Description
Lives in clear, flowing waters.
How to identify it
Slim and silvery, anal and dorsal fins with a concave edge.
Appearance
A slender fish, with a grey-blue back with metallic sheen, paler flanks and a silver-white belly. The scales are large and shiny, the tail is sharply forked. The mouth opens below the snout, with the upper jaw slightly longer, and the eye has a yellowish iris, without the red of the roach. Compared with the chub it has a smaller, narrower head, a less wide mouth and an anal fin with a concave rather than convex profile. It rarely exceeds 25-30 cm.
Habitat and habits
It is a running-water fish: rivers and streams of lowland and hill country with clean, well-oxygenated water, more rarely lakes or brackish estuaries. It lives in shoals in the upper layers and often rises to the surface to take insects. In winter adults gather in the lower stretches and in oxbows; in March and April they run up to shallow gravel in fast current to spawn. Young fish stay among roots and cavities in the bank, then move into the current.
There's more in the app
This species' bite index, recommended baits and methods, and the rules of the day for every water. Offline too.
Soon on Android and iPhone
