Rare fish

mikench · Sep 25, 2016

A clear out of the sitting room has unearthed a lovely book by Readers Digest entitled Field guide to the Water Life of Britain. It features a number of fish I have never heard of! Have any of you caught a Vendace aka Pollen or a Powen or a Smelt( which spawn in rivers apparently) or a Burbot?

How about a Pumpkinseed found in lakes in south east England or a Rock Bass?

It is an old book!

no-one in particular · Sep 25, 2016

I have caught smelt in the sea Mike although I have not seen any for ages, they used to hang around piers in the summer, good live bait as well; small fish and your post has just made me realize maybe another species that has dwindled.. Heard of the others but never caught any, I think they are very localized in certain places.

mikench · Sep 25, 2016

Thanks for replying Mark! I reckon many of the fish I mentioned are very localised and may have died off altogether!

chrissh · Sep 25, 2016

A fisheries I use to fish near Hastings was overrun with Pumpkinseed we was ask if we caught any not to put them back into the lakes

Used to get smelt of deal pier years ago.I have caught them in a drop net when going after prawn’s for bait

---------- Post added at 09:46 ---------- Previous post was at 09:37 ----------

Another fish I haven’t seen for some time is the stickle back we used to call the red soldiers as a kid the river lea in Hertford had a go stock of the until the cray fish moved in

peter crabtree · Sep 25, 2016

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coregonus_vandesius

I was in Finland a few years ago and local Finnish man took me and a friend fishing on one of the local lakes. While we thrashed the water to a foam with lures the man set off in his boat and pulled in some gill nets he'd set the day before. They were full of vendace, a bit like bleak to me..
We ate some that evening after grilling them...
Very tasty too.

peterjg · Sep 25, 2016

About 30 years ago when my kids were small I was wading in the river Chess with them and I netted a small, long fish about 5 inches long. At first I thought it was a loach but it was infact a brook lamprey.

I have not seen a stickleback for years

steve2 · Sep 25, 2016

I have caught smelts in the docks in London. The school pond is over run with stickle backs just how they got there we don't know. It is just a goldfish pond surround by school buildings. We have even drained it off to clear out the silt over the years but the sticklebacks keep coming back.

chub_on_the_block · Sep 25, 2016

Smelt were doing very well in the tidal Thames during the 90s, and probably still are. Weirdly, they smell of cucumber!.

Sticklebacks (three and eleven spined) are still out there OK and infact are nearly everywhere - its just that few of us use nets like we did when were kids so we dont see them anymore.

laguna · Sep 25, 2016

I wish they would reintroduce burbot.

Keith M · Sep 25, 2016

mikench said:
A clear out of the sitting room has unearthed a lovely book by Readers Digest entitled Field guide to the Water Life of Britain. It features a number of fish I have never heard of! Have any of you caught a Vendace aka Pollen or a Powen or a Smelt( which spawn in rivers apparently) or a Burbot?

How about a Pumpkinseed found in lakes in south east England or a Rock Bass?

It is an old book!

What about the huge Sturgeon that used to swim in some of our rivers?

I think I read that the last one was caught in the 1930s

Keith

mikench · Sep 25, 2016

The book says that fresh smelt do give off a distinct odour of cucumber!

laguna · Sep 25, 2016

I wasn't aware they used to swim in our rivers Keith? I thought they all came from/originated in Russia.
Some customers of ours said they have a sturgeon in a lake they recently acquired was informed, they are not indigenous and will have to be removed.
They may have been told some duff information regards removal. I think you can get a license to keep them? As I pointed out there are a number up and down the country notably a couple of lakes have them in Suffolk or maybe some place down Kent way.

peter crabtree · Sep 25, 2016

My local garden pond centre have live sturgeon for sale in their showroom.
They're quite big too. Imagine what happens to these fish (and other species) when sentimental people move house or fill their ponds in for various reasons?

