20 years on: still-water chub and barbel are thriving!
Ethical Debate
There were obvious ethical concerns about stocking these beautiful fish into our still waters. 20 years on the debate continues. Just go to the barbel forum on the internet to see it firing. At Sparsholt College our students are taught that the fish’s welfare is their number one priority. Anyone who manages stock has a duty of care and so we must create an environment that fish thrive in. How is this demonstrated in practise? Generally good growth rates and healthy looking stock are symptoms of good welfare. The prime environmental needs are to maintain good water quality parameters and a nutritiously complete diet. Now, many detractors will look at heavily stocked fisheries and question these conditions. Maybe in some cases they are right to do so. However, in the vast majority of cases these fisheries are superbly managed and the fishery’s stocks grow. They would not do this if the environment wasn’t right. I sent out a questionnaire to get the facts on how the fish were growing.
All of the fisheries questioned for this article have stocked stillwater reared fingerling chub and barbel. On average the barbel grew by a pound a year and the chub by ½ a pound. There are several fisheries that have catch records of barbel over 12lbs and chub over 6lbs. These healthy fish are providing great sport. So let’s look at the Issues:
1 - Should river fish be put into stillwaters?
The answer to this is debatable! But the issue itself is not really relevant as it is not happening. Fish that have been reared in ponds are being stocked into stillwaters so that they are already conditioned to the stillwater environment. There are loads of examples of fish thriving in a range of environments. Trout love it in lakes, reservoirs and rivers. It is not a question of the flow; it is a question of the water quality and the feed. At every fishery I contacted the managers protected their valuable stock by installing aerators. These cut in at night and maintained the high oxygen levels needed for their fish’s welfare.
2 - Can chub and barbel successfully compete for food against traditional stillwater fish?
Impartial research at Sparsholt College’s National Aquatics Training centre was carried out to look into their ability to compete with other species of fish like carp and tench. In controlled conditions where food was limited we were somewhat surprised by the results. We found the barbel mixed with the tench or carp performed better than the barbel on their own. The fish cohabited well and after a settling in period the barbel would be the first to the food! However, their appetite was significantly less than the carp or tench. The barbel’s maximum ration a day was 2% of its body weight whilst the carp was 5%. No wonder carp grow into such monsters! The chub were not as competitive as the barbel but they were able to feed on the surface more successfully than the tench and carp. Provided food is available to them in the water column rather than just on the bottom they flourished. Based on this research we stocked a small number of fingerling chub and barbel into our own mixed coarse fishery at Sparsholt in 2003. They thrived and are regularly caught. The biggest barbel is over 8lbs and the biggest chub is over 4lbs. Our students love catching them.
3 - Would the chub and barbel be prone to parasite infestations?
This was not something that we could test in laboratory conditions at Sparsholt as we did not have a Home Office licence to carry out this type of research. So the evidence is based on feedback from fishery managers. They have reported that the fish seldom show any lesions or parasites. Interestingly at Whitmore fisheries as the fish got bigger, they started to have problems with braid line. Barbel are powerful fighters and the thin line was cutting into their mouths and even the flanks of the fish and causing some secondary infections. What was the solution? They banned all braid on their fishery. End of problem. What a good example of professional Fishery managers having rules to protect the welfare of their stock.
4 - Is it right to put a fish in a water were they can’t spawn naturally?
In reality having fish spawning is not necessarily what the angler wants. It means that the water’s limited food resources are been used up by little juvenile fish rather than growing the bigger ones that we want to catch. In the Spring, most mature coarse fish loose condition as the males jockey with one another and the females spend themselves in the frenzied act of egg laying and fertilisation. The chub and barbel will not naturally breed in a stillwater. So in contrast to other species, they maintain their vigour and health and are less prone to secondary infections caused by spawning damage. In fact not only do chub and barbel refuse to spawn, but the chub are well known for feeding on young fry. Many fishery managers questioned reported seeing fry scattering across the surface in the early morning or late evening as the silver flank of a chub cut through them. In fact anglers can catch the chub on a spinner!
5 - They will be too difficult to catch.
The vast majority of anglers above all else want to catch fish and enjoy lots of action. Nothing makes a fishery manager happier than to look across his or her lake and to see rods bending into fish after fish. Now you need stealth and quiet to catch a wild fish and often the angler on a river peg will have driven his quarry away just by his noisy approach. In contrast a farmed fish that has been reared for sport and has been conditioned from its very first feed to associate vibration with feeding. The fish are actually attracted to the splash as the bait hits the water. The barbel’s behaviour is to seek out cover and they will hug the margins of the lake bringing them into the fishing zone rather than out into the middle of the water. Chub in contrast are more opportunistic feeders and will often take bait as it travels through the water column. These characteristics of both chub and barbel make them hugely popular with the angler.
6 - Should they be held in keepnets?
Crowding fish in a keepnet is not a welfare problem so long as there is sufficient oxygen. Fish naturally gather in tight shoals to protect themselves. They then enjoy the combined senses of the whole shoal to forage and avoid predation. In the wild the barbel ‘hole up’ during the day out of the flow at incredible stocking densities where they lay up resting and safe. So it is in fact very natural for a barbel to be in close proximity to one another. The key welfare issue is oxygen and this means that the fishery manager has to ensure well aerated waters.
Conclusion
Heavily stocked coarse fisheries that stock multispecies including river species like chub and barbel will never appeal to the purist specimen hunters amongst us. But many of us, for a few precious hours, just want to relax and catch. Thanks to the energy and hard work of the professional fishery managers we have these fantastic and hugely popular fishing venues. The vast majority of us just love them.
I would like to thank the following fisheries for their feedback: Avalon Fishery, Bishops Bowl Fishery, Cudmore Fishery , Keynsham Angling association, Mildmead Fishery, Sparsholt College Fishery, Whinwhistle Fishery, Whitmore Fishery and Wold Farm Fishery. Should you wish for further information and availability of chub and barbel then you can contact Hampshire Carp Hatcheries or Mainstream Fisheries Ltd.
Words by Patrick Haughton. Originally published in The Angling Times.