Big Fish Up North !!!

Gav Barbus · Sep 15, 2010

I am writing this thread after a recent comment regarding whether I was telling the truth because I dared say two 3lb roach from the Ribble for same angler.
Basically one of our lads seemed to think I was telling Porkies (which I wasnt) .
Do we have to be a name these days to catch big fish or well connected via internet sites,dont kid yourself boys big fish are caught by all types even amateurs and kids even by people who dont dedicate there whole lives to it!! ,Ilike these ones best.
Just because they all dont shout about it, this lad didnt even have a camera like most folk who go fishing I expect.
I suspect more big fish are caught and simply returned by Joe Bloggs than big name anglers catch and report .what do you say.

Poshpaul (Angling Trust and PaSC) · Sep 15, 2010

I would not be surprised. There are huge amounts of unexplored waters the potential of which we only scratch.

As a fellow inhabitant of these bleak industrial wastes - and that's the good bits - you will be aware of the miles and miles and miles of canal which never see a fisherperson from one decade to the next. Now I am not suggestng that underneath every overhanging tree on the Trent and Mersey is a shoal of 2lb + roach but we don't know whats in there.

Barbel and Chub dominate the mind on many of our North Western rivers - what else could be/is there? And the potential of the Mersey, Tame, Goyt and Etherow remains largely untapped.

I think many do put back remarkable fish wittingly or unwittingly.

I had Maurice the Minnow out of the Dane again the other week. He's put on even more grammes but I put him back unreported. Didn't want the circus descending on the Dane -even if it was only the flea circus!

And if you really want to see the potential of the region just look at Spiders recent catches.......er well perhaps not

dezza · Sep 15, 2010

So what has Spiders been catching?

Maybe it's arachnoidial flu!

:j:j:j

Paul Morley · Sep 15, 2010

I'd say they're prob hybrids!!!

The bad one · Sep 15, 2010

Gav Barbus said:
I am writing this thread after a recent comment regarding whether I was telling the truth because I dared say two 3lb roach from the Ribble for same angler.
Basically one of our lads seemed to think I was telling Porkies (which I wasnt) .
Do we have to be a name these days to catch big fish or well connected via internet sites,dont kid yourself boys big fish are caught by all types even amateurs and kids even by people who dont dedicate there whole lives to it!! ,Ilike these ones best.
Just because they all dont shout about it, this lad didnt even have a camera like most folk who go fishing I expect.
I suspect more big fish are caught and simply returned by Joe Bloggs than big name anglers catch and report .what do you say.

Gav whilst I don't doubt what you say and the Ribble is capable of producing 3 lb roach. Yes there have been in the last few years many authenticated 2s from it. But I would add this cautionary note here
The lower river has been producing Roach Chub hybrids around the size your mate had.
I've seen on a closed site a picture of a guy claim a roach of over 3 lb which was one of these hybrids. And had the guy looked more closely at his photos, he would have recognised it for what it was.

Having said that there are also names, one on here, who didn't know the difference between a roach and an Ide. So even the self-styled best do make genuine mistakes

dezza · Sep 15, 2010

I heard from a fellow angler the other day that a stretch of local canal has been producing lots of 4lb roach!!!

Probably Ide if you ask me. I once made a mistake and couldn't recognise ide, but I had never seen one before.

The canal in question contains both ide, chub and roach. Some of the roach are good ones, but as to whether they are 4 lbs........? Well I wish they were. This canal has produced the odd 2 pounder in the past as well as chub over 6 lbs.

And yes Paul, you are quite right in saying that we do not investigate the big fish of our canals as much as we might. England's canals have produced many roach approaching 3 lbs in the past - remember Albert Oldfield? He was a legend on the Macclesfield canal, his best being about 2lbs 14oz.

904_cannon · Sep 15, 2010

Probably not impossible to believe. A few years ago the Wear produced a 28lb catch of roach in a club match fished in August. Four in that weight were over 2.5lb, so who's to say some of those would not make 3lb at some other time.
I'm sure the Tweed regularly produced 3lb roach in the 70/80's but we never used to weigh them at that time.

Your not alone though Gav, when the current dace record (1-5-2 I think) was taken from the Wear a couple of 'names' suggested then it was a chub/dace hybrid.
I only know one angler from the NW who's word I would question, and he's never been on this site

John Spilsbury · Sep 15, 2010

Ron The Hat Clay said:
And yes Paul, you are quite right in saying that we do not investigate the big fish of our canals as much as we might. England's canals have produced many roach approaching 3 lbs in the past - remember Albert Oldfield? He was a legend on the Macclesfield canal, his best being about 2lbs 14oz.

He wasn't a legend with the local anglers, most of them were decidedly unbelieving of Albert's claims, myself included. He was the bailiff who rode along selling the tickets. Commission? None of the canal regulars that I knew had ever seen him fishing. Never saw a Macc Canal roach of over
1-6 myself back in those days from the canal, and I reckon I was lucky to get one that big. And I fished it a lot (almost exclusively for three years). Even using the recommended lobtails at times.
Is there anything in the way of documented and witnessed evidence for those fish Ron? I never managed to find any.

dezza · Sep 15, 2010

The only stuff I have about Albert Oldfield is old Angling Times reports on what he had caught, memories of a few poor photos in the AT - the roach, if they were roach, looked big. And he wrote several articles, also for Angling Times.

