Whats The Rarest Fish in England? : FISH MYTHS UK

[@sifishes]

The vendace is in trouble, laying on the pebbles!!! Thanks for the videos, really enjoy them 👍

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

Ha yes they were from a survey to be dissected I think so thats the closet to seeing them for most people

[@sifishes]

@Chasingscalesspecieshunt Also watched your video with Jeremy Wade, I was chatting to him recently on the 'March for Clean Water' protest in London.. Top bloke 👍

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

@@sifishes yes i was there to! he's lovely really down to earth

[@spiller3214]

Gywniad in Bala Lake Wales has it's own species of vandace ( goregonus pennantii)

[@rogerjohnson8540]

Just to add a wee bit of confusion into the mix! The dace Leuciscus leuciscus is known as Vandoise in France…. I thought all my birthdays had come at once when I was checking out potential species for my French species hunt!

[@stuartbroadhurst7523]

It’s Bassentwaite lake ( the only lake in the Lake District ) great quiz question the rest being Meres, Waters or Tarns. I caught a Vendace years ago in Haweswater. I used to fish it a lot but only ever caught the one so can’t be many.

[@birdie1585]

You mentioned the burbot - probably extinct in the UK. It is being bred in captivity (aka farmed) and a friend in Belgium was heavily involved with its reintroduction there (original stock from Spain?). If memory is correct, Brooksby College (near Melton Mowbray), was involved.

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

Yes I actually saw them at Brooksby when I was 16 they ended up at london zoo but all died

[@birdie1585]

@@Chasingscalesspecieshunt I haven't spoken to my friend in Belgium for ages, but the reintroduction was going very well there - he actually worked for the bit of the Belgian government that organised the reintroduction - he has a degree in some specialist bit of biology. He assured me that they taste very nice.

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

@@birdie1585 they do! I ate one in belguim (farmed I should add) I have a video on the channel about the belguim burbot

[@scottpoulter9164]

Love these videos on the rarer stuff, very informative. The spined loach is presumably in the mix as well? I found an old YT video you did of netting one in Nottingham by chance recently. I understand that they are pretty tough to catch on rod and line but I guess a few local to the eastern rivers may have done so. Personally I am still trying to find a reliable venue to catch its unspined cousin and add to my tally 😂

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

I do have a episode of my species hunt coming up for both loach species. as far as I know no one has ever caught one on rod and line but I suppose its feasible but they have tiny mouths! had my first stone loach this year

[@scottpoulter9164]

@Chasingscalesspecieshunt looking forward to that one.

[@portcullis5622]

@@scottpoulter9164 I caught a stone loach on maggots in the Yorkhire Derwent in the early 1980s. The only one I have ever seen. Never heard of other anglers catching them, but then the smaller species are usually overlooked.

[@scottpoulter9164]

@portcullis5622 nice. The LRF guys do occasionally target the regular Stone Loach. I recall seeing a Facebook post of somebody catching a Spined Loach but not the details. The only one I have ever seen was an old YT clip of Jack's.

[@user-ro4mx2uh2m]

The vendace used to inhabit Lochmaben but sadly no more.

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

I really do think we'll loose them if nothing is done

[@KeefsCattys]

I used to fish Mill loch ( and Castle Loch) on a very regular basis back in the early to late 90's . Mill loch was a very mysterious water and I often used to wonder if one would show up on one of my feeder fishing sessions .. Wishful thinking sadly

[@borderlands6606]

Wild river sturgeon are rare in Britain.

[@davesmith325]

A fair few escapee stocked pond sturgeon in the rivers. Don’t think we have any true wild sturgeon anymore.

[@borderlands6606]

@@davesmith325 Unlike the burbot, I don't think the European sturgeon has been declared extinct in Britain and the most recent example was caught many years after the last eel-pout. The obstacle to the progress of any sturgeon that remain are weirs and locks, keeping them from spawning grounds. On the basis of the question in the video, I reckon wild sturgeon might be the rarest fish with a shout of actually existing in our waters.

[@7cColin]

I have fished for vandace in a loch in the south-west of Scotland, without success. I gather from a local tackle dealer that they were definitely formerly present but may have vanished since, he hadn't seen or heard of one caught for years.

[@Eggyfart83]

Loch valley?

