UK Coarse
Species
Scardinius erythrophthalmus
A surface-minded silver of stillwaters and canals. Upturned mouth, golden flank, and a habit of taking on the drop.
Rudd are often confused with roach. The mouth tells you: rudd look up. They live in weedy stillwaters, estate lakes, canals and drains, and they will take a bait in the top foot when the sun is on the water.
A slow-sinking caster, a punch of bread, or a maggot on a light waggler will catch more rudd than a bait nailed to the deck. Big rudd are shy and often come at last light along a reed line.
Weedy bays, lily fringes, canal far-shelf, and the upper layers of coloured stillwaters.
Summer and early autumn. They fade when the water chills. Mild evenings are the time for a better stamp.
They rise, dimple, and intercept falling baits. A cloud of tiny rudd means the bigger ones are often a yard further out or a few inches deeper.
Wet hands, small mesh. They don't need a carp mat, but they don't need a dry landing net either.
Loose feed on the surface or just under it. Casters and maggots little and often. Bread if small fish are a pest.
Fishing hard on the bottom. Too much shot down the line. Feeding a pint of maggot into a cloud of 2oz fish.
All tiny fish: caster or punch, slightly deeper or further. Nothing: you're too deep, or they're not in that bay.
Technique
Traditional waggler
On the drop
Technique
Pole fishing
Shallow, accurately
Technique
Whip fishing
Small rudd
Technique
Bread punch
Punch or flake
Technique
Canal fishing
A towpath, a far shelf, boats, and some of the most thoughtful fishing in the country. Punch, pole, waggler and a bit of chopped worm — not a method feeder flung at the far bank.
Technique
Fishing on the drop
The usual way
Technique
Fishing the far shelf
The canal far-bank line: a plumbed bait against the vegetation, often punch or maggot, where stamp roach and bonus fish sit. Boats move them; then they settle again.
Rig
Waggler setup
Locked float, bulk around the base, droppers down the line, fine hooklength. The same skeleton covers traditional waggler and, with a dumpy body, pellet waggler.
Rig
Pole rig
A dotted pole float, bulk and droppers, a short hooklength, elastic in the top kit. Accuracy is the whole point.
Venue type
Natural stillwater
Pits, meres, estate lakes and waters that were not built as day-ticket carp mills. Lilies, silt, snags, and fish that do not have to eat your bait.
Venue type
Canal
A towpath, a far shelf, boats, and some of the most thoughtful fishing in the country. Bread punch, pole, and waggler still rule.
Venue type
Pond / estate lake
Small, often weedy, often shy. Crucians, tench, rudd and the odd carp. Light tackle and a small baited spot.