List of fish in the River Trent Facts for Kids

Map showing where the River Trent flows

The Trent near Castle Donington by George Turner, 1881. This area was known for catching big sturgeon and eels.

The River Trent is a big river in England. It starts in Staffordshire, flows through the middle of England, and then joins another river called the River Ouse. Together, they form the Humber Estuary, which flows into the sea.

This article is a list of the different kinds of fish that have been found in the River Trent. People have known about the many types of fish in this river for a very long time. As far back as 1590, poems mentioned that the Trent had 30 kinds of fish! The first actual list of fish was written in 1641. Over many years, some fish have disappeared from the river, while new ones have been introduced.

Fish in the 1600s
- The Giant Sturgeon
What People Said About the Trent
More Fish Lists Over Time
New Fish in the River
A Look at Some Trent Fish Today
See also

Fish in the 1600s

The very first list of fish from the River Trent was made in 1641. It had thirty names. However, one of them wasn't really a fish, but a crayfish, which is a type of crustacean (like a small lobster). The list also had some old fish names that we don't use today, so it's hard to know exactly what those fish were.

Fishing on the Trent near Ingleby by George Turner, 1850.

Here are some of the fish names from the 1641 list:

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

The Giant Sturgeon

One of the most impressive fish on the old lists was the sturgeon. These huge fish were sometimes caught in the Trent, though not very often. Imagine catching a sturgeon that was eight feet long (about 2.4 meters) near Donington Castle in 1255! Another one, seven feet long, was caught in 1791. The last known sturgeon caught in the Trent was in 1902. It was eight and a half feet long and weighed 250 pounds (about 113 kg)!

What People Said About the Trent

In 1676, a famous writer named Izaak Walton described the River Trent as "One of the finest rivers in the world." He said it had "excellent salmon and all sorts of delicate fish."

Walton even thought (though he was wrong) that the river might be called "Trent" because it had thirty kinds of fish, or because thirty smaller rivers flowed into it.

More Fish Lists Over Time

In 1751, another list was made by Charles Deering. This one had 34 different kinds of fish. It also included some names that are hard to identify today. It even listed three different names for salmon! "Whitling" was a name for a young male trout, and "Muscle" probably meant freshwater mussels, which people used to eat.

By 1985, a study of what anglers (people who fish with a rod and line) were catching suggested the Trent had about 40 species. The fish caught most often by anglers included barbel, bream, bleak, carp, chub, dace, eel, gudgeon, perch, and roach.

New Fish in the River

Some fish that are not originally from England have also made their home in the River Trent. By 2007, species like the European bitterling, carp, and zander were living well in the river. These are called "non-native" species.

A Look at Some Trent Fish Today

Here's a list of some of the fish found in the River Trent, including those that were once common and those that are new. This list isn't every single fish, but it gives you a good idea of the amazing variety!

Number	Name	Other names	Modern species name	Notes
1.	Barbel	Barbet	Barbus barbus
2.	Bitterling	European bitterling	Rhodeus amarus	Not originally from here
3.	Bleak		Alburnus alburnus
4.	Bream		Abramis brama
5.	Bullhead	River bullhead	Cottus gobio
6.	Burbot	Eelpout	Lota lota	No longer found here
7.	Carp	Common carp	Cyprinus carpio	Not originally from here
8.	Chub	European chub	Squalius cephalus
9.	Dace		Leuciscus leuciscus
10.	Eel	Common eel	Anguilla anguilla
11.	Flounder		Platichthys flesus
12.	Grayling		Thymallus thymallus
13.	Gudgeon		Gobio gobio
14.	Brook lamprey		Lampetra planeri
15.	Lamprey	Lamprey nine eyed eel	Lampetra fluviatilis
16.	Loach	Spined loach	Cobitis taenia
17.	Minnow	Pink	Phoxinus phoxinus
18.	Perch	Common perch	Perca fluviatilis
19.	Pike	Common pike	Esox lucius
20.	Roach		Rutilus rutilus
21.	Rudd		Scardinius erythropthalmus
22.	Ruffe	Ruffe or pope	Gymnocephalus cernua
23.	Salmon	Atlantic salmon	Salmo salar	Once disappeared, but brought back
24.	Sand eel		Family Ammodytidae
25.	Shad		Genus Alosa
26.	Smelt	European smelt	Osmerus eperlanus
27.	Stickleback	Common stickleback	Gasterosteus aculeatus
28.	Sturgeon	European sea sturgeon	Acipenser sturio	No longer found here
29.	Tench		Tinca tinca
30.	Trout	Brown trout Whitling - young male	Salmo trutta
31.	Zander		Sander lucioperca	Not originally from here