The Barbel - Barbus barbus
The barbel is slim and streamlined and mainly found in moderate to fast flowing rivers making this Britain's best fighting coarse fish and a challenge for most anglers. The barbel has similar colours to the carp, a green or brown back with beautiful golden-bronze sides and a pale belly, which is not surprising as they belong to the same family.
They live meandering in and out of the long streamer weed using their streamlined bodies, pointed heads and under slung mouths for feeding over the gravel beds. The fish uses the barbels on the side of it's mouth, after which it is named, to search for food as these are highly sensitive to touch and taste.
The barbel's diet consists of worms, water insects, larvae, crayfish, shrimps, freshwater mussels and snails but it will also eat small fish living on the bottom such as loach and bullheads. Hard foods are no problem because, like the carp, they have large flangeal teeth in their throats. These are like crushing pads used for grinding up there food.
The barbel spawn between May and July when they make their way upstream to shallow gravel beds. Once there the female makes a depression in the river bed were she then lays her eggs ready for fertilisation by the male.
After spawning the barbel rest up under cover in slower moving water to regain their strength. A few days later the young hatch to start their life. Young barbel are dappled in colour with dark spots and can easily be mistaken for gudgeon although gudgeon only have two barbs. The barbel reaches maturity at four to five years of age. A specimen barbel weighs seven pounds (3.2kg) and a double figured fish is every barbel hunter's dream.
