 12oz, Marsh Farm, Godalming - float fished prawn
_____________________________________________________________
TROUT, BROWN (Salmo trutta)
Wild - 1 lb 15 oz, River Sence, Atherstone - ledgered breadflake
Stocked - 1lb 12oz, River Itchen, Southampton - trotted sweetcorn
4 fish for 7lb, River Itchen, Southampton - trotted sweetcorn
_____________________________________________________________
TROUT, SEA (Salmo trutta)
3 lb 15 oz, River Itchen, Southampton - trotted sweetcorn
_____________________________________________________________
Trout, Rainbow (Oncorhynchus mykiss)
3lb 8oz, Hanningfield Reservoir, Essex
10 fish for 25lb, Hanningfield
_____________________________________________________________
ZANDER (Pikeperch) (Sander lucioperca)
11 lb 15 oz - Old Bury Hill Fishery, Dorking - float ledgered trout section
2 fish for 8.5 lb, Coventry Canal, Hawkesbury Junction - float ledgered roach section
_____________________________________________________________
SEA RECORDS
When I was really into sea angling, from 1996 - 2006, I hardly ever took pictures of the fish I caught as the sea is no place for expensive cameras and camera blessed mobile devices and compact digital camera's weren't around then so what I have is memories of captures more than exact records so this is a work in a work in progress...!
I have set a few more personal records lately and they are pictured and were properly weighed too. I hope to get out to the sea more often, but it's a long, long way from Coventry...
Bass
6lb 8oz - Walton on the Naze ( the picture above is of a much smaller bass of about three pounds or so from St Osyth Creek, but same period, 1991/2, and nearby. It's the only bass I ever took a picture of and on the first mobile phone I ever had with a camera in it )
Black bream
3lb 4oz - Lyme Regis reef ( this is a specimen size fish, one the skipper and mate were quite excited by this as it was twice the size anyone on our boat or any of the other boats fishing the reef that day were to catch - they rarely weigh fish but they got the scales our for this one!)
Cod - 12oz
Dab - 12oz
Eel - 3lb 8oz
Flounder - 1lb 0oz
Lesser spotted dogfish - 2lb 12oz
Pouting - 1lb 0oz
Rockling, five bearded - 4oz
Tope
8lb 0oz - Ilfracombe (caught in a force six gale, and still fought like a shark should ! It even tailwalked twice across the huge waves.)
Whiting - 2lb 8oz
More to come later...
I rarely weighed my fish when I was young because a set of scales was an expense I simply could not afford, in fact the following list of modest fish is compiled mostly of specimens caught and catches made during the life of Idler's Quest, that is, since August 2008. The exceptions are Carp and Pike, both fish that were caught around 1979-80, weighed on other peoples scales and which have stood in the memory all that time and a catch of bream I made age 13 that must have been 50lb or probably much more, so that weight is given here as a target to beat!
FRESHWATER RECORDS
The above is a table of my modest achievements since Aug 2008. The weight of my largest fish (of the 15 main British coarse species - no micro species) is expressed as a percentage of the current British record and the average of those figures is an indicator of my overall achievements thus far. With some good catches and 8 new overall PB's set last year I'm now over the 40% hurdle (up from 31% last year) but even the most successful specimen anglers will struggle to ever get past 70%...
At bottom is the annual percentage increase over the figure set last year. It's very hard to make a significant improvement in that figure, believe me!
The figures in red are those currently under my total average figure and dragging the average down - they are the current targets to beat. The figures highlighted in green are new records set this year in the three categories, and those in blue are those set last year.
_____________________________________________________________
BARBEL (Barbus barbus)
12 lb 4 oz - Warwickshire Avon, Lucy's Mill, Stratford Upon Avon - ledgered meat
6 fish for 30lb catch - Warwickshire Avon, Harvington - ledgered halibut pellet
This was a memorable capture. Fought hard and was trouble to net, but we got there in the end.
