River Euphrates

Englander · #1 (**permalink**) 09-04-2008, 03:06 PM

Hi Guys

Im finding it very hard to find any info on common fish species in this river

im particularly interested in species common to the Syrian stretches.

My old dad was there with work and took a few pics from his hotel of the river, wide, dark, deep, fast, very fishy looking sadly he didnt have any gear or time to try and fish it ...............however he should be going back and wants to possibly try a fly rod on/in it

trying to find out want he might hook into

Englander

tubefly · #2 (**permalink**) 09-04-2008, 10:24 PM

Englander

I fished it in 81/82 just below the Syrian border in Iraq all we could catch was Turtles.

Harry

stickfloat · #3 (**permalink**) 09-04-2008, 11:53 PM

From what i have found..Several specie of carp are the predominants... these grow BIG.. a species of Barbel lives in the Euphrates, individual fish in excess of 300lb have been caught in the past..Catfish, several species and a specie of a fish called the Spiny Eel.

Google freshwater fish species of the Euphrates...There seems to be a fair bit about it, but spread out.

Sf

tangler · #4 (**permalink**) 10-04-2008, 05:18 PM

Lt-Colonel R B Phayre MC is quoted in Paxman's "Fish, Fishing and the Meaning of Life" as reporting a 213 lb Mahseer taken from the Eurphrates in 1918.

Rod

#5 (**permalink**) 10-04-2008, 06:36 PM

Englander from the 'Fly Fish...IRAQ' thread:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Puss in Boots

There are brown trout in the headwaters of the Euphrates and Tigris; but I suspect the Bagdhad flyfishermen club don't stray too far

The shots of Asp and Carp are what I expected; but not 'exotic' Barbus species.

Barbus esocinus The 'Bisz' or 'Mangar'.

Barbus grypus The 'Shaboot'

Barbus barbus

All fly caught - nice.

PiB

Englander · #6 (**permalink**) 11-04-2008, 12:00 PM

I know that good old Saddam "stocked" many of his placesd lakes etc when i lived ion the Gulf i saw Zebra, monkeys, even hippo in private collections knowing what the Arabs are like for importing wildlife and releasing it i was trying to find some first hand info.

Cheers

Englander

#7 (**permalink**) 11-04-2008, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Englander

........I was trying to find some first hand info.

I've been researching the headwaters, of Indian ocean flowing trout rivers. Salmo trutta oxus.
When I get home, I'll check my papers for any university ichthyology stuff further downstream, I'm sure I've got some; the above pics from Saddam's ponds were of native species, to which you can add the asp.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Puss in Boots

Sorry for the oversized pic; but this is red-spotting at it's best (our 'Ice Age never reached Iran - so these are 100,000yr old; or as Noah released from the Ark

).

Liqvan Chay trout, ca, 27.0 cm total length, 4 October 1994

Common names

آزاد ماهي (azad mahi or mahi-ye azad = free fish, used in Farsi for trout and salmon), ماهي آزاد (= mahi azad), azad mahi qezelala-ye daryacheh khazar (= Caspian Sea trout), mahi azad Darya-ye Khazar, mahi azad setareh-i Darya-ye Khazar, all for the subspecies caspius; قزل آلا (= gazalala, ghezel ala or kizil ala, meaning red spots), قزل آلاي خال قرمز (= qezelala-ye khalqermez; the Turkic qezel ala is used in Farsi for trout and hence this last means "trout with red spots" although literally it is a tautonym, "red spots with red spots")

The Liqvan Chay population has 54-400 red to orange spots along its flank (compared to only 30-50 generally in European brown trout) giving it a ruby-red sheen (Anonymous, 1977). Only one Liqvan Chay fish had less than 100 red spots based on 13 fish examined by Saadati (1977) compared to a range of 27-134 for 13 S. t. caspius from the Shah Neshin River near Ardabil, where only 2 fish had more than 100 spots. The spotting pattern consists of profuse black and red spots and is distinct from all other Salmo trutta which have fewer and larger spots (Saadati, 1977). Colour photographs, courtesy of Asghar Abdoli of the Agricultural and Natural Resources University, Gorgan, of 3 fish from the Liqvan Chay dated 4 October 1994 with a total length of 27.0 cm showed two fish with about 87 red spots while the other had about 200 (accurate counts not possible because of body curvature and silvery reflections). There was considerable variation in spot size among the three fish, the one with most spots having generally smaller spots which give the sheen referred to above, while the other two fish have more discrete and larger spots.

PiB

sewinbasher · #8 (**permalink**) 11-04-2008, 01:20 PM

I spent some time in Baghdad pre-Gulf war and both the Tigris and Euphrates produced fish of the both cyprio/barbus genus in good numbers.

I never fished there myself but as you drove along the line of fish restaurants in downtown Baghdad you could see the piles of fish of the carp or barbel type freshly extracted from the not over hygienic rivers stacked in piles on the ground outside the restaurants, crawling with flies, in temperatures of over 50C.

Funny thing - we never stopped to sample their wares and drove straight on to the Sheraton!!

t1978d · #9 (**permalink**) 11-04-2008, 03:03 PM

PiB, is your taxonomy knowledge just a hobby?

#10 (**permalink**) 11-04-2008, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t1978d

PiB, is your taxonomy knowledge just a hobby?

Yes; that's all. Just trout and native charr...

The headwaters of the Euphrates have the oldest surviving brown trout; but even there fish farm strains (Russian) have contaminated several rivers.

PiB

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