PlanetCatfish.com

Lovely river, full of life. During the summer season also lots of people recreating near, in and on (canoes) the river, but that doesn't seem to bother the animals.
Seen lots of frogs (not shown), lizards (too quick) and one snake, probably a Natrix species (no camera....).
I had a submersible camera this time and although it's rather tricky to take pictures below water of live fishes with your diving glasses on in a strong current, I still hope you like them .

This is the spot. Dordogne, near Vitrac. There's a tree root on the river bank. Last year it looked like this: This year a lot of the upper branches had vanished. They had been sawn off and had apparently been used for camp fires. So I took the liberty of getting some minor pieces and when the family was still sound asleep one morning, I was puzzling..... ...to create a nice mini wood pile Now to the live stock. I've seen perch, rodd/roach, gudgeons, lamprey (poor picture), barbel, Phoxinus, you name it. Loads of juvies. Quite incredible. No catfishes though.
Perch
Perch and rudd/roach (?)
Rudd/roach
Gudgeon
Several, including Phoxinus
Have a good look. There's less weed than you would expect. An ernormous amount of juvies in a water layer of about 10 cms.
Lamprey. Camera distance switch incorrect. Nevertheless, nice find. These live buried in the sand.
Barbel. With no catfishes around, you must find a new "river king". Well, this is. What a magnificent fish! Very approachable as well

Marc

Fantastic stuff Marc. Love the Barbus shot.

Your picture number 9 (titled "Perch and rudd/roach (?)"), I think shows a chub (Squalius cephalus) below, and a roach (Rutilus rutilus) above.

I would be surprised to find a rudd (Scardinius erythrophthalmus) in that habitat, as they prefer stiller water.

Thanks Rupert, I was in doubt about that one.
May I conclude that the larger swimmers in pic "several, including Phoxinus" are juvenile chubs (based on the dark tail)?

May well be, although Leuciscus leuciscus and Alburnus alburnus are possibilities too.

Hard to tell!

Nice pictures Marc.

I'd agree with Rupert that the roach/rudd are roach, not rudd. I wasn't previously aware that chub had changed it's genus to Squalius (I've not kept up with cypriniform nomenclature evidently )- the fish in question looks as though it could be a chub, but could also be a dace (Leuciscus leuciscus) as it appears to have a less broad head (but that could just be the camera angle).

The silvery fish look like bleak (Alburnus alburnus) to me, but I'm not sure whether there are similar species in mainland Europe which we don't get in the UK. They're not Squalius or Leuciscus in my opinion- even with these pictures the mouth is notably upward-facing.

Nice little story, Marc. Refreshing too... after reading about those collecting trips in tropics.

Makes me wonder if brasilians, indians, and africans read such accounts with the same feeling of "wow, that is exotic; I wanna experience that" as the feelings arisen in us as we read the accounts about their waters.

very cool!