Barbel and Chub

[mikench]

I haven't seen or caught a Chub ( until yesterday I could say the same about barbel)on a still water but know these freshwater fish can be found in still waters and Chub can attain a respectable size!

The barbel of yesterday was 3lb at most and had none of colour of a river caught fish and it's struggle was less dramatic! I believe they can only really thrive in a river but what do others think?

 

[sam vimes]

Depends on how you define "thrive" and the stillwater in question.

 

[mikench]

Grow to their full potential, develop the strong torpedo shape and exhibit the vivid bronze coluration of a healthy fish! I'd call that thriving!

As an aside I understand DofE approval is needed to stock a still water with barbel!

 

[seth49]

This is one of the barbel stocked at four to six ounces, in the acre and a half spring fed lake were I fish, they have been caught up to twelve pounds in weight.View attachment 6400

They certainly seem to be thriving in here, they give a good scrap too, perhaps not as muscular as river fish, but then there not swimming against a current like river fish.

Must admit I was dubious about stillwater barbel, but these seem to be thriving here.

 

[nottskev]

Does "thriving" include breeding? I've caught occasional barbel from stillwaters; they've always looked pallid and "lost", at least to me, in the context of featureless and heavily coloured commies.

I tend to think they shouldn't be stocked in stillwaters - adding them to the menu available to the consumer who doesn't want to look for them in their natural place seems a bit wrong - but that's just my take on it. If you want to see why some are more strongly opposed, here's a list of points that are typically put forward.

Stillwater Barbel - The Facts | Barbel Fishing World Forums

 

[sam vimes]

Grow to their full potential, develop the strong torpedo shape and exhibit the vivid bronze coluration of a healthy fish! I'd call that thriving!

Depending on the water in question, yes. There's a big gravel pit in the Swale valley (quite close to the river) where a handful of barbel were magnificently coloured. The very best of them grew to a size that eclipsed the (then) published Swale record.

I'm less convinced that they do particularly well in the typical heavily stocked commie. Some folks will also argue that unless they breed, they can't possibly be deemed to be thriving. It's not unheard of, but the number of stillwaters that barbel successfully breed is likely to be rather small.

 

[Keith M]

I’ve got nothing against stocking Barbel in a still water as long as it does not have thick mud and soft silt on the bottom, it is fed by either a stream and/or by springs and is well oxygenated and the Barbel have access clean gravel so that they can spawn and rest on a clean bottom whenever they need to.

I fish a stream full of healthy Barbel which can swim in and out of a backwater pond which is fairly silty but they can swim back out to the gravel bottomed stream whenever they need to, and some of the larger Barbel are often found in this silty backwater, however they can easily move out into the gravelly bottomed stream whenever they need to spawn.

When you put Barbel into a muddy and silted up carp pond that is not stream fed they may survive but when they are sitting and resting on the bottom with their downward facing mouths completely submerged in thick black silt it is hardly an ideal situation for them is it? Plus if they eventually die off because of their eggs not being able to survive in the thick black de-oxegenated silt then that’s hardly a ‘Thriving’ species is it???

That’s my look on it anyway.

Keith

 

[tigger]

I've never fished a still water with barbel present but I have had lots of chub in still waters. I used to fish an old stone quarry when I was a kid and it held some very nice ones. The quarry was spring fed and also had a small inlet, sort of a decent flowing field ditch and the outlet was a lovely pristeine stream! Maybe it was because of the stream inlet and outlet that the chub bred as they did because they were present at all stages of growth. Even though this was when I was a youth I still remember it all clearly and the chub did put up a decent scrap, but not so good as when I caught chub in the river. I remember as soon as I hooked the larger ones which was always way out in the middle of the place ( and only in the heat of summer on the drawn out evenings) they would instantly dive for the cover of sunken cars about 40 or more foot down! The only way I could catch those larger fish was with floating caster or wasp grub and even though they were rarely fished for they were very hook shy. I remember meticulously hiding my 20's hook in casters and then squeezing the caster just enough to make it's insides come out, allow it to fill with air and then the white insides would seal the hole made by the hook and it floated perfectly. I had to use as light a hooklength as possible also so as to fool the chub into sucking it in. They where so shy I would have to catty out a handful of casters, then quickly cast my set up out as close to the centre of the freebies and lie down like a commando so the fish wouldn't see me!

I'd rather see barbel in still waters than wels catfish!

 

[mikench]

I thought the one in my pic was pallid and rather thin! I doubt the water has a gravel bed! I have no idea if they breed but readily accept that to breed is to thrive! That was the first I had seen in loads of visits and the other anglers were keen to see it as they had never seen one!

They are a magnificent fish and that in your pic Keith looked to be thriving!!!

 

[john step]

I’ve got nothing against stocking Barbel in a still water as long as it does not have thick mud and soft silt on the bottom, it is fed buy either a stream and/or by springs and is well oxygenated and the Barbel have access clean gravel so that they can spawn and rest on a clean bottom whenever they need to.

I fish a stream full of healthy Barbel which can swim in and out of a backwater pond which is fairly silty but they can swim back out to the gravel bottomed stream whenever they need to, and some of the larger Barbel are often found in this silty backwater, however they can easily move out into the gravelly bottomed stream whenever

Keith

I reckon I know that place. I was a member there when it was dug out. The barbel were put in the river about 6 to 8 ounces by that forward thinking club. Wont mention the name.

 

[steve2]

As an aside I understand DofE approval is needed to stock a still water with barbel!

We are not allowed to stock barbel into our sections on Essex rivers but we can stock barbel into our lakes if we want to. No history of barbel in this river but than neither did the Avon,Stour, Severn and many other rivers till they were stocked legally or illegally.

 

[108831]

The colouration of barbel and all fish come to that is down to clarity of water,ie the clearer the more vivid the colour,therefore many barbel caught in coloured rivers tend to be very pale,as they don't need the camouflage.

 

[Keith M]

The colouration of barbel and all fish come to that is down to clarity of water,ie the clearer the more vivid the colour,therefore many barbel caught in coloured rivers tend to be very pale,as they don't need the camouflage.

Whilst I agree to a certain degree with Whitty; I once had a goldfish that had been living for three years in a large water butt full of thick green algae and it’s colouring was a really vivid and rich orange, much more vivid than its brothers who were living in our clear pond.
So it’s not always true.

Also, many of you may know of the fishery in or near Potters Bar called the Sheperds Way fishery which as well as holding some small Carp used to (and might still) hold large numbers of small perch that were so pale in colour that the stripes were barely visible on them, and if my memory serves me right that water was no more coloured than any of the other waters in and around the area.

Keith