Cornish river coarse fish

[kernowbob]

And they say the rivers in Cornwall only contain game fish!

While taking a walk yesterday, I noticed some big Perch in a deeper pool of water in the tiny river Hayle. I wonder if they got out of BK fisheries during a flood and just settled there, or someone dumped them in there.

Reminds me when I lived in Launceston years ago, I was spin fishing for trout on the Tamar near Dutson on a beat, I caught one small Trout but also several quite big Perch. Makes me wonder if any Chub have manage to settle in these "trout and salmon" rivers?

They are pretty strict on what stock can go in the coarse fisheries down here for fear of "contaminating" the rivers.

 

[Silverfisher]

They may have done in some stretches where the water chemistry isn’t so harsh I guess. I guess the exe catchment is probably the most westerly coarse fishing river system unless I’m forgetting one ?

 

[RedhillPhil]

Perch do seem to have the ability to just appear. I don't know if last winter's flood washed them out but downstream of the bridge at St Erth the pools - if you could bash your way through the reeds - had some nice roach. Where the little stream enters the river at the back of St. Erth lake was one place where they were. I used to wander upstream with a tooth pick of a rod and catch the little brownies. There used to be some good trout in there but the visitors from Eastern Europe had 'em. A bloke had a sea trout of just over six pounds just downstream of the caravans in July 2017.

 

[BoldBear]

I used to live in Helston in Cornwall down by the lizard and regularly catch Dace when worming the small stream that runs past the boating lake for small brownies.
I think there was lake near Penzance that held Carp and other coarse fish as well.

Keith

 

[Deejay8]

There has always been a big head of perch in Loe Pool, and in recent times a large number of roach have also appeared, and these are now found in the lower reaches of the River Cober which rises near Redruth and runs into Loe Pool. Between Loe Pool and the road bridge over the Cober by the Helston Boating Lake, there are signs saying "Strictly No Fishing ", which is a shame as there are some nice deep glides that are almost certainly full of roach and perch possibly some dace and small brown trout. Loe Pool used to have limited fishing from a small area of bank, which was only available in very limited numbers to anglers who live in Helston, but I'm not sure that's still the case. I believe that it's still possible to fish the Cober from the bridge by the Boating Lake, along the edge of the lake and then under the bridge by Lidls, and onto the stretch through what locals call the Moors.
As to the Hayle River, I know it was heavily polluted with mining waste and most fish couldn't survive in it, but there were brown trout, and they have been found to be genetically different to other populations of brownies, and can survive in the toxic conditions of the Hayle River, whereas any introduced brownies would soon perish. But I believe the river is slowly becoming less polluted and so coarse fish are returning. It would be nice to have a river to fish down here.

 

[kernowbob]

Yes, that's correct about Loe Pool there are quite a lot of roach in there. I wonder why fishing was ended there? I assume because it's a nature spot?

As mentioned before, you got to travel up toward Exeter to get some proper river coarse fishing. However, just goes to show, some of the coarse fish can survive and indeed thrive in the spate rivers here. Some coarse fish are quite hardy with salinity levels, there;s a harbour in Dorset that has shoals of roach swimming around, Loe pool has a good mix of water too!

I just got back from a few hours at Garras. I meant to stop near the boating lake and take a look but I forgot.

 

[Silverfisher]

As mentioned before, you got to travel up toward Exeter to get some proper river coarse fishing. However, just goes to show, some of the coarse fish can survive and indeed thrive in the spate rivers here. Some coarse fish are quite hardy with salinity levels, there;s a harbour in Dorset that has shoals of roach swimming around

Both Christchurch harbour and wareham quay in Dorset are like that, is quite odd to see roach and dace alongside bass and mullet.

 

[crackatoa]

I just got back from a few hours at Garras. I meant to stop near the boating lake and take a look but I forgot.

Not fished it for years. The steep road always put me off going back. Is it fishing well nowadays?