Keith M · Sep 25, 2016

laguna said:
I wasn't aware they used to swim in our rivers Keith? I thought they all came from/originated in Russia.
Some customers of ours said they have a sturgeon in a lake they recently acquired was informed, they are not indigenous and will have to be removed.
They may have been told some duff information regards removal. I think you can get a license to keep them? As I pointed out there are a number up and down the country notably a couple of lakes have them in Suffolk or maybe some place down Kent way.

I read that the sturgeon was common over 200 years ago in large UK rivers including the Severn, Avon, Ouse, some Scottish rivers and the Thames, with remnants of sturgeon found in the medieval remains of Westminster Abbey.

I think they came up our rivers to spawn, and then returned to sea.

I also recollect reading about Sturgeon being sold at Billingsgate Wharf in London back in times gone by and that they reached weights of around 250 to 300lbs in uk rivers.

When I get time I will search my book cases to try to find the books where I read this info from.

Keith

NB: I just found this info on the web about sturgeon in our rivers in the past which contains a map showing the locations on the Severn and Wye where they have been recorded in the past.

Sturgeon Acipenser sturio Page 2

It interesting to read that The Common or Baltic sturgeon, (Acipenser sturio) which inhabited the major UK river systems and coastal regions (as well as all other major European river systems) reached a length of 4.6 metres and a weight of 600 kg.

It makes even the largest Wels Catfish look like a tadpole LOL.

Keith

mikewilson · Sep 25, 2016

I think you will find the fish that are caught in many lakes are Sterlet, a freshwater member of the sturgeon family.

Mark Wintle · Sep 26, 2016

I witnessed a couple of cucumber smelt caught in the Dorset Frome in Feb 1971, both about 12oz, and not to be confused with the very common sea fish, sand smelt which is much smaller and wholly unrelated.

There were pumpkinseed in several local Dorset waters in the late 80s/early 90s but as far as I know now gone.

Not sure about the rock bass, no evidence of any ever being caught; there were definitely large-mouth black bass in one local water to me from 1935 to 1980, with some also in another adjacent private water, and rumours of some in an East Anglian US air base pond. I'd be surprised if any still exist in the UK.

Peter Jacobs · Sep 26, 2016

I have caught Pumpkinseed from a small lake close to Fordingbridge some years ago; l am not sure if they are still in that venue though.

The only place I ever caught Burbot was in Southern Sweden although I did hear of catches in Norway too.

I have never caught Vendace but have eaten them in Finland, describeslike Simon, where they were served in a similar manner to the way we serve Whitebait but with boiled potatoes.

no-one in particular · Sep 26, 2016

Mark Wintle said:
I witnessed a couple of cucumber smelt caught in the Dorset Frome in Feb 1971, both about 12oz, and not to be confused with the very common sea fish, sand smelt which is much smaller and wholly unrelated.

I wondered about that, I did not know there were two species with the same name, the ones we caught around piers were about 5 inches long, a greenie blue iridescent back and light underneath, probably the sand smelt, lots of them around piers in the summer but I have not seen any for a long time.

Mark Wintle · Sep 26, 2016

markg said:
I wondered about that, I did not know there were two species with the same name, the ones we caught around piers were about 5 inches long, a greenie blue iridescent back and light underneath, probably the sand smelt, lots of them around piers in the summer but I have not seen any for a long time.

Still plenty of sand smelt in Poole Harbour; the mackerel feed on them, as do the bass. Cucumber smelt have an adipose fin being related to the whitefish whereas sand smelt have two dorsal fins.

Peter J. probably had pumpkinseed in Martin's Farm ponds and I doubt there's any in there now.

mikench · Sep 26, 2016

My book describes Smelt as a migratory fish which spawn in rivers over sand and gravel. There were inland smelt apparently with the last known at Rostherne Mere which I have fished as it is local. They died out in the 1920's.

The Latin name given is Osmerus eperlanus! They are described as slim, silvery and Greenish growing to 12 inches and with a large mouth full of needle like teeth!

Rare fish

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