Can you tell the species of fish you've hooked from the fight?

[Lord Paul of Sheffield]

I've seen fishing programmes were the presenter hooks a fish and says "From the way this fish is fighting I'd say it's a XYZ"
Sometime there's correct and sometime not (John Wilson is one who springs to minds as one who sometimes gets' it wrong)

ok carp are easy

I can often tell a perch from the fight and a bream from the lack of fight

How about you?

 

[chavender]

80% of the time yes ,but theres always the ones who fool your experiance by impersonating a different fish .if you hold your rod with a tight line still after you've set the hook and watch your tip you can usually tell not only the species from how the tip behaves ,but get a indication of its size ,again through experiance you learn too interpret these things more accurately .now this is all only really possible if your rod & set up is balanced ( sensative enough ) as you can only read the signs if you can see them .

the easy ones most people can tell are EELS ,perch ,grayling & gudgeon because of the way they react to being caught (they deon't like it ,too the point of being quite annoyed) ,other fish just seem too accept the inevitable sooner or later .

by experiance you do get too learn the charictoristic's of how perticular species tend too fight once caught

 

[sam vimes]

Depends on the venue and likelihood of catching certain species. I can usually tell an eel anywhere. I'll usually tell it's a tench on a stillwater or a grayling on a river.

Bream are renowned for a lack of fight but can surprise you, especially in a river.
Chub on my local river will often do a fine initial impression of a barbel. Some barbel will do a fair impressions of chub.

 

[barbelboi]

I'd pretty much agree with chavender, not too many surprises. IMO the worst surprises are the ones who want to do all their fighting on the mat..........two falls, a submission or..............
Jerry

 

[steph mckenzie]

No, i'm bloody useless at guessing which species it is, then again, i like the surprise when i get to see the fish for the first time. I guess i am still to much of a kid at heart.

 

[chub_on_the_block]

Pike are quite easy to tell if you use a large mackerel deadbait

 

[steph mckenzie]

What if it is a Zander in disguise ?

 

[chub_on_the_block]

What if it is a Zander in disguise ?

Never had one !

A Pike on double maggot is a fish that is hard to tell till you see it!

 

[andreagrispi]

Generally I am confident of the species hooked within a few seconds of it being hooked.

There are exceptions:-

- hooked a chub the other day when I was after perch on a Stillwater, thought it was a perch
- hooked a perch last week and thought it was a big bream until I got it near the side
- hooked a bream last year and thought it was a tench until it smashed it's tail on the surface, mind you it was 14lb
- hooked a tench 2 years ago and thought it was a carp, lost it in the side, not before I got a good look---it was massive!!

 

[barbelboi]

What if it is a Zander in disguise ?

Zeds prefer small freshwater deadbaits:wh
Jerry

 

[chub_on_the_block]

I think the more distinctive fighters (or not) are perch (jerky head shaking), crucian (digging down in circles) and bream (dead weight and kiting). Tench are inconsistent - searing runs with some, others not at all.

 

[steph mckenzie]

That's why i tend to fish with a Tell Tale shot on the line, it tells me what fish it is before i see it mg: and Goodnight lol

 

[S-Kippy]

Zeds prefer small freshwater deadbaits:wh
Jerry

Not if I'm fishing them they don't !

All bar 2 of my zander last winter came on mackerel,smelt or lamprey.For some reason roach were ignored whereas the winter before that was all they would have. Very odd.

I did finally get one on a bit of roach on my last trip of the season but when I looked in the net it had turned into a bream

 

[murv]

Much as I dislike quoting someone else with a "+1"...

80% of the time yes ,but theres always the ones who fool your experiance by impersonating a different fish .if you hold your rod with a tight line still after you've set the hook and watch your tip you can usually tell not only the species from how the tip behaves ,but get a indication of its size ,again through experiance you learn too interpret these things more accurately .now this is all only really possible if your rod & set up is balanced ( sensative enough ) as you can only read the signs if you can see them .

the easy ones most people can tell are EELS ,perch ,grayling & gudgeon because of the way they react to being caught (they deon't like it ,too the point of being quite annoyed) ,other fish just seem too accept the inevitable sooner or later .

by experiance you do get too learn the charictoristic's of how perticular species tend too fight once caught

+1

 

[BarryC]

Pike are quite easy to tell if you use a large mackerel deadbait

Did get fooled by a cormorant last winter.