[@7cColin]

@@Eggyfart83 Castle Loch, Lochmaben.

[@pauljohnstone5213]

Some vendace were moved from one of the lakes in the lake district to loch skeen in south west Scotland.

[@speckledjim_]

Im up in the west of Scotland. Pretty poor as far as numbers of sp is concerned. I think the humble little Gudgeon is about the least common freshwater fish we have

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

Brook charr are up there not native but pretty rare

[@BlackCountryPiker]

Genuinely never heard of it. As for the Shad, is that the same as what’s in the Wye?

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

the fish in the wye are twaite shad the allis is bigger and rarer

[@BlackCountryPiker]

@ ahh right, they have been caught as a by product when people have bait fished on the Birmingham Anglers Association water at Stacklands. Not often though and now I now why.

[@luke_angling]

I wonder if these could be bred at say Calverton and restocked. I suppose finding any to breed from is difficult.

[@imchrisme5514]

Me and my mate had an argument over one of those dace that he caught I was convinced it was a Grayling he was convinced it was something else but he didn’t know what. We released it pretty rapidly which further fuelled the confusion. After seeing this I’m certain it was once of those.

[@SSCAquatics]

Under 48 minute club

[@northernirishviking7283]

There should be a breeding and stocking programme throughout the whole uk and ireland for the conservation of the arctic charr, we have them in lough melvin, they used to be in lough neagh but went extinct, they should be put in all water bodies where they used to do well in

[@KeefsCattys]

I've caught lots of Arctic char in Scotland , sad to see they're doing so poorly south of the border

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

yeah you'd be very lucky to get one in england. I'm going to try for charr next year with a bit of luck

[@martinleonard1992]

I used to catch them in fishing club competitions many years ago. Shame if they are gone now

[@davehilton8570]

Eight years ago I spent a few days in Finland and visited Helsinki. There is a harbour side market selling many types of fresh street food including fried Vendace with potatoes and a cheese sauce. I can attest to them making delicious eating ! While vanishingly rare in the U.K. Vendace are so common in Finland they are fished for on a small commercial scale

[@platinumworksjewellers3810]

is vendace what we call pollan in Ireland?

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

simliar but a different species

[@JerymanicusNightingale]

I believe we're about as far south as this species occurs although far from common in the Nordic countries I have actually caught them by accident in Finland so I'd say not common but not unusual again I'm fly fishing with tiny nymphs probably not the best way to target them

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

yes I think thats right further north they are more common

[@Angling_addict]

I thought it would have been the blue barbel that was caught a while back

[@martinleonard1992]

Large mouth black bass only in 1 small lake in Dorset

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

I know the lake you mean but as far as I'm aware they haven't been seen in decades

[@BILLY.315]

has it got an adipose fin, or is it just a rounded second dorsal?

[@michaelafrancis1361]

It does indeed have an adipose fin since it is a salmonidae or member of the salmon family. The vendace belongs to the genus Coregonus which are collectively known as "whitefish". It is one of the most bafflingly complex sub-divisions of the salmon family there is and that's saying something. Taxonomists have been arguing over the exact classification of whitefish for at least a century and we're still no closer to a consensus. Take the vendace for instance. This is called either the Vendace or European Cisco with the Latin name Coregonus albula and is widespread across Northern Europe. The trouble with many Whitefish species however is that they are glacial relics and found in lakes formed during the ice ages in widely isolated populations. Since populations are isolated from each other they begin to take on very individual characteristics and soon begin to resemble entirely different species. The British population of Vendace is therefore considered by some scientists to be a different species from its North European counterpart and is given the Latin name Coregonus vandesius but this is by no means universally accepted.

[@BILLY.315]

@@michaelafrancis1361 thanks

[@MrTench8]

What rising temperatures??? It's been effing freezing in the UK for the last couple of years!!

[@philthorpe7671]

Are powan and vendace the same fish ?

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

@@philthorpe7671 so different species

[@philthorpe7671]

Thanks for that really like your stuff

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

@ cheers mate

[@paulbragg7618]

Bassenthwaite is a thwaite, not a water👍

[@paulm2467]

It’s Bassenthwaite lake, thwaite is from an old Norse/Scandinavvian word for paddock or clearing, Bassenthwaite is the name of the nearby village.

