Identifying British freshwater fish: mouth, eye, fins
Look at the mouth, then the eye, then the fins. Barbels at the mouth, a red eye or red fins settle most identifications before you need to count a single scale. Handle the fish as little as you can while you look, and put it back quickly.
Perch
Tiger stripes, a spiny dorsal fin and red fins. A perch reaches about 25 cm and 2.8 kg and can live 10 to 12 years, according to the species page. See the Old Stripey perch print.
Pike
Olive green with cream blotches and a long head. Pike run from 0.6 to 1.5 m and can reach 35 kg (source). Our pike prints keep those blotches.
Tench
Red eyes. A tench runs 40 to 70 cm and 3 to 6 kg (source). The old story that it heals other fish is a myth.
Barbel
Four barbels on the mouth and a taste for fast gravel rivers. A typical fish weighs 1 to 3 kg and can live past 20 years (source).
Chub, roach and rudd
Chub grow to 30 to 40 cm and up to 4 kg, with redder fins than a roach, and big ones hunt other fish (source). A roach has a red spot above the pupil. A rudd has yellow eyes and an upturned mouth. Roach and bream hybridise, which is why some fish look half and half (source).
Bream
Bronze flanks, 30 to 40 cm and up to 4.5 kg. See the coarse fish prints for the full run of species.
Carp
Common, mirror and leather carp are one species, told apart by their scales. The types of carp guide goes through each coat, and the biggest carp guide covers the record.
Brown trout and sea trout
Red spots with pale borders. A brown trout reaches 50 to 80 cm, and a sea trout is the same species (Wildlife Trusts).
Grayling and salmon
The grayling is called the lady of the stream and lives in cold, clean running water (source). A male Atlantic salmon grows a hooked jaw called a kype, and salmon return to rivers between November and February (source).
Put a name to your own catch
Once you know the fish, a print is easy to name. Print your catch photo as it is or see it in a house style first. Check the rules for the water before you go with our fishing licence guide.
Craig Fearn runs Scale & Fin, a UK studio that prints anglers' catch photos and fish art to order. He writes the guides here, and every fact in them links to the body that published it.