Just wondering if.....

[john step]

After reading the latest post by PC in HDYGO where he thought the carp and tench might be spawning and the silvers were difficult, I wondered if all those chemical attractants being released by spawning carp inhibits other species.

I have noticed that when the carp are at it, other species seem quiet. Maybe just the commotion puts them off?
I have noticed it on lakes and also the Grand Union Canal. There are times where you would think the silvers have vanished.

Anyone else noticed this?

 

[wetthrough]

Yes, I was on my local dam and there's was nothing where I would normally guarantee to pick something up. Apparently the Bream had been spawning very recently and the bailiff suggested the Roach could be busy munching on Bream eggs.

 

[mikench]

See you Tuesday Gordon.

 

[peter crabtree]

I think you have a point JS. It's always an odd time of year in late spring. Perhaps your spawning idea is relevant but the weather is also erratic. Cold nights, warm spells followed by cold snaps, cold rain showers and an abundance of natural food. Mayfly larvae etc hatching must preoccupy many species for instance.
And of course many a match angler knows that if you put numerous anglers on a normally quiet water it doesn't take long for the fish to switch off .

 

[Weirdoh]

Someone needs to interview one of those Carp, perhaps one of the more famous house hold named celeb type ones that regularly get caught red handed and find out what this is all about.

Ecology suggests that smaller fish allowed to be sustained (even if seaonal like spawning) from the bigger fish, the likely hood of their own survival is maintained by effectively helping the fish that are more prone to predation. If I help you now you will help me later on type thing. I have noticed how wreckless some larger fish species become when in spawning season, not being as careful to be seen as othertimes gives clues to would be predators also. Tench while spawning in the margins of a still water can be scooped out of ponds by a hungry Heron and I have filmed Barbel in rivers showing their territories in clear water making observant eyes all the more aware of their presence, spawning fish and vulnerability seems a fair account for overall survival, no rain no rivers! No food for the silvers means the bigger fish are back on the menu.

 

[theartist]

After reading the latest post by PC in HDYGO where he thought the carp and tench might be spawning and the silvers were difficult, I wondered if all those chemical attractants being released by spawning carp inhibits other species.

I have noticed that when the carp are at it, other species seem quiet. Maybe just the commotion puts them off?
I have noticed it on lakes and also the Grand Union Canal. There are times where you would think the silvers have vanished.

Anyone else noticed this?

It's not so much the chemical attractants, it's far more simple in that it's just the eggs themselves. They are so tasty and nutritious (as all eggs in wildlife are) the fish gorge themselves on them.

My dad's pond is a sight when the fish are breeding, it's usually the rudd although the tench go for it too, when this happens every single fish is around the scene mopping up the eggs, the koi will go to great lengths to get the smallest eggs the other side of a pot plant or often IN a pot plant. Sometime fish will end up on the netting that aren't even breeding. I read an adult tench can knock out over 1 million eggs and they need to for some to survive, Imagine this times by 50 each time a species gets jiggy. Companies make egg like baits but the difference is you can't feed tens of millions of them into a swim.

On the canal last week I saw he same thing in the wild with the bream, my photos on the HYDGO thread didn't show the other species that were there, I saw shoals of roach - small ones getting right in on the action, couldn't see any perch but there was a jack pike of around 3lb amongst it all, It didn't look like it was after the roach and I would say it was after eggs too, the small roach weren't bothered by it. However they were bothered by me leaning over hence no photos of them but the breeding bream didn't care.

The second day there was even more roach visible and they will be picking at them eggs for days to come until all the ones within reach have gone, this no doubt is why breeding fish either lay them in gravel or in dense weed. This breeding spot was the only bit of foliage in the canal, plant roots coming out from the bank. It's another reason against the removal of weed from lakes and rivers

Having said all that I've found ponds and lakes, unlike rivers can just switch off at any time, but always put that down to being a river angler

 

[davebhoy]

On a small, clear, gravel pit I used to fish the carp were extremely wary except for tench spawning time when they would be almost as reckless as the tench. They would get into a frenzy feeding on the tench eggs and you could catch them easily on a floating bait in a couple of feet of clear water