[@paulbragg7618]

@paulm2467 it is actually the only thwaite called a lake. But thwaite is a type of water like a mere

[@paulm2467]

@@paulbragg7618 no it isn't, Google it

[@paulm2467]

@paulbragg7618 there are around 80 villages in the Lake District with the Thwaite ending. There are even two neighbouring villages in between Bassenthwaite and Keswick called Thornthwaite and Braithwaite. There are a similar number in the rest of England, it has nothing to do with Lake, mere or water.

[@Darren14]

Burbot?

[@portcullis5622]

Not officially extinct. I believe (from reading a lot about the species) that they hung on in the Yorkshire Derwent until at least the 1990s and could even be still hanging on somewhere, as it is a river that has changed less than most and much of the river is relatively lightly fished, especially at night.

[@XiOjala]

@@portcullis5622 I fished for burbot with worms at night in the Winter in the Derwent in the late 80's. No luck though.

[@portcullis5622]

@@XiOjala I am thinking of doing the same next month, when the river is not in flood, fishing for chub and just see what turns up. I usually fish the Nidd and the Derwent between Malton and Kexby, but I have a feeling that the lower reaches from Elvington downstream are the most likely place where burbot could still be hanging on unnoticed. It still has an air of mystery and has been lightly fished for decades. The river and flood meadows there are relatively unchanged since the time when burbot were still quite common in the early twentieth century. There are records of captures at places like Elvington and Bubwith from the 1920s through to the early 1960s, so there must have still been a small breeding population in the 1940s and 50s. My theory is that anglers and ecologists weren't really looking very hard for them (until it was too late) and a few fish hung until at least the late 1980s/early 90s. That is the time when many anglers started to desert the rivers to fish the (IMO pointless and unnatural) commercial carp ponds. If more people had searched at the right time of year, in the most likely areas, 30 or 40 years ago, I think they would have found a few burbot.

[@XiOjala]

@@portcullis5622 I regularly with the lower Derwent at Wheldrake on the free stretch with a variety of baits. But never again at night in the Winter. Also above the weir on the YDAA stretch at Sutton-on-Derwent. If there's a burbot left alive it must be very old and very lonely. I agree about the 'commercials'.

[@portcullis5622]

@@XiOjalaApparently burbot do feed in daylight as well, and my winter night fishing is usually just an hour or two into dark, whenever conditions are promising (though not necssarily mild)! York DAA used to have a stuffed burbot in a glass case, but It was stolen in the 1980s. Photos have appeared in Ian Carstairs' Yorkshire Derwent book and Waterlog magazine and it was featured in Chris Yates' 2004 Radio 4 programme 'The Case of the Missing Burbot'. On the case was written "1lb 13oz F Sollitt, Elvington, 13th December 1924". So, I have booked the 13th of December off work, and intend to head to Elvington (if the river is not flooded) as it will be exactly 100 years, to the day, since Mr Sollitt's fish was caught and I believe in serendipity!

[@robertallen591]

subjective depends were you live, cod are rare in nottingham

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

not in the chip shops their not!

[@sniperdogz7658]

Where would a bullhead be in this list never seen any caught in uk

[@paullond7721]

They are common, I have seen many while wading in rivers, but they are not caught often on rod and line.

[@portcullis5622]

I have caught a few when legering on the Yorkshire Derwent on small baits. Sadly, they usually don't survive capture, as they usually swallow the bait (bites not easy to see) and are difficult to unhook.

[@RoryFlynnWebDesign]

used to find loads under rocks as a kid and catch them by hand (in Yorkshire). There should still be plenty about!

[@XiOjala]

I've caught them in the river Rye.

[@portcullis5622]

@@XiOjala Now that you mention it, I have caught one or two from the Rye as well, back in the 1980s and 90s.

[@fraser661]

I am sure that i remember in the nineties they were introduced to a small loch in the Scottish Borders, Loch Skeen at the top of the Grey Mares Tail. I think they came from Cumbria 👍

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

thats right and from what I'm told they are doing ok there

[@ivornappinion9406]

Morning, yeah I said the vendace before vid started. You confirmed that it lives in the Derwent not to far from me in Manchester.

[@andysteggals2745]

Burbot?