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Kennet Chub Weight 'Progression' since 1982


Chris Plumb

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I have only fished the Kennet a few times, but the Chub weights in the Lea have certainly been influenced by Crayfish, in fact the 3 Big Chub caught by Simon King and Myself all had coughed up bits of Crayfish at the bottom of the Landing/keepnets.

 

I was told by someone who has a Fishery Science degree, that the large Chub we were catching, were from the 1976 spawning, the two huge Chub known as the Police Pit chub and Neill Stevens chub were not caught last season, it does not mean they are dead as there is a lot of water where they could be, that is out of bounds to anglers.

 

But at near 40 years old, they have to be nearing the end of their lives.

 

Incidentally, it is believed that there were 4 different 8lb chub from the Old Lea (Kings Weir/FGC) Relief Channel section last year, plus some very big 7s.

 

Bob

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One thing I have noticed about the larger chub from Southern waters is how short, fat, unfit and unhealthy they appear compared to the ones from more northern regions. They appear to have bloted guts like the carp we often see. It make you wonder if the fish that get so fat have some kind of genetic disorder.

By the way i'm not trying to put these fish down, i'm just pointing out the obvious.

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Tigger

One thing I have noticed about the larger chub from Southern waters is how short, fat, unfit and unhealthy they appear compared to the ones from more northern regions. They appear to have bloted guts like the carp we often see. It make you wonder if the fish that get so fat have some kind of genetic disorder.

By the way i'm not trying to put these fish down, i'm just pointing out the obvious.

 

That does appear to be true, but I honestly believe it's down to a diet mainly of Crayfish, you see the same in Carp which have feasted on Crayfish, having said that, the Big Chub I have caught fought very well and were certainly fighting fit.

 

My biggest Chub was 251/2 inches long to the V of the tail with a girth of 181/2 inches, a truly massive fish, Simon Chub of 8lbs14ozs was 241/2inches long with a girth of 171/2inches, having spoken with other big chub captors, I think that Chub seem to reach an optimum length of between 24 to 26 inches and then expand their girth depending on what they are eating.

 

Interestingly the Crayfish in the Fisher Green catchment area seem to be less this year and I wonder if that is why the Chub were slightly down in weight ?

 

Bob

Edited by BobH
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Tigger

 

That does appear to be true, but I honestly believe it's down to a diet mainly of Crayfish, you see the same in Carp which have feasted on Crayfish, having said that, the Big Chub I have caught fought very well and were certainly fighting fit.

 

My biggest Chub was 251/2 inches long to the V of the tail with a girth of 181/2 inches, a truly massive fish, Simon Chub of 8lbs14ozs was 241/2inches long with a girth of 171/2inches, having spoken with other big chub captors, I think they Chub seem to reach an optimum length of between 24 to 26 inches and then expand their girth depending on what they are eating.

 

Interestingly the Crayfish in the Fisher Green catchment area seem to be less this year and I wonder if that is why the Chub were slightly down in weight ?

 

Bob

 

Your probably right Bob, but being honest I don't think the fish you caught had the big sagging gut like others i've seen, they just looked like big barstewards lol.

 

I'm sure crayfish are low in fat and have good protien levels so I can't imagine why the fish have large guts. I mean it appears a lot of their weight is in their bellies and not in their muscle / flesh. I would have thought a high protein diet would put muscle on muscle rather than a cause a saggy undercarriage.

Edited by Tigger
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You may be right, the 7lb 13ozs Chub I caught from the Relief Channel in January was 26inches long, but it's girth was only 14inches and it carried very little in it's gut, but this was January and they usually fill out with spawn in February/March.

 

Interesting stuff, chub weights.

 

Bob

Edited by BobH
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All,

 

The subject of CHUB is interesting in and of itself. We don't have or at least don't fish for them.

 

I though American Signal crayfish were introduced in the early 60's when an environmental disaster killed most of your natives. I though signals were well established by 1970. What has changed?

 

All things Cyprus interest me. Nice thread

 

Phone

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All,

 

The subject of CHUB is interesting in and of itself. We don't have or at least don't fish for them.

 

I though American Signal crayfish were introduced in the early 60's when an environmental disaster killed most of your natives. I though signals were well established by 1970. What has changed?

 

All things Cyprus interest me. Nice thread

 

Phone

 

Phone, signals where never released legally. I think for the most, or at first they escaped from farms where they where being bred for the table and then some stupid arseholes started catching them and spreading them across the countrys rivers beliving they would make the fish grow bigger. The signals are the cause of the demise of our own native white clawed crays, they carry a virus or a similar nasty that the white claws have no immunity to and so it kills them.

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I can’t view the graph because I’m still using Office 2003

Just for you Chris - I've changed it!

 

(And I've done the same for Perch - on my blog!)

 

C.

"Study to be quiet." ><((º> My Blog

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Thanks Chris, it makes interesting viewing and does show an increase in growth rates post 2000. In both graphs though there's an upward trend pre-millennium so I wonder how fat they would have got without crays being present?

It's never a 'six', let's put it back

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