There has been many posts mentioning specimen fish,but Im sure from reading these posts we have many different ideas of what a specimen fish is.

So what is your idea of a specimen fish?

I would say it is a fish which you dont get every day,something unusual and not just run of the mill and in pristene condition. Or a fish of a lifetime for you as an individual of any species .

These days a nice brownie of over a 1lb could be one which is a good fish and depending where you live and fish could be classed as a specimen.A rainbow trout of 4 or 5lbs is a good fish but I wouldnt class as a specimen but one of say 10lbs and full finned, grown on and shaped well I would.

It was only prompted by a post on specimen trout fisheries and when the sizes were mentioned they are just your normal run of fish that nearly all fisheries have and made me curious to what others think.

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Kevin

A "specimen" for me is a wild trout that gives me a real surprise and complete enjoyment in its capture. It might be a perfect 1 1/2lb from a loch, it could be a 1lb lunker in a loch stuffed full of small fish. Maybe it would be a 4lber from a river. Who knows, i have no criteria!

In my opinion, a 'specimen' fish is one that's unusual for the particular fishery you're fishing, whether in terms of size or condition on 'my' chalkstream a 3 pounder would be a specimen, but it would take a 15lb brown at chalkies to count (and i know a lot of you wouldnt count that!) A 20lb Dever rainbow is a specimen, but a stockie from a specimen pool is not. Oddly i wouldnt classify a salmon or sea trout as a 'specimen' but a 40 pound salmon is certainly a 'fish of a lifetime' - but that's another thread!

'Specimen' to me has nothing to do with weight.I'd define it as a truely wild,perfectly finned and spectacularly marked fish from an equally wild water in superb scenery and solitude.

I know what you mean .There is a wild brown loch I know and fish which has many small browns in it and if you get a fish of 1lbs it is a specimen fish for that water.its good fun and peacefull.The one thing there which i disagree with and wont do myself is that they ask that all fish under 10in are killed so the bigger ones get to grow more due to lack of feeding.Cant get my head round that one.Why not put them elsewhere rather than kill a healthy fish.

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Kevin

I guess its all relative to the average weight of fish for any particular water you are fishing.

The term specimen water is perhaps not correct, big fish water yes but specimen, I think is incorrect. If all fish stocked are in double figures how can a double figure fish thats been caught be given the title of "specimen".


Plumpy.

Deleted - sorry

It depends entirely on the context.

A "specimen" is a fish significantly above the average and could range from a 1lb brown from a hill burn or moorland stream to perhaps a 7lb brown from Rutland or Chew. For me it implies a grown on fish so no rainbow from a small stillwater would be a true specimen for me no matter how large it is as they are usually caught within a few days at the weight they were stocked at (or even a little less). Conversely in Rutland or Chew where no big fish are stocked and some fish overwinter a rainbow of perhaps 8lbs would be a true specimen.

The Irish have a specimen weight for every species, sometimes differentiating between river and lake and they are the same no matter where you are fishing. For example the "specimen" weight for a sea trout is 6lb and over 90% of specimen sea trout come from Lough Currane which seems to be the only Irish location with a fast growing strain of sea trout. Of course on rivers like the Tywi a 6lb trout is unexceptional and a true specimen would be more like 12lbs.

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“There is no more lovely country than Monmouthshire in early spring. Nowhere do the larks sing quite so passionately, as if somehow inspired by the Welsh themselves. There is a blackbird on every thorn and a cock chaffinch, a twink as they call him there, on every bush...... It moved me profoundly. I had been spared to see another spring, and I thank God for it.”

Oliver Kite
“A Spring Day on the Usk”
A Fisherman’s Diary

Im the same as you all on this i would say it has to be wild ie browns, or at least grown on ie loch leven rainbows when they were stocked at 3/4 of a pound then caught at six or seven,now they were fish,you needed backing and a lot of it

Hi', All. I'm sure I have seen a list of weights for specimen coarse fish somewhere, probably in Angling Times, and probably forty or more years ago. TC.