A week ago today Steven Lawler and I witnessed some remarkable behaviour on the Guadalhorce – the gypsy barbel were leaping up a weir and falling back into the river. They looked for all the world like salmon.

We noticed that they never cleared the wall, despite coming pretty close at times. Steve took a close look at them and suggested that they were not trying to clear this obstacle, as we had first thought, but were feeding in the silkweed on the weir itself. 

The more we looked at it the clearer it became – the fish were grazing on the fine weed and it was even possible to see difference in weed growth between the region they could not regularly reach and the part they could. It was really something to behold! The force of the current prevented them being able to remain in position and the whole time between leaving the pool and being dumped back into was probably little more than a second or so.

The foaming water beneath the weir was absolutely heaving with fish. I did approach with a fly rod but catching them seemed like the wrong thing to do somehow. I suspect they would not have been inclined to feed on my nymph anyway. Who knows?

I have attached a couple of photos of the barbel in action.DSCF3353

DSCF3356DSCF3357

Steve had a good day on the river and, with quite a few fish under his belt, was happy to watch the leaping fish.

Steve had a good day on the river and, with a few fish under his belt, was happy to watch the leaping fish.