Are fish territorial

Lord Paul of Sheffield · Dec 19, 2016

All fish?
Or maybe pike and perch

So if you catch of see a good sized fish in a swim is it likely they will be there in the future

binka · Dec 19, 2016

Going on repeat captures I would say that perch can be territorial, whereas pike are more inclined to follow their prey.

Overall I'm not sure though, certainly on rivers there are additional factors which will dictate where the fish go such as high and low water, I think that fish who travel around do revisit the same parts of a river depending on its state but not out of a sense that it's their territory.

Too many factors on stillwaters too when you think about it, such as following the wind.

If I had to guess as an overall thought I would probably say no, with a few exceptions they're not generally territorial.

iain t · Dec 19, 2016

In rivers Barbel and Chub seem to stick to the same stretches of water. But being territorial i couldn't say

lutra · Dec 20, 2016

Many fish are shoal fish, some hunt in packs, so no not all fish are territorial, but some show signs of it at least at times.

I've always thought brown trout show signs of it in streams and small rivers by the biggest and strongest taking up the best position The head of a pool, a deep hole,.........

Alan Tyler · Dec 20, 2016

Sticklebacks are famously territorial, but only the males, and while nesting.

There's been a bit of a chublet boom on the upper Lea, it'll be interesting to see whether they spread out downstream or stack up like bricks in their native stretches and starve out the competition - including the next few years' young chub.

greenie62 · Dec 20, 2016

Alan Tyler said:
Sticklebacks are famously territorial,....

A local small river has a swim where you can always catch sticklebacks - but they don't appear anywhere else on the river!

- the only key factor seems to be the CSO discharging into that swim! - The only other fish you seem to get in that swim are brownies - they seem to know where the bait-fish are!

Keith M · Dec 20, 2016

I've noticed that some barbel seem to follow the same feeding routes up and down a short stretch of river and do it over and over again.

One barbel that stands out in this respect is a barbel of around 11lb that moves up and down a short section of my local small river in alliance with a similar sized common Carp, and every 20 minutes or so these two fish will turn up in the same swims and then move off in the same direction again and again throughout the day and continue to do the same thing for several weeks.

That's not to say that they will still be there later on in the year, but they do tend to show up and do this fairly regularly.

Keith

103841 · Dec 20, 2016

In the past week I'm convinced I've had the same chub out of a spot on the Canterbury Stour on four separate occasions. Bait (cheese) is taken within seconds of casting in, then the swim goes dead for........well longer than I'm prepared to stay for another.

Philip · Dec 21, 2016

I think most fish can be territorial to some degree and also depening on the time of year (breeding season for example) Two I associate with it espeically are Perch and Wels catfish.

I cant remeber all the details but I seem to recall reading something about studies on Perch in Nordic lakes were they tagged them and found that to be the case.

I get the feeling Eels can be quite territorial as well but I may be talking out of my hat on that one.

Like a few others I can also think of examples of a swim I can go to and have a good cance of catching the same fish.

Are fish territorial

Lord Paul of Sheffield

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binka

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iain t

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lutra

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Alan Tyler

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greenie62

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Keith M

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103841

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Philip

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