The Hardest Fighting Fish
Angler's Mail|October 10,2017

TRAVEL ROD WINNER

Dr Ian Welch
The Hardest Fighting Fish

Q Do river fish fight harder than still water fish? Andy Gadsby, via email.

A Dr Ian Welch says...

The debate as to which fish species fights the hardest is one that regularly crops up in Angler’s Mail, both in print and online, and there are always many different arguments advanced for the most likely candidates.

From a biological perspective, a fish is powered by the body musculature of the myotomes, a group of muscles stimulated by spinal nerves. Power generated by the muscles and the interactions between the fish and the water generate a wave of displacement along the body, and both the body and the tail push against the water to generate forward thrust.

Muscle power

Muscle structure is not uniform, though. There are two types: white and red.

Red muscle is dense in capillaries, contains a high proportion of myoglobin, glycogen and lipids, and is aerobic. White muscle is mostly anaerobic and, as the colour might suggest, is less densely served by blood vessels.

This story is from the October 10,2017 edition of Angler's Mail.

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This story is from the October 10,2017 edition of Angler's Mail.

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