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Colossal ide banked from flooded river

by Aidan Bordiuk |

Published on17th February 2026 at 9.02am

Anglers who have fished commercial waters over the last decade or so have become increasingly familiar of a fish called ide. Due to the aggressive feeding nature and quick growth rates of this particular species, many fisheries, particularly match venues across the UK have stocked them. However, it isn't just lakes that have ide anymore, with a few rivers around the country now harbouring small populations of these unusual fish.

While the average ide in a commercial fishery ranges between 2–3lb, some of the inhabitants that reside in our rivers can dwarf their stillwater counterparts, reaching sizes more than double what you would expect to catch on a lake.

One angler who is very familiar with catching huge ide from rivers is Colin Hebb. Colin is actually the current British record holder for the species, with a colossal 8lb 5oz ide that he banked from the River Hull. Occasionally, he returns to target the few big ide he knows frequent the river, and on his most recent trip, he banked this perfect-conditioned fish weighing exactly 7lb.

"With the amount of rain we've had, it was no surprise to find the river a lot higher than normal, so I looked for some calmer water in the hope of finding a few ide holding out of the main flow," Colin explained.

"I noticed a few ide had taken up residence in a small gap between some boats, and they were rising up, trying to take something off the surface."

"I wasted no time and presented a piece of floating crust to them, and within seconds, the bigger one in the shoal took it without hesitation."

"The fish was a beautiful example, weighing exactly 7lb. I only took one photo of the fish on the mat because the river was very fast and it had taken a lot of energy out of the fish, so I wanted to get it returned quickly," he said.

The huge ide, just look at the size of it!

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