THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

In fairness too, he loaned me the tackle, and even set it up for me. After that I was on my own, pegged
between the pair of them, with five hours ahead of me in which to put up or shut up, and a steeper
learning curve I have yet ascend. But ascend it I did.
As expected, Dave far and away led the field. But amazingly, I somehow managed to come second, and
interestingly, gudgeon along with small roach and dace helped give me quite a respectable weight, not
to mention lots to mouth off about all the way home from Nottingham back to Preston.
BLEAK Alburnus alburnus
Bucket List status – no result yet
If you read the account above about
the coarse fishing match I was duped
into taking part in on the River Trent
at Burton Joyce, amazingly, amongst
the many small roach, gudgeon and
dace I somehow managed to catch, I
equally amazingly managed not to
catch a single bleak, despite the fact
that the other two anglers I was fishing
against and had positioned either side
of me taking several each.
Lee Armishaw, Bleak
can probably be picked out at a glance.
That is the only time I have ever even
seen a bleak, and had Dave Trafford,
one of the anglers I was fishing against
and a River Trent regular not been
present, I wouldn't have realised that
there were even bleak in the catch,
which for a Trent regular like Dave
For the rest of us, identification features to look out for are a small quite narrow bodied fish whose body
profile tapers gradually and continuously from its widest point to the snout, giving it a rather pointed
head, with the lower lip slightly more prominent than the upper.
The anal fin is also longer than in the most likely candidates for confusion such as small dace, and there
is a sharp scale-less keel between the pelvic fins and anal fin. The back and upper flanks are blueish
green lightening to silver on the underparts, with hints of orange present in some individuals on a set of
otherwise greyish fins.
PERCH Perca fluviatilis
Bucket List status – result
Arguably one of the most recognisable freshwater fish species in the British Isles. So much so that it is
regularly used for comparative purposes, even amongst marine species such as the comber and norway
haddock which are described as being 'perch like', plus species generally with dry rough scales which
are said to be percoid.
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