Are high-protein baits bad for barbel?

In 2018 Bournemouth University undertook a study into the feeding behaviour of barbel. By taking scale samples and analysing the proteins found in them, they concluded that around a third of the diet of barbel in the River Severn was made up of marine-derived proteins.

Much of this came from pellets and boilies used by anglers, but also from creatures such as lamprey and salmon which travel up the river to spawn, before dying. The other two-thirds of the diet was made up mainly of invertebrates.

But are the pellets and boilies being used by anglers detrimental to barbel’s health? Paul Garner doesn’t think so.

“These fish are wild creatures and they have a hugely varied diet, so we’re not ‘artificially’ fattening them up as we are with carp in lakes.”