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Barbel Diet Analysis

Tim.
I have mentioned many times that IMO the Wye contains Calveton fish from Ladysmiths (Trent) and also fish from the Severn (Kennet)

For example . You will rarely find on Kennet fish anything like the Dorsal fins that Trent fish show.
 
Yes Graham, I reckon that we have the Heinz 57 varieties of barbel in many of our river catchments and it would now be difficult to prove their origins even with DNA tests given the amount of time they've had to get to 'know one another '.
The Wey for instance, obviously has indigenous Thames fish along with Calverton immigrants and even had a few long gone Dorset Stour fish to add to the mix.
I've often remarked on the physical differences in appearance between some of the Wey barbel, leading me to ponder about their gene pool.
Hypothesis and best guesses are all we really have right now but given the total of fishing years experience of the contributors to this thread I'm sure, given another twelve pages we will have cracked it !!!
 
Graham,
The natural diet of barbel and carp is high in protein as the bulk of it is live insects etc and all living cells with the exception of fat are protein based,as far as I am aware with my admittedly limited knowledge live food does not contain a large percentage of carbohydrate and the bulk of the carbohydrate eaten by fish is introduced by humans.Fat is also the result of anglers using baits containing high levels of oil, and unfortunately many anglers buy pellets in bulk for economical reasons using them for several seasons and if the oil becomes stale and rancid this can be harmful to fish.
 
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