THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

Not a fish most people other than
perhaps match-men and pike anglers
would be interested in catching. But as
they are abundant in the Lancaster
canal heading northwards out of
Preston, a species I was able to target
and tick off the list in a single visit
where a bloodworm fished under a
light float close in to the weed margins
did the trick.
For match anglers, anything that contributes to their overall weight is fine by them. With pike anglers
it's a slightly different story, and not one with such a happy ending, because ruffe make excellent livebaits,
which in the good old days before the EA imposed restrictions on the transportation of live fish,
was a species which would be hauled all around the country, including to that legendary Scottish big
pike water Loch Lomond, and as such, either as escapees or deliberate releases, suddenly found itself
as an alien species in a system that had not evolved to cope with it.
As small as they are, ruffe are predators, and one of the things they will eat with great relish is the eggs
of other fish, which in the case of Loch Lomond unfortunately includes the powan, a species which is
protected as endangered under the Wildlife & Countryside Act.
So a lesson there for all of. As important as this is, the ban on the transportation and release of live fish
isn't only about disease control. Noncompliance can have other, more sinister consequences, and once
the genie is out of the bottle, it the case of Loch Lomond, there really is no way of every getting it back
in again.
ZANDER Sander lucioperca
Bucket List status – result
Not long after their initial release into
the Fens when zander were really just
starting to spread, pile on a bit of
weight, and grab the attention of a few
budding would be specialists, I
contacted John Watson who would go
on to do great things on the pike and
zander scene. John was still living in
Blackpool at the time and commuting
to the Fens at weekends.
In equal measures of wanting to tick a
new species off my list, and see this
alleged 'terror' in the flesh, I asked him
to point me at a spot where I might be in with half a chance of zander success, and he came back saying
I should try the Middle Level Drain at Outwell.
I'd obviously never seen a zander up to that point. But with such a readily recognisable fish with its
elongate body, large mouth armed with very obvious canine teeth and upper jaw extending to the back
of the eye, plus its spiny first dorsal fin followed immediately by a softer second dorsal and its lightly
barred markings along each flank, I couldn't wait for the opportunity.
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