Sunday afternoon saw me on the lower Ribble with Tony and Pete. I lucked out by picking a swim that was a bit of a wind tunnel, and by the time I packed up for the day I was really feeling the cold despite the multi layers and neoprene mitts.
So thats the moaning over with – the fishing and company were excellent. Good laughs all afternoon and a constant stream of lovely dace to the net.
Tony caught this lovely fish – what is it ? your guess is as good as mine – definately not a roach – not a chub or a dace. They dont seem to crop up on other rivers, but on the Ribble they grow BIG and people often mistake them for specimen roach. I think they have been named CHROACH.
I started off using crushed hemp and caster in a block end feeder – and it didnt stop twitching all afternoon. A change to stick float brought me a couple of small chub but the dropping tide resulted in the inside line becoming too shallow, so back onto the feeder and back onto the dace. I wasnt complaining as the fish were going to 12-14oz.
My first time on the tidal part of the river – very impressed with the fishing
manchester fishing Irwell Ribble Trout
Jeff Hatt says
It's a rubb, surely?
Dan Price says
How strange! Definitely looks like a roach/chub hybrid, never seen ne before. How do they fight?
Dan
Regular Rod says
That anal fin in the photograph looks dented to me. Just how big do they grow? Unless they are getting past the 24 ounce mark I'd say that is a dace.
Tony says
They get to over 4lb so I've been told, it was not a Dace, the Dace in the Ribble do not get any deep red in the fins that this one had, a nice fish.