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bad wounds on barbel

Neil Partridge

Neil Partridge

Senior Member
Whilst fishing in the ironbridge area last night, a well known local angler had a couple of barbel with 'chunks' taken out of them, he took these pics & i said ill post them here for other peoples views of what may of caused them. obviously our first thought was otters, but the wounds seem in a funny place for that.
what do you think
the fish are in the 6-7lb bracket & there is very little cormorant activity of late, plus the wounds are far to big for that. the river here is non navigable too

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Couple of questions Neil,

Are those photos of the same fish ?

Are there injuries on the other flank ?

I thought possibly there may have been something like a metal protrusion from the river bed which they may have been hitting as they cleared a redd, but i doubt they are females unless they are young ones, also i doubt if they would have appeared in exactly the same place on different fish if that is the case.
I'm maybe thinking spawning activity may have attracted the attention of a couple of cormorants with eyes bigger than their bellies ! which is why i ask if there is damage on the other flank.

Bit of a mystery :(
 
Hi Neil, i must say that i`ve never caught a Barbel with open wounds, not something i`ve seen before.
Unfortunately I think i expect to see fish with mouth and fin damage when fishing commercials but for some reason the Barbel i catch always seem to be in top condition, maybe Barbel anglers take a bit more time and care with their captures.
Could those wounds be caused by some type of parasite ?
 
I think two different fish - OP did say a couple of fish - and the wound detail does seem to differ between the photos?

Strange for two fish with such similar wounds to be caught togther really and no obvious explanation I can think of.... a complete mystery!..

A spraying of that spray-on plaster stuff over a light dressing of Savlon may have helped??? Did use to carry Savlon for such cases years ago but since I've restarted fishing I've not actually carried any... and useful for human cuts too so must get some!
 
i only saw the pictiures he took with his phone, he was a few pegs lower down from me. i must admit i thought it was only the one fish & 2 pictures but the guy assured us it was 2 differant fish so who am i to question it (so to speak).
 
colin that was one thought but the only craft on the river here is the tourist boat that slowly goes up & down the river between the shallows of buildwas & jackfield.
(& IT DOES OUR BL**DY HEAD IN :D)
 
Given the low water levels that grockle boat seems to be prime suspect at mo then...
 
I saw similar damage to a carp in a new fishery. The stockies swam in circles around the edges of the lake and were getting picked off by a heron. I think Ian's point about spawning and cormorants could be close to the mark. With many rivers at their shallowest for years at spawning time, they are an easy target.
 
Anthony Pearson said:
I saw similar damage to a carp in a new fishery. The stockies swam in circles around the edges of the lake and were getting picked off by a heron. I think Ian's point about spawning and cormorants could be close to the mark. With many rivers at their shallowest for years at spawning time, they are an easy target.
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Only tonight i spooked a Cormorant, hiding underneath willow branches when i cast out, i don't know who jumped highest, me or the bird :eek:

If i'd have seen it first, i might have tried to get a bit closer with my lead ;)
 
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If you look at the scale ID closely around the wound, you will see it is the same fish. The wound/damage has seemingly progressed from the previous capture, and to me it probably a malignant form of cancer, or parasite/bacteria eating away. It could be a secondary infection to earlier damage. I have seen similar to this before albeit at the tail root/body area. It is worth painting on Friars Balsam immediately on catching again, but don't apply to the internal bits. Hopefully, it will survive and heal a bit if treated quickly if it is parasitic and/or infected, but i very much doubt if it progresses further, which is sad.
I hope someone tries to treat and help save it, and although fish/barbel do have the ability to heal themselves to a high degree, this one needs some serious help and quickly.
Also remember that the skin under the scales is like leather and very hard to penetrate, especially on larger specimens.
You would need something like a very sharp a razor edge to cause something like this and the causes put forward are possibly well founded, but as said, it could possibly be something else.
 
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