I don't believe I've ever fished a venue with any form for big rudd. I don't recall ever catching one much beyond a pound. The closest I've ever been to a decent rudd was watching a shoal of them on Horseshoe Lake over twenty years back. Sadly, circumstances meant that I never got to actually fish the venue.
I'd love it if I knew of a venue local to me that held rudd much over a pound. One fine day, perhaps, if I'm patient and manage to stay alive long enough!
Horseshoe did hold some big rudd, but also loads of hybrids. The infamous David Mannell had rudd to over 4 from there.
Mates and I fished it quite a bit (as it is local) and had great fun float fishing on dawn early morning sessions in autumn. If you found the fish rolling you could have fantastic fishing. We had lots of 2+ roach, a few similar sized rudd and hybrids to 2.15. We tried winter feeder fishing but couldn't locate the fish.
These days the big roach and rudd seem to have gone, but its still a good tench fishery.
Many years ago I was fishing a big natural lake for pike and was told that it held big rudd. I fished it the folliwing summer and caught loads between 12oz and 1.08, with no sign of any big ones. A few decent tench to nearly 7lb kept me interested. One evening after work I had a bite just like all the others and was pleasantly surprised to see a huge rudd roll into the landing net....
On the scales it went 3lb exactly. So they did exist !
Over the next couple of years my pal and I caught hundreds more of the smaller ones and 7 more of the giants. He had a brace of 3's on opening morning one year and I bagged the biggest at 3.08. Amazing fish.
That was 40 years ago - so I doubt those fish still exist. I do know that most of the big rudd in my local Cotswold Water Park are gone. I could name a handful of local waters that have produced 3+ rudd in the past, but maybe only one today....At least there are still a few big roach to go at
