Rudd

Quick facts

How to identify it

Deep-bodied and slightly flattened, with brassy-gold flanks, an olive-bronze back and strikingly blood-red pelvic, anal and tail fins; the eye is yellow-orange rather than red. The mouth is clearly upturned — a surface feeder's mouth — and the dorsal fin starts well behind the pelvic fins, both of which separate it from the roach. There is also a sharp keel between the pelvic and anal fins. Roach are silver with a red eye, a forward mouth and a dorsal fin above the pelvics; ide are larger and greyer with a smaller mouth. Roach × rudd and bream × rudd hybrids are common and confusing.

Where it lives

Rudd prefer still or very slow water with plenty of weed: shallow lakes, ponds, gravel pits, oxbows, drains, canals, fen dykes and the quiet backwaters, marinas and side-arms of lowland rivers, as well as brackish lagoons. They live higher in the water column than roach, holding among lily pads, reed beds and submerged weed in 0.5–3 m of water, and they are strongly tied to the surface layer in warm weather. Unlike roach they dislike strong current and turbid water, and they often thrive in weedy, low-oxygen ponds where few other species do well. In winter they retreat into deeper holes and the densest dead weed, becoming hard to find.

Season and behaviour

Rudd spawn from April to June at 15–20 °C among weed and reed roots, later than roach, and the adults recover quickly. They are a warm-water fish: the season starts properly in May and peaks from June to September, when shoals cruise just under the surface and take insects, seeds and floating baits on warm, still evenings. Dawn and dusk are prime, and a flat calm with a hatch of midges or flying ants produces feeding frenzies. In autumn they feed deeper and take groundbait like roach, and in winter they largely switch off, though mild spells still produce a few from deep, sheltered water. Bright sunny afternoons are far better for rudd than for most other coarse fish.

Fishing methods

Surface and shallow-water float fishing is the rudd's game. On still waters fish a loaded waggler set shallow — 30–60 cm — with a slow-sinking bait, or a controller float with a floating crust or dry fly for fish cruising on top; cast beyond the shoal and draw the bait to them so the splash does not spook them. Catapulting a pinch of floating casters or maggots every cast keeps the shoal up in the water. A light pole with a fine rig is deadly along weed edges and lily pads. Fly anglers use small dry flies, emergers and tiny nymphs on light trout gear and find rudd a willing, free-rising target. In autumn and on deeper waters, a small feeder or a bait fished a few centimetres off bottom picks up the bigger fish.

Baits and lures

Maggots and casters — especially floating casters — are the day-to-day rudd baits, and a piece of bread flake or floating crust is the classic surface bait for the biggest fish. Sweetcorn, small worms and slow-sinking pellets work along weed edges, and a single artificial maggot or a dry fly takes rudd when they are rising. Keep feed light and buoyant: floating groundbait, crumbled crust and a trickle of casters draw the shoal up rather than down.

Tips from the bank

1. 01Fish the top 60 cm of water on warm, calm evenings — rudd feed upward, and a bait on the bottom is often ignored.
2. 02Cast beyond the shoal and work the bait back to it; rudd spook easily from a float landing on their heads.
3. 03Feed floating casters or crumbled crust to hold the shoal on the surface.
4. 04Wear polarised glasses and watch for golden flashes and dimpling rises along lily pads and reed edges.
5. 05Big rudd hang at the fringe of the shoal, so a bait slightly away from the main activity selects them.
6. 06Use a slow-sinking bait such as a caster or a lightly hooked maggot and expect the take on the drop.
7. 07In bright sunshine fish the shaded side of weed beds and overhanging trees, where rudd stay close to the surface.

Where to catch Rudd

Waters where Shoalmap's fishing reports list Rudd.

• Veliki bački kanal
• Ugrinovački kanal
• Čik
• Čonopljansko jezero
• Csertői halastó
• Palićko jezero
• Majdan
• Veliki bački kanal
• Šodroš
• Kırkat Göleti
• Šumensko ezero
• Čik
• Mali Begej
• Glibovac
• Λίμνη Μεγαλόπολης-Λίμνη Τραπεζούντας
• Μονοδένδρι
• Šidina
• Tisa
• Mika jezero
• Peskara
• Kanal DTD
• Garajevac
• Bezыmяnnый
• Čanalaš
• Vágói-csatorna
• Čik
• Kanal Karavukovo–Bački Petrovac
• Kaspiй teңіzі - Hazar deňzi - دریای خزر - Xəzər dənizi - Kaspiйskoe more - دریای مازندران
• Kígyós-főcsatorna
• Körös-éri-főcsatorna

Related species

• Roach
  Rutilus rutilus

  The silver shoal fish that keeps float anglers busy all year round.

• Ide
  Leuciscus idus

  The silvery all-rounder of big lowland rivers — grazer, riser and hunter in one.

• White bream
  Blicca bjoerkna

  The small, silver cousin of the bream that fills keepnets on slow rivers and canals.

• Common bream
  Abramis brama

  The bronze shoal fish of big rivers and lakes — the feeder angler's bread and butter.

Frequently asked questions