Whats Europe's most popular sport fish?

[soflabasser]

Interesting subject. Lots of people in Europe fish for carp along with northern pike, zander, Wels catfish, and European perch.

[Luke Barnes]

22 hours ago, soflabasser said:

Interesting subject. Lots of people in Europe fish for carp along with northern pike, zander, Wels catfish, and European perch.

Wels catfish would be so amazing to hook into. 

[soflabasser]

On 3/19/2022 at 2:00 PM, Luke Barnes said:

Wels catfish would be so amazing to hook into. 

Wels catfish would definitely be on my list if I travel to Europe. With that said shark fishing is very similar to catfishing so I rather catch sharks which grow larger than wels catfish and I do not have to travel far to catch sharks. European northern pike and zander would be very nice to catch as well.

[Luke Barnes]

On 3/22/2022 at 4:24 PM, soflabasser said:

Wels catfish would definitely be on my list if I travel to Europe. With that said shark fishing is very similar to catfishing so I rather catch sharks which grow larger than wels catfish and I do not have to travel far to catch sharks. European northern pike and zander would be very nice to catch as well.

I live in a land locked state in america so never thought about shark fishing or any saltwater fishing. 

 

I wonder how Wels Catfish taste???

[soflabasser]

On 3/26/2022 at 10:41 AM, Luke Barnes said:

I live in a land locked state in america so never thought about shark fishing or any saltwater fishing. 

 

I wonder how Wels Catfish taste???

I highly recommend you fish for sharks when you get a chance, especially if you enjoy catching fish that can peel over 100 yards of line and give you a good workout. You can catch big sharks from land so you do not need to hire a guide but you do have to bring the appropriate tackle to land these fish. From what I read the small Wels catfish taste ok but I would not eat them. The big Wels catfish supposedly do not taste good. Most people that fish for Wels catfish release them just like most bass fishermen release bass.

[Luke Barnes]

15 hours ago, soflabasser said:

I highly recommend you fish for sharks when you get a chance, especially if you enjoy catching fish that can peel over 100 yards of line and give you a good workout. You can catch big sharks from land so you do not need to hire a guide but you do have to bring the appropriate tackle to land these fish. From what I read the small Wels catfish taste ok but I would not eat them. The big Wels catfish supposedly do not taste good. Most people that fish for Wels catfish release them just like most bass fishermen release bass.

That makes sense about the Wels. Flatheads and Blues are better when they are under about 10lbs. I'm so curious how fish like Zander and Greyling taste too. 

[J Francho]

I thought eels were a thing there?

[Tim Kelly]

42 minutes ago, J Francho said:

I thought eels were a thing there?

Jellied of course, or with pie and mash. 

[MN Fisher]

5 minutes ago, Tim Kelly said:

Jellied of course,

Looks a little more appetizing than Lutfisk....but not much....ya, I checked the recipe.

[soflabasser]

2 hours ago, Luke Barnes said:

That makes sense about the Wels. Flatheads and Blues are better when they are under about 10lbs. I'm so curious how fish like Zander and Greyling taste too. 

From what I read Zander is a good tasting fish which is no surprise since they are related to walleye. Greyling is another good tasting fish.

[ATA]

The are mastered the carp fishing out there, and next is catfish and next is perch.

[JohnFromLisbon]

4 hours ago, J Francho said:

I thought eels were a thing there?

 

 

Over here they're a delicacy. There's this Portuguese dish, ensopado de enguias or eel stew that's really popular. So are fried eels.

 

 

Served with toasted bread slices, all rustic like... My grandad loved it.

[casts_by_fly]

On 3/28/2022 at 11:31 AM, J Francho said:

I thought eels were a thing there?

In the UK not so much. There are tons of them around but no one wants to catch them. Eels are netted with dip nets in some places when they run to spawn but that’s also not common in the Uk anymore. And outside of a sushi restaurant I don’t think I’ve seen eel on a menu in the 12 years I was there. 

[cyclops2]

Saw a special about the massive reduction of eels at & below London. They traced it to all the DRUGS being flushed into the river. Deformed & senseless. Not able to complete their life cycle anymore.

