THE Angling Trust is running a survey to find out which fish is the most popular and the winner will be declared the national fish.

The vote is open not only to anglers but various groups of people such as conservationists, wildlife enthusiasts and the general public.

In total there are over 400 species of fish in our lakes, rivers and the seas around the coast of the British Isles but currently no national fish.

Now to list all the 400 plus fish would be rather impractical so the list has been whittled down to just 40 of the most popular fish; 20 from freshwater and 20 from saltwater.

To qualify the species had to be native or naturalised to the UK or in the case of some migratory species, spend some time in our waters.

A few non-natives and recent arrivals have also been included. Carp could have been excluded but since they have been here for about 600 years they are in. Most coarse fish have been introduced since the last Ice Age so to be strictly technical the only truly native fish would have been the sea species and migratory species such as trout and salmon.

To vote, enter UK National Fish Survey on your search engine and click on the same title again when it comes up. This will produce the list of 40 fish in the survey.

You now have one vote for the freshwater fish and one for the sea fish. After March 26 the list will be reduced to the top ten and voting will continue until May (exact date TBC) after which the national fish will be announced. All the local species are listed including a splendid three-spined stickleback and the River Aire’s most numerous fish, the minnow.

Once again the weather ruined any chance of angling last weekend and a survey of the various waters between Keighley and Gargrave and the River Ribble at Long Preston did not produce a single angler. Prospects for this weekend do not look any better as more heavy rain on Monday produced yet another bank topper on the River Aire and the forecast is for more of the same with lower temperatures for good measure.