🏆 British record: 8 lb 5 oz (3.770 kg), River Hull (shared with fish from Lymm Vale, 2000, and Newdigate Farms, 2018) (2021)
🔍 How to spot it
Like a chub with smaller scales and a smaller mouth. Silver-grey with reddish lower fins and an inward-curving anal fin. The golden orfe is the same fish, bred bright orange.
📍 Where to find it
Commercial fisheries, ornamental lakes and a few rivers, especially in Yorkshire and the north. In summer they often cruise near the surface.
Ide feed at all depths on insects, larvae and anything else small. They'll come up to take floating or slow-sinking baits.
Best time: Spring to autumn.
🪱 Favourite baits
Maggots and casters
Pellets
Bread
Sweetcorn
🎣 How to catch it
Shallow waggler or pole
Commercials in summer
Rod
11–12 ft float rod or pole
Reel
Fixed-spool (2500)
Line
4 lb main line
Hook
Size 16
Bait
Maggot or caster
Fish up in the water, feeding maggots on top every cast. Ide often take the bait as it falls.
🤲 Handling and rules
Wet hands, quick return.
📜 Rules and seasons
On rivers, streams and drains in England and Wales there's a close season for coarse fish from 15 March to 15 June. Most lakes, ponds and canals are open all year, but check the water's own rules. It's illegal to move live fish between waters without a permit.