_____________________________________________________________
BLEAK (Alburnus alburnus)
2 oz individual, Wye, Whitney on Wye - floatfished maggot
11 fish for 5 oz catch, Wark's Avon, Stratford - floatfished maggot
______________________________________________________________
BREAM (Common Bronze) (Abramis brama)
7 lb 1 oz North Warwickshire gravel pit - ledgered sweetcorn
20 fish for 50lb catch, Warren, Stanford le Hope - float fished breadflake
Terrible picture... I had the camera set up for flashless evening shots of something or another, had the ISO rating set really high and forgot to return to auto for this shot, hence the graininess and poor definition.
_____________________________________________________________
BREAM (Silver) (Blicca bjoerkna)
1lb 5oz, Coventry Canal - float fished breadflake
2 fish for 1lb 13oz catch, Coventry Canal - float fished breadflake
One of my proudest moments was catching this rare specimen. I'd been working really hard at these fish, couldn't get past a pound and then finally had one in the end. This fish followed on and proved that the canal could produce real specimens. After a two pounder now, and that is quite possible.
_____________________________________________________________
BULLHEAD (Miller's Thumb) (Cottus gobio)
> 1 oz individual, River Blythe, Coleshill - ledgered maggot
______________________________________________________________
CARP (King) (Cyprinus carpio)
19 lb 12 oz, South Weald Park, South Weald - ledgered boily (pic above is a 15lb fish from same lake, same time - late 1970's)
3 fish for 39lb catch, Point Clear Lakes, St Osyth - ledgered boily
_____________________________________________________________
CARP (Crucian) (Carassius carassius)
2lb 5oz, Marsh Farm, Surrey - float fished prawn
7 fish for 5lb 14oz, Parkers Pool, Exhall - float fished sweetcorn
Top fish of a great day at Marsh Farm where I broke my record three times in succession and set a new tench record too.
_____________________________________________________________
CHUB (Leuciscus cephalus)
5 lb 9 oz - Severn, Montford Bridge - ledgered halibut pellet/bread cocktail
4 fish for 17lb catch - Wark's Avon, Bretford - ledgered meat
Another phone picture and badly framed. A lovely fish that gave me stacks of trouble in a big snag but was landed and then weighed on the most unreliable set of scales I have ever possessed. I still think it was bigger than they said it was.
_____________________________________________________________
DACE (Leuciscus leuciscus)
7.5 oz, Wark's Avon, Saxon Mill - ledgered bread
20 fish for 5lb catch, Wark's Avon, Saxon Mill - float-fished maggot
It's hard to find large dace in Warwickshire but the Saxon Mill has thrown up ten-ouncers so you never know...
_____________________________________________________________
EEL (Anguilla anguilla)
3 lb individual, Mersea Island - ledgered shrimp
_____________________________________________________________
GUDGEON (Gobio gobio)
4 oz Wark's Avon, Saxon Mill (no picture) - float fished halibut pellet
7 fish for 14 oz catch, Brookfields, Bedworth - float fished halibut maggot
The Saxon Mill gudgeon was simply enormous but I threw it back without weighing it so the weight is an estimate. However it was much, much longer than my hand - it could have been a British record for all I know...
_____________________________________________________________
BROWN GOLDFISH (Carassius auratus auratus)
10 oz, Brookfields Fishery, Bedworth - float fished maggot
3 fish for 2 lb catch, Brookfields Fishery, Bedworth - float fished maggot
Not exactly 'brown', but brown goldfish all the same...
_____________________________________________________________
GRAYLING (Thymallus thymallus)
1lb 0oz , River Itchen, Lower Itchen Fishery - trotted sweetcorn
40 fish for 30 lb catch, River Itchen, Lower Itchen Fishery - trotted sweetcorn
_____________________________________________________________
MINNOW (Phoxinus phoxinus)
1 oz, River Sence, Mythe Farm - ledgered maggot
_____________________________________________________________
PERCH (Perca fluviatilis)
3 lb 2 oz individual - Blenheim Palace - float fished lobworm
5 fish for 5lb catch, River Sowe - freelined lobworm
_____________________________________________________________
PIKE (Esox lucius)
15 lb 12 oz, South Weald Park, South Weald - ledgered sprat
_____________________________________________________________
ROACH (Rutilus rutilus)
1 lb 15 oz - Oxford Canal, Hawkesbury - ledgered lobworm
6 fish for 5lb catch River Sowe - freelined breadflake
This is the one record that keeps me awake at night as I just don't seem to able to beat it. A cruel weight for a roach, the worst possible really...
