Of course I love the Perch, but the Ruffe certainly wins on cool points from a light lure perspective. If I can offer any advice to targeting these stunning, little fish it would be to set-up for the Ruffe’s relatively small mouth. You need at least a size 10 and even smaller hooks will convert more bites. My own efforts seem to imply that straight lures are more successful than paddletails. I think the paddle can slow down the ingestion of the lure through their tiny mouths. Don’t worry about lure colour. Ruffe seem to have the best eyesight in the canal. They can pick out tiny lures even in the worst water clarity a canal in summer can offer.
10th July, 2021 @ 3:14 pm
I originally set out to target perch on micro soft plastics (1″ and less) however I started catching a fair few ruffe, so now I purposely target ruffe on soft plastics less than 1″ with hook sizes #12 and #14. There certainly seems to be a resurgence of the species in my local canal, with numbers growing based on the number of ruffe I catch at the moment compared to previous years. I love the way they go rigid and flare their gills out when you catch them. It certainly makes taking a photo of the fish on the palm of your hand much easier ?
14th July, 2021 @ 5:04 pm
I’d totally agree that they are a fantastic fish and also doing well on our local canal. Like you I caught them accidentally when targeting perch. They are definitely a fish with attitude and have willingly attacked 2 inch lures (although an inch of that is trailing “tentacles” – not unlike the HTO Knight worms). Good to see that they are doing well in other places too!
14th July, 2021 @ 5:10 pm
Cheers Peter. Cheers John. Nice to hear some love for the humble Ruffe. One of my faves. Reminds me of a small shoal bass when they do that rigid thing. I wouldn’t want to eat one whole!