Diet is so important for fish
Few, if any,
species of animals are affected so greatly by the availability or non-availability
of food as fish.
If we ignore freaks among the human race a man weighing six stone is considered
quite small and at anything over twenty odd stones he is considered a giant.
It’s not like that where fish are concerned because they put on weight,
or fail to do so, according to the amount of food that is available to them in
their particular environment, food that can be obtained without the expenditure
of much effort.
An example of this is the weights being achieved now by pike living in trout waters
and the way that short-lived trout can be scooped up dead.
The greatest example of this rapid growth of stunted fish is seen where trout
are concerned.
I often fished as a boy in a tiny stream, a tributary of a tributary of a smallish
river on the outskirts of Sheffield where each tiny pool contained wild brown
trout.
The biggest trout I ever saw there was about eight inches long but the average
size of the Lilliputian trout was five or six inches at most.
Compare this with brown trout in certain big lochs in Scotland, the so-called
“ferox” trout, that grow to well over the 20lb mark.
Of course carp grow very quickly when fed lots of calorie-filled protein baits
thrown is as free offerings.
This has resulted in lots of freak fish that have such distened bellies that they
weigh a lot more than any normal carp does.
It will not please some carp fishing addicts when I say that these ugly fish fill
me with contempt rather than admiration.