_____________________________________________________________
RUDD (Scardinius erythrophthalmus)
1lb 0oz - The Crater, Exhall - float fished sweetcorn
10lb 8oz catch The Crater, Exhall - float fished sweetcorn
'
Big rudd are extremely hard to find locally. This not a big rudd by any stretch of the imagination but its big for round these parts!
_____________________________________________________________
RUFFE (Gymnocephalus cernuus)
> 4 oz - Coventry Canal, Longford - float fished maggot
Another monster tiddler. Not weighed, but Keith and I were astonished at the size of it.
_____________________________________________________________
SALMON (Salmo salar)
3lb (approx) River Itchen, Southampton - trotted sweetcorn
A skinny 'kelt' - a fish returning to sea after a successful spawning.
_____________________________________________________________
STICKLEBACK (3-spined) (Gasterosteus aculaeatus)
1 oz individual, College pond, Basildon - float fished worm (that's a big claim for what was a matchstick tied to a length of cotton hung off a twig and no hook!)
_____________________________________________________________
STURGEON (Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus)
Fish above is a smaller specimen from the same fishery
_____________________________________________________________
TENCH (Tinca tinca)
Female - 6lb 1oz, Marsh Farm, Godalming - float fished Prawn
Male - 3lb 4oz, Wark's Avon, Harvington - ledgered sweetcorn
5 fish for 24lb 12oz, Marsh Farm, Godalming - float fished prawn
_____________________________________________________________
TROUT, BROWN (Salmo trutta)
Wild - 1 lb 15 oz, River Sence, Atherstone - ledgered breadflake
Stocked - 1lb 12oz, River Itchen, Southampton - trotted sweetcorn
4 fish for 7lb, River Itchen, Southampton - trotted sweetcorn
_____________________________________________________________
TROUT, SEA (Salmo trutta)
3 lb 15 oz, River Itchen, Southampton - trotted sweetcorn
_____________________________________________________________
Trout, Rainbow (Oncorhynchus mykiss)
3lb 8oz, Hanningfield Reservoir, Essex
10 fish for 25lb, Hanningfield
_____________________________________________________________
ZANDER (Pikeperch) (Sander lucioperca)
11 lb 15 oz - Old Bury Hill Fishery, Dorking - float ledgered trout section
2 fish for 8.5 lb, Coventry Canal, Hawkesbury Junction - float ledgered roach section
_____________________________________________________________
SEA RECORDS
When I was really into sea angling, from 1996 - 2006, I hardly ever took pictures of the fish I caught as the sea is no place for expensive cameras and camera blessed mobile devices and compact digital camera's weren't around then so what I have is memories of captures more than exact records so this is a work in a work in progress...!
I have set a few more personal records lately and they are pictured and were properly weighed too. I hope to get out to the sea more often, but it's a long, long way from Coventry...
_____________________________________________________________
Bass
6lb 8oz - Walton on the Naze ( the picture above is of a much smaller bass of about three pounds or so from St Osyth Creek, but same period, 1991/2, and nearby. It's the only bass I ever took a picture of and on the first mobile phone I ever had with a camera in it )
_____________________________________________________________
Black bream
3lb 4oz - Lyme Regis reef ( this is a specimen size fish, one the skipper and mate were quite excited by this as it was twice the size anyone on our boat or any of the other boats fishing the reef that day were to catch - they rarely weigh fish but they got the scales our for this one!)
_____________________________________________________________
Cod - 12oz
Dab - 12oz
Eel - 3lb 8oz
Flounder - 1lb 0oz
Lesser spotted dogfish - 2lb 12oz
Pouting - 1lb 0oz
Rockling, five bearded - 4oz
_____________________________________________________________
Tope
8lb 0oz - Ilfracombe (caught in a force six gale, and still fought like a shark should ! It even tailwalked twice across the huge waves.)
_____________________________________________________________
Whiting - 2lb 8oz
More to come later...
