Specimen rudd boom

The unprecedented boom in catches of specimen rudd has continued full steam ahead, with Gareth Goldson taking one of the biggest ever hauls of the species in the form of 17 fish over 2lb to a best of 2lb 12oz.

The experienced all-rounder from Norfolk, who has already hit the headlines this season by catching eels to 7lb 4oz and roach to over 3lb, took his catch from a Fenland river using a combination of bread flake and crust hookbaits.

Gareth is no stranger to specimen-sized rudd – having taken them to over 3lb in the past – but the 30-year-old revealed how having access to a boat has seen his catch returns soar this season.
“I’ve spent so much time fishing for Fen rudd in recent seasons that I’ve become friendly with some of the narrowboat owners. One of them now lets me borrow a small boat, which makes finding the shoals of large rudd so much easier,” said Gareth, who landed all his fish using 4lb line and a size 12 hook.

“Rudd are a very greedy fish and location is the hardest task. Once you’ve found them, they’re not tackle shy at all. If you get a few competing for food, they can be almost suicidal! On this trip I started catching them on large freelined lumps of breadflake. Once I’d had a few from the shoal and they began to get spooky, I changed to slow-sinking breadflake under a small float to keep the bites coming,” he added.

Gareth’s haul is the latest in a long line of big rudd catches to come from the East Anglian region this season. He believes there are a number of reasons behind the apparent ‘big rudd bonanza’.
“Fish of this size have always been in the Rivers Cam, Lark and Ouse, as well as the drains and lodes, but I think the extra rainfall we’ve had this year has spread them out a bit more. Added to that, more specimen anglers are fishing for them than ever before, so more are getting caught,” he said.

Dr Paul Garner specialises in fish behaviour, and while agreeing with Gareth’s sentiments, he also believes that other factors have come into play.

He told AT: “Good rudd normally means there’s plenty of zoo plankton and terrestrial insects around. The drains and rivers of East Anglia are also slow-moving, meaning nutrients and plankton don’t get flushed out quickly, and they also offer good water clarity and quality – other prerequisites for rudd to flourish and feed well.”

“I think the Environment Agency should study rudd in greater detail, because they seem to be declining across most of the country, yet there’s a huge stronghold in East Anglia.” 

Run of blanks end with 2lb 9oz pb rudd

A run of blank sessions were soon forgotten by Steve Russell when he slipped the net under this 2lb 9oz rudd from an Oxfordshire gravel pit.

The keen specimen angler had previously struggled to locate the fish in the venue, but struck gold when he fooled the new personal best specimen along with five others to 1lb 10oz.

With fish cruising on the surface in the warm conditions, Steve decided to use a simple waggler set-up and spray maggots over the top to whip the rudd into a feeding frenzy.

“It was a really hot evening and the fish gave themselves away in a weedy corner. I was only using a 2lb 8oz bottom and a size 16 hook so there were a few heart-stopping moments when the fish tried to dive for the cover,” explained Steve, who beat his previous record by 2oz.

Fen drain specimen rudd haul

Locating big rudd on the endless miles of Fenland drains can be a daunting prospect, but Ben Corfield’s first ever visit produced the goods when he landed a superb trio topped by this 2lb 15oz 8dr fish.

After hours of walking and searching failed to produce the goods, the 34-year-old, from Shrewsbury, decided to get into his car and drive slowly along the road that runs parallel to the venue in order to try to spot his quarry.

It proved to be the right decision, with Ben taking the new pb as well as others weighing 2lb 2oz and 2lb 1oz.

“I spotted a big fish, then had to crawl across the seats out of the passenger door and carefully make my way to the water’s edge because otherwise the fish would have spooked,” said Ben.

“It was a real achievement for me to come down and catch three fish like this on my first visit.

Is this the UK's biggest rudd?

This is a picture of potentially the biggest rudd ever caught in the UK - a 5lb 2oz specimen that would smash the current British record out of sight.

It was caught by Adrian Cannon on a small Fenland drain in Cambridgeshire, on the opening weekend of the river season, but as he didn’t recognise the magnitude of the pristine specimen, he put it in the hands of young Adam (pictured) in order to record the capture of the would-be record breaker.

Even though Adrian’s capture dwarfs the current British record of 4lb 10oz caught by Simon Parry from a stillwater in Ireland in 2001, the fact that he wasn’t pictured with the fish and its weighing wasn’t overseen by two independent witnesses means he won’t be able to make an official claim.

Dave White, chairman of Whittlesey Angling Association, who control a great deal of fishing in the area said: “The captor sent the pictures to me and I’ve been chairman of this association since 1995 and have never seen anything like this. I don’t think there’s any question over the weight of this specimen.”