Albert became legendary through his weekly reports on the Macclesfield Canal, were he often detailed what he had caught.

I still have a couple of articles written by him in an old Angling Times Book.

At about that time I met a similar character who used to fish the Chesterfield Canal near Worksop. This man actually DID catch 2lb roach from this canal. This canal genuinely has produced some class roach in the past. I caught a few of them ca 1959 on bread paste, but they were not two pounders, the best I remember pulled 1lb 7oz on my old 0 - 4lb Little Samson spring balances.

Tag Barnes, whilst tench fishing in this canal, often caught the odd big roach. Not 2 pounders but really good fish in the 1lb to 1 3/4lb bracket.

As I have said, 2 lb roach are extremely rare fish.

Gav Barbus · Sep 15, 2010

No hybrid lads ,seen the picture of one, true roach and it was nearly 3lb8 oz the biggest it was way bigger than the claimed 5lb rudd which i reckon was two and half lb.
And Paul I would say you are envious .ha ha.Whats your biggest roach?
Hes not someone I know just some one who didnt have a camera and my mate did so have ended up seeing it.

John Spilsbury · Sep 15, 2010

Ron The Hat Clay said:
The only stuff I have about Albert Oldfield is old Angling Times reports on what he had caught, memories of a few poor photos in the AT - the roach, if they were roach, looked big. And he wrote several articles, also for Angling Times.

Albert became legendary through his weekly reports on the Macclesfield Canal, were he often detailed what he had caught.

As I have said, 2 lb roach are extremely rare fish.

Yes, that's about what I have, none of which convinced me at the time. As bailiff, Albert did indeed write the weekly reports, and a number of times I saw him CLAIM several 2+ roach in a session. Following which, day ticket sales were good. Statistically, the number of good canal anglers I was in close contact with should have landed at least the very occasional 2 pounder, or something close. None ever did, the better fish ran 8-12 oz , and a roach scraping a pound remained a season's best for just a few lucky ones. The Macclesfield Canal Roach Specialist Group never claimed a fish of over one pound 6 ounces.

As you say a 2 pound roach is indeed a rare fish, and it took me a long time to get my first one locally. I wish it had been from the Macclesfield Canal, but that wasn't to be. But it compensated by being a fish of incredible beauty.

Paul Morley · Sep 15, 2010

Not envious of hybrids, no (!). It seems now's the time for Ribble roach, I think we may be in the same club - fancy it? I've only seen one two pounder, it was quite a knee-trembling sight, an old dog from a river far away... The beauty of this thread is that not many people chase them...

Gav Barbus · Sep 15, 2010

Honestly Paul ,how can you be so dubious when you havent seen the picture?
I think we probably are in the same club and would not mind meeting up for a fish but it isnt the stretch that Phil is on about.They were caught near the m6 day ticket by a barbel angler on small pellets looked wet and windy in the picture.My mates a accomplished match angler and so is his dad who saw the biggie.It wasnt the slightly loony eel cod who took them.

Paul Morley · Sep 15, 2010

I was born dubious and am a follower of Diogenes..There is talk of such fish on another site in with, sorry I think it's rubbed off on me! No, anywhere on the Ribble at all, choose your weapons!!! PM me if you like, I really think a nice quality pic of a decent roach would go down well!!!

Gav Barbus · Sep 23, 2010

Paul I will try and get my hands on one ,and it will be kept in my bag and I show you disbeliefing lot. Thanks All.

jcp01 · Sep 23, 2010

An Oxford canal two...

Well one fifteen and 8 drams...!

Sod it, it's a two, let's not be anal about this. Also have had two 'one eights' and a 'one thirteen' from the same stretch. All on lobs. A three? I think I may have seen em, but they are one little gang in an awful lot of water.

Now lets see a pic of a Ribble two. I'd like to believe it, after just one trip there I can see it being possible...

Mark Wintle · Sep 23, 2010

rufus said:
An Oxford canal two...

Well one fifteen and 8 drams...!

I've had bigger ones that still didn't count as '2's! Nice fish but not a '2'.

flightliner · Sep 23, 2010

Mark Wintle said:
I've had bigger ones that still didn't count as '2's! Nice fish but not a '2'.

So have you got scales with drammes on as I would like some.

peter crabtree · Sep 23, 2010

rufus said:
An Oxford canal two...

Well one fifteen and 8 drams...!

Sod it, it's a two, let's not be anal about this. Also have had two 'one eights' and a 'one thirteen' from the same stretch. All on lobs. A three? I think I may have seen em, but they are one little gang in an awful lot of water.

Now lets see a pic of a Ribble two. I'd like to believe it, after just one trip there I can see it being possible...

Is that Roger Waters from the Floyd?
nice roach anyway.............

Mark Wintle · Sep 23, 2010

flightliner said:
So have you got scales with drammes on as I would like some.

Back in the early 80s when I was catching a lot of two pound plus roach I was match sec. for the club and carried a set of the match scales that were accurate to 1/4 oz so I had a few near misses! I've also now got some Reuben Heaton scales that are very accurate, also to 1/4 oz divisions up to 12lbs. Still got the old Contesta scales too as the club bought scales that weighed higher weights.

Big Fish Up North !!!

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