This list of fishes of the River Trent includes fish species which have been recorded from the River Trent, a major river in England that starts in Staffordshire, flows through the Midlands, and joins the River Ouse to form the Humber Estuary.
The impressive diversity of fish species in this river has been known (and celebrated) since 1590, with poetry containing the earliest mention that the Trent contains 30 kinds of fish. The earliest actual list of fish in the river is from 1641. Over the centuries some species have since become locally extinct, and other species have been introduced.
Earliest literary references In 1590, Edmund Spenser in The Faerie Queene described the River Trent and its fish fauna as follows:
This couplet was closely echoed in 1612, in Michael Drayton's Poly-Olbion description of the Trent:
These poems have been a source of curiosity to a number of fishing experts, who have endeavoured to guess the identity of the thirty fish alluded to in the poems.
1641 list The earliest known list of fish from the River Trent was from 1641. Although the list contains thirty names, one of them is not a fish by modern standards, but an edible crustacean, the crayfish. The list also includes some fish names that no longer exist in modern English, such as Frenches and lenbrood; these species are therefore unidentifiable.
The 1641 list of 30 species (verbatim, note antique spelling of some names):
Barbet, Bream, Bullhead, Burbolts, Carp, Chevin, Crayfish, Dates, Eel, Flounder, Frenches, Gudgeon, Grayling, Lampern, Lamphrey, Lenbrood, Loach, Minnows, Pickeral, Pinks, Perch, Roach, Ruff, Salmon, Shad, Smelt, Sticklebats, Sturgeon, Trout, Whitling.
Note on the sturgeon The largest of these fish was the sturgeon, a species which at one time was fairly frequently caught in the Trent, but only in low numbers. Notable examples included a sturgeon of eight feet taken near Donington Castle in 1255, and another at nearby King's Mill of seven feet in 1791. The last known catch was in 1902 near Holme, Nottinghamshire; the fish was eight-and-a-half-feet long and weighed 250 pounds.
1676 description In 1676 in Izaak Walton described the River Trent as "One of the finest rivers in the world and the most abounding with excellent salmon and all sorts of delicate fish."
Walton also speculated (incorrectly) that the name of the River Trent might be based on the number of fish species, that the Trent is "so called from thirty kind of fishes that are found in it, or for that it receiveth thirty lesser rivers".The Compleat Angler, (1653)
1751 list In 1751, Charles Deering provided a list of 34 kinds, under the title An Alphabetical List of All the Fish Catch'd in the River Trent. This list read (verbatim);
Barbel, Bream, Bulhead, Burbot, Carp, Chub, Crayfish, Dace, Eel, Flounder, Grayling, Gudgeon, Lamprey, Lampern, Loach, Minnow, Muscle, Perch, Pike, Roach, Rud, Ruff, Salmon, Salmon Trout, Salmon Pink, Sand Eel, Shad, Smelt, Strickleback, Sturgeon, Stream Pink, Tench, Trout, and Whitling.
This list also includes several unrecognizable fish. It also lists three names for salmon, as well as whitling, which is a name for a young male trout, and muscle, which is probably a reference to freshwater mussels, formerly used as food in some areas.
1829 Glover reproduced Deering's list in his History and Gazetteer of the County of Derby, and also provided further information on many of the then known species in the companion volume, The History of the County of Derby (Volume 1).
1985 In 1985, a study of anglers' catches stated that the "Trent supports about 40 species", but they were not listed. The fish that were caught most often, and were important to anglers, included barbel, bream, bleak, carp, chub, dace, eel, gudgeon, perch, and roach.
2007 non-native species Non-native species that had a sustainable population in the river were listed in 2007, and included the European bitterling (Rhodeus amarus), carp (Cyprinus carpio), and zander (Sander lucioperca).
Master list This list is based on Deering's 1829 list. It includes the locally extinct species as well as the more recent additions, but it does not claim to be fully comprehensive; other species may occur in the river but are as yet undocumented.
Number Name Image Other names Species name in 1829Modern species name Notes References 1. Barbel Barbet Cyprinus barbusBarbus barbus 2. Bitterling European bitterling Not listed in 1829Rhodeus amarusNon native 3. Bleak Cyprinus AlburnusAlburnus alburnus 4. Bream Cyprinus BramaAbramis brama 5. Bullhead BulheadRiver bullhead Cottius GobioCottus gobio 6. Burbot Eelpout Cyprinus BarbusLota lotaLocally extinct 7. Carp Common carp Cyprinus CarpioCyprinus carpioNon native 8.Chub ChevinEuropean chub Cyprinus JesesSqualius cephalus 9.Dace Cyprinus LeuciscusLeuciscus leuciscus 10. Eel Common eel Anguilla VulgarisAnguilla anguilla 11. Flounder Pleuronectes FlesusPlatichthys flesus 12. Grayling Salmo ThymallusThymallus thymallus 13. Gudgeon Cyprinus GobioGobio gobio 14. Brook lamprey Not listed in 1829Lampetra planeri 15. Lamprey Lamprey nine eyed eelLampern seven eyed eel Petromyzon FluviatilisLampetra fluviatilis 16. Loach Groundling loachSpined loach Cobitis taeniaCobitis taenia 17. Minnow Pink Cyprinus PhoxinusPhoxinus phoxinus 18. Perch Common perch Percea FluviatilisPerca fluviatilis 19. Pike Common pike Esox LuciusEsox lucius 20. Roach Cyprinus RutilusRutilus rutilus 21. Rudd Not listed in 1829Scardinius erythropthalmus 22.Ruffe Ruffe or pope Perca Cernua Gymnocephalus cernua 23. Salmon Common salmonAtlantic salmon Salmo SalarSalmo salarLocally extinctbut reintroduced 24. Sand eel Not listed in 1829Family Ammodytidae 25. Shad Not listed in 1829Genus Alosa 26. Smelt European smelt Not listed in 1829Osmerus eperlanus 27. Stickleback StricklebackCommon sticklebackThree-spined stickleback Gasterosteus AculeatusGasterosteus aculeatus 28. Sturgeon European sea sturgeonCommon sturgeonAcipenser sturioAcipenser sturio Locally extinct 29. Tench Cyprinus TincaTinca tinca 30. Trout Common troutBrown troutWhitling - young male Salmo FarioSalmo trutta 31. Zander Not listed in 1829Sander luciopercaNon native
See also List of fishes of Great Britain Angling records in the United Kingdom
References