Species Fishing Blog: 100th Species

After another cancellation of my charter boat trip, I decided that I had to get a good fish for the 100, and I wanted it to be a pike. I was told about a fishery in Sussex which had a predator lake and decided to do an afternoon ticket there. Got off the train at about 10 minutes to midday and decided to walk to the fishery as I had an hour to spare for the afternoon ticket and it was only a few miles from the station. It was a pleasant walk and got there about 12:30. Half an hour to spare to set and have my lunch.

My 100th Species of Fish - The Northern Pike - Esox lucius #100

Northern Pike - Esox lucius

Bream - Abramis brama

It’s a 2 rod ticket but decided to spin on a single rod until I got a pike. There a lot of activity on the water with my rudd or roach dashing away from predators. I tried some spinners, spoons and plugs. Its was raining quite a heavily and I perservered having a couple of taps every few casts. After about 90 minutes changing lures, I had some decent resistance on the line, initially it was just a little bit of dead weight but as it surfaced, it starting making runs and after a few minutes, it was in the net. I little jack of about 3lb. Because of the coloured water it was a very pale looking fish with a lot of scars, I think they may be from leaches as I saw them on some of the fish I had later one. The lure was a perch coloured lure without the stripes that I got for a mere £2.50. I wasn't very impressed by the battle though, I would have expected it to be much stronger. It only felt like a carp and not a perch. There were bursts of speed but no violent headshakes that you get with 3lb perch or bass. I decided to not go for another pike and go for some coarse fish. I fished corn on the waggler and soon had a nice 2-3lb bream. A skimmer and another couple of bream. Time for a move.

Fully Scaled Mirror Koi - Cyprinus carpio

Linear Mirror Carp - Cyprinus carpio

I knew that one of their other ponds was an ornamentals pond which contained a good head of koi and goldfish, so I moved there. I decided to use two rods here. I had a rod with ledger corn and the waggler rod which I used with corn and cat-meat. Had a few small rudd on the corn and the ledger corn had a little run and brought in a nice little tench. A change of bait to meat on the waggler and got a really nicely coloured fully scale mirror carp which looked a little koi like with orange lips. I then had another tench on the ledger. The the float dipped again and had an better fish on the end of the line. This one was a Linear Mirror Carp about 3lb.

So got a few skimmers, rudd tench and carp, and apart from a koi-ish carp, where are those ornamentals?

Koi - Cyprinus carpio

Linear Scaled Koi - Cyprinus carpio

Rebaited with catmeat again and watched the float dive as I hooked into another good fish. As it surfaced, I got my first glimpse of the yellow koi on the end of the line. After a few minutes, I played it out and it was soon in the net, and it was a beauty too, it was a nicely coloured common (ghost) koi. As I was putting the fish back into my net to return it, the ledger rod went off and this time it was a proper fish. A few minutes later I had another nicely coloured koi but it was a Linear Mirror type koi. A few photos and then release.

Brown Goldfish - Carassius auratus

Brown Comet Goldfish - Carassius auratus

Orange Common Goldfish - Carassius auratus

Orange Common Goldfish - Carassius auratus

The carp fishing quietened down and soon got into the all the goldfish varierties. The long tailed comet ones do fight hard. Seem to catch a few more of those than common goldfish because they probably swim faster with better propulsion? Kept on seeing the red goldfish following the koi earlier on but didn't manage to get hook it but it was now time. This was the most goldfish like goldfish I’d ever caught. Had more skimmers, tench, rudd and another small common carp. The day ended in the smallest tench I’ve ever caught. I think thats time to go home.