Hybrideyes

The Essex Loafer has been travelling in his camper looking to up his species count tally and has been searching canal systems and in his searching has has caught some cracking silver bream and some slightly wrong un's which had us thinking about hybrids. Here's one of his captures. Silver bream eyes all day long. I don't know  how many rays they need on their fins.

Now I have till recently referred to the Very Local for the purposes of this blog as Golden Pond and in part this one reason. The lake holds some absolutely stunning hybrids which I believe to be rudd x bream. Just look at this beauty.  Never seen anything like them anywhere else.

If I hadn't clocked the eyes on this one I'd have said this was one too but look closely and you'll see a lovely roachy red eye and not the red or maroon fins  of the "brudd" so I'd be confident it was roach x bream ( "broach"?) in what ever order even with the golder colouration. .

I've got loads more variations to plough through and here's a couple more with the give away red  eye from Golden Pond.

Some have spawning tubercles and it would be really interesting to know if hybrids can reproduce, changing the mix even more. Most sources say no but not some Irish sites. Are some cyprinids close enough to be able to continue to cross breed like say dogs? Not furry with four legs  though..

And as fate would have it Friday saw me make a late visit to Golden Pond, fishing from about 8.10 till just after 9 and raising the wrath of the Commander in Chief. Two rods  with 3.5 gramme Puddle Chuckers, a Source mini on one, flouro pineapple wafter on the other. A lost fish, then a foul hooked (in the  dorsal)  bream, none really get to barry status on here but which was like grabbing a tiger by the tail. You can see the flouro wafter despite the gloom

Last chance saloon and I could tell it wasn't a bream, foul hooked or not, these hybrids really do pull back and they are often solid too. This one went 3.12 which is not an uncommon weight. With that red eye....