[hunterPRO1]

saw a video on youtube of a guy catching wels catfish on a whopper plopper, i never knew they would take lures consistently, much less blow up on a topwater bait.

[Gabjob]

Carp are big in the Unitek kingdom mostly. It's decently big in the rest of Europe. But we also have a lot of trout, pike, perch, zander, and even mega siluris. and black bass are quite big in Spain, Portugal, France. There really is a fish for almost all techniques so just depends what you're into. 

[Drawdown]

In some parts of Central Europe, trout fishing with a fly rod was the ticket. Knew a guy from Montana who was very into fishing Czech streams in the north of the country and felt right at home.

 

Everywhere else in Europe I’ve been seems to be a carp show. But Europeans not only tend to know how to catch carp, they also know how to cook them. Believe it or not, carp is the Christmas menu item in lots of Central Europe. They literally have massive pools on the sidewalk full of live carp to pick out for home cooking that time of year.

 

Best way I tasted was either in spicy Hungarian-style soup (paprkikaš) or sliced into U-shaped steaks and then deep fried on the bone.

[Luke Barnes]

So if I really want to learn to catch carp, ask a European it sounds! 

 

I would love to travel the world and catch all species of fish. One day. 

[Dan N]

I’ve seen a shown on internet where they fish huge perch using the same methods we fish for bass. Same boats, equipment, even some kind of tournament series. 

[J Francho]

1 minute ago, Dan N said:

I’ve seen a shown on internet where they fish huge perch using the same methods we fish for bass. Same boats, equipment, even some kind of tournament series. 

@Tim Kelly should have a pic or ten of huge perch. 

[Dan N]

Like 5 pound perch!! 
Google search European perch, it’s unbelievable 

[J Francho]

Yep, they fight like smallmouth. 

[Luke Barnes]

I just looked up the European perch and they look very similar to the yellow perch.  I want to look up what lures and techniques are used for them now!

[Tim Kelly]

On 10/6/2022 at 12:52 AM, J Francho said:

@Tim Kelly should have a pic or ten of huge perch. 

Ha ha, Thanks John, great excuse to show off!

 

I've had one perch over 5lb at 5lb 4oz, that's a big perch for the UK, I guess like a 7lb smallmouth. They get caught, but are pretty rare. A 4 pounder is a much more common fish, like a 5lb smallmouth here. In Holland there are some proper beasts. I know people who've had big sixes and one 7lb perch, which is mind blowing. They're almost always caught in the spring when full of eggs to achieve the great weights. There's a place in Spain that does some huge ones too, google "perchzilla" I think it's been fished to death now, but for a few years it was producing some ridiculous perch. 

 

Because it's a great excuse I've attached a terrible picture of my biggun. Been a while since I looked at it and it's hard to tell just how huge it is from the pic! Funnily enough, my biggest smallmouth was the same weight, so I've got some work to do on both species! 

[casts_by_fly]

On 10/11/2022 at 6:32 AM, Tim Kelly said:

Ha ha, Thanks John, great excuse to show off!

 

I've had one perch over 5lb at 5lb 4oz, that's a big perch for the UK, I guess like a 7lb smallmouth. They get caught, but are pretty rare. A 4 pounder is a much more common fish, like a 5lb smallmouth here. In Holland there are some proper beasts. I know people who've had big sixes and one 7lb perch, which is mind blowing. They're almost always caught in the spring when full of eggs to achieve the great weights. There's a place in Spain that does some huge ones too, google "perchzilla" I think it's been fished to death now, but for a few years it was producing some ridiculous perch. 

 

Because it's a great excuse I've attached a terrible picture of my biggun. Been a while since I looked at it and it's hard to tell just how huge it is from the pic! Funnily enough, my biggest smallmouth was the same weight, so I've got some work to do on both species! 

 

 

 

Where abouts in London are you and which direction do you fish?  We lived in the UK for 12 years including Chiswick, East Yorkshire, and Surrey.  I didn't fish much down south, but got a bit in up north (we were there a lot longer).  Never caught a UK perch but managed some huge grayling.