The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Watched Time Team today where they were excavating a site of the paleolithic era (early man, early stone age) going back 400,000 years - amongst the minute 400,000 year old stone artifacts, they found a fish tooth - of a tench!

They are a very special fish and have an aged character all of their own. Fascinating that they date back that far..

Goodness ! That's a big one !

Fascinating stuff, the mind boggles, I wonder what our ancient brothers thought of the tench.... .....food probably...

Interesting I have read that Bream are another old species.

And our beloved Norfolk Pike it seems..
From Fish Scotland..
Pike were one of the species that the last ice age left to enrich Scotland's fish diversity. The earliest pike fossils found in Britain, were discovered in the Cromer Forest beds at West Runton in Norfolk, and were found to be approximately half a million years old. These have been identified as Esox lucius, the same species that is to be found in Scotland today. In mainland Europe the pike distribution reaches southwards to the Mediterranean regions, including northern Spain and Italy (roughly 40¡N) and to just north of Turkey.
Our cane rods and centre-pin reels it seems are really very modern .......relatively speaking of course.
I read once of Norfolk people rearing geese on the side of lakes, taking them across the other side, tying traces to their legs to which live baits were attached then sending them home across the lake. The wretched creatures were near pulled under with the weight of Pike attached to their legs as they struggled to find sanctuary.
If cane and pin is modern then so be it..

Sublime

Aquaerial, that Tench is beautiful, as is the reel and rod.

TD, would love to get one like that out of Warren Pond in the Summer

400 thousand year is a mere blink in evolutionary terms and fossil records of many of our fish have been found from at least 30 million years ago. If you look at the shape and characteristics of our freshwater fish they fit into all of the logical feeding zones. There are no flatfish or rays in our rivers but the next feeding zone is bottom hugging (steady Loop) which is taken up by loach and barbel. Next comes the browsers like bream and tench followed by the opportunists that feed all through the water course such as chub, roach, carp etc. Our predator's body shapes are mirrored globally in the perch and pike, examples of which are found in all waters.

The pike has not changed for 60 million years and there are very similar skeletal fossils from 90 million years ago. They swam in the shadows of dinosaurs on fish that must have been extremely similar to those that we catch today.

Just take a minute to digest that - its amazing. Wouldn't you just love a Tardis?

GazTheAngler wrote:Aquaerial, that Tench is beautiful, as is the reel and rod.

TD, would love to get one like that out of Warren Pond in the Summer

Are there any in any of the Forrest ponds Gaz?