A MYSTERY freshwater fish not much bigger than a minnow has been causing a few ripples across Worcester.

A throwaway remark by Worcester News writer John Phillpott in his Seven Days column triggered a debate about a species known as a bullhead, a large-headed fish that can be found under stones and in crevices on riverbeds.

Mr Phillpott said: "When I was a boy in Warwickshire, I used to catch them with a worm or would find them lurking under stones with loaches. They're not the best-looking of fellows, but I have happy memories of fishing for them.

"They are also called miller's thumbs in some parts of the country. The biggest I caught was about six inches long."

One writer to the Worcester News Letters Page said he had never heard of the fish, while another claimed there was a saltwater relative that could grow to six feet in length.

Alf Hand, of Kempsey, the newspaper's angling correspondent, said: " I remember as a boy catching minnows and stone loaches, but cannot recall ever landing a bullhead. I am aware of them from angling books, but not that familiar with what they look like. No one seems to mention them these days.

"I would imagine that they are still around, though. If anything, streams and rivers are much cleaner now, so I doubt if pollution has killed them off."

Mr Hands said he had found several references to the fish in his collection of angling books.

"The first is in Wilfred Gavin Brown's Successful Coarse Fishing (1964) in which he says 'the miller's thumb or bullhead is such a hideously ugly little fish with a flat head, that it is unmistakable. It will eat almost anything it can swallow.'

"J C Mottram (a trout angler) wrote in the 1950s that in order to breed bullheads, one can collect the eggs by placing pieces of broken tiles or flat stones on the bed of a stream, raised at one edge, and in March and April the bullhead will stick their eggs on to the underside of the tile.

"But the one I like best is by the famous angling writer H T Sheringham, who in his 1912 book Coarse Fishing says: "A few months ago I might have been seen endeavouring to capture a stout bullhead among his native stones. I did not catch him. In truth, Master Bullhead has comparative immunity against the wiles of middle age. There is an aching of the back and a stiffness at the knees."

lHave you ever caught a bullhead? Tell us about it. Write to John Phillpott, Worcester News, Hylton Road, Worcester WR2 5JX or e-mail letters@thisisworcester.co.uk.