How fish detect prey
Explainer · Last reviewed 2026-08-10
Sight, the lateral line, smell, taste and hearing — and which one dominates decides what you should be manipulating.
Fish have a sensory toolkit that overlaps with ours in some places and not at all in others, and knowing which sense a species is leading with in given conditions is the most practically useful piece of fish biology there is. It decides whether colour matters, whether vibration matters, whether scent matters, and therefore what you should change when nothing is happening.
VISION is the dominant sense for most predatory fish in clear water. Fish eyes are generally good at detecting contrast and movement, and many species have colour vision — though what a fish's colour vision is FOR, and whether a fish prefers one colour to another, are much less settled than angling folklore suggests.
THE LATERAL LINE is the sense with no human equivalent, and the one that changes how you should think. It is a row of fluid-filled canals along the flank containing hair cells that detect water displacement — a pressure-change sensor running the length of the fish. It gives a fish a picture of moving objects nearby in complete darkness and in water too coloured to see through. This is why a lure that displaces water outfishes one that merely looks right in murky conditions, and why a soft plastic's thumping paddle tail is not a decorative feature.
SMELL AND TASTE are extraordinarily acute in many fish and are the dominant senses for bottom-feeding species. Carp carry taste receptors on the barbels, lips and body surface; catfish more so. That is why soluble attractors and oils have a genuine mechanistic basis, whatever one thinks of individual product claims.
HEARING is better than most people assume, particularly in cyprinids, which have a chain of small bones — the Weberian apparatus — connecting the swimbladder to the inner ear and effectively using the swimbladder as an eardrum. Bankside noise and vibration matter more than they look as though they should.
What this means when you are choosing a lure
The practical rule falls out of the biology. In clear water and good light, a fish is leading with vision, so silhouette, size and action are the variables worth manipulating. In coloured water, at depth, or at night, vision is largely unavailable and the lateral line takes over, so displacement is the variable — a bigger profile, a stronger vibration, a slower retrieve that lets the fish locate the source.
Colour sits awkwardly in this scheme, and it is worth being precise about why. Colour vision demonstrably exists in many species. What is not established is that a particular colour reliably outperforms another under angling conditions, because colour cannot easily be separated from contrast, from silhouette, from how confidently the angler fishes a lure they can see, and from a dozen other confounds.
So the defensible position is: choose for contrast against the background rather than for colour as such, and choose something you can track in the water you are fishing. Both of those have a mechanism behind them. 'Pike like red' does not, at least not yet.
Scientific evidence
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
- Pike: Biology and Exploitation — Chapman & Hall (Fish and Fisheries Series 19), 1996 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: That pike hunt principally by vision in clear conditions and that the lateral line contributes to prey detection.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: General sensory biology and feeding mode data across the species covered.Background and mechanism onlyPassage read and verified
Which sense dominates, and how the water tells you before the fish does
The senses are not equal partners and they are not equally available. Which one a fish is hunting on at a given moment is largely decided by the water it is in, which means the angler can work it out by looking at the water rather than by guessing at the fish.
SIGHT DOMINATES IN CLEAR WATER AND GOOD LIGHT, AND FAILS FAST. Light is absorbed and scattered with depth and with suspended matter, and it goes in a predictable order — red first, then orange and yellow, with blue and green persisting longest. A fish hunting visually in a metre of clear water and the same fish in a metre of coloured water are hunting on different information, and the second one has far less of it.
THE LATERAL LINE TAKES OVER AT SHORT RANGE AND IN THE DARK. It detects water movement and pressure changes rather than sound as such, and it works over a distance measured in body lengths rather than in metres. That short range is the important part and it is routinely overstated: the lateral line is a close-quarters system that completes an attack, not a long-range detector that starts one.
SMELL WORKS AT THE LONGEST RANGE OF ALL AND IS THE SLOWEST. Dissolved substances travel on current, so scent detection is a downstream phenomenon with a time lag, and it locates a general direction long before it locates an object. This is why bait fishing in flow works on a scent trail and why static bait in still water works slowly or not at all.
HEARING OPERATES FURTHER THAN MOST ANGLERS ASSUME. Sound travels roughly four and a half times faster in water than in air and attenuates far less, and many fish detect low-frequency sound at considerable distance. What this mostly means in practice is that a fish knows about a heavy footfall on a bank, a dropped lid or a hull long before it knows about the bait.
SO THE PRACTICAL READ IS: clear and bright, the fish is looking — presentation and profile matter most. Coloured, deep or dark, it is feeling and smelling — vibration, scent and a bait that stays put matter more. That single inference is what the rest of this catalogue's lure and bait reasoning rests on.
Scientific evidence
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
- The Ecology of Vision — Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1979 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: How light behaves in water, how visual systems are matched to the light available in a habitat, and the limits this places on what an animal can resolve and discriminate.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Lateral line system of fish — Integrative Zoology 4:13–25, 2009 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: The structure and function of the lateral line system, what it detects, the range over which it operates, and its role in prey detection and station holding.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
What the lateral line does not license anglers to conclude
"Fish detect vibration" is true, well evidenced, and has become the justification for a great deal of tackle whose case is considerably weaker than the mechanism behind it.
WHAT IS ESTABLISHED. Fish possess a mechanosensory lateral line, it detects water displacement and pressure gradients, it is used in prey capture, predator avoidance, station holding in current and schooling, and blinded fish can still take prey using it. None of that is contested.
WHAT IS NOT ESTABLISHED IS THE JUMP TO PRODUCT. That a rattle in a lure body produces a signal a fish prefers, that a particular rattle frequency outperforms another, or that a fish can be drawn from distance to a noise — these are marketing claims resting on a real mechanism, and the mechanism does not carry them. The lateral line's working range is short. A sound-producing lure is mostly being heard, not felt, and hearing something is not the same as being attracted to it.
THE CONFOUND IS THE USUAL ONE. A noisy lure is also a lure with a different action, a different profile and a different sink rate, and anglers comparing them are comparing all of that at once. Very little of the angling comparison that exists separates the variables.
WHAT SURVIVES AS PRACTICAL ADVICE. In coloured or dark water, something producing displacement gives a fish a second channel to find the lure on, and that is a reasonable basis for choosing a lure with a strong action over a subtle one. That is a much smaller claim than the one usually made, and it is the one the evidence supports.
AND THE STRONGEST PRACTICAL CONSEQUENCE OF THE LATERAL LINE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH LURES. It is that fish detect the angler. Walking heavily along a bank, dropping something in a boat, or wading carelessly puts a large, unusual displacement into the water at exactly the range the system is good at. Approaching quietly is better supported by this mechanism than any lure choice made because of it.
Practitioner consensus
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
- The Ecology of Vision — Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1979 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: How light behaves in water, how visual systems are matched to the light available in a habitat, and the limits this places on what an animal can resolve and discriminate.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Lateral line system of fish — Integrative Zoology 4:13–25, 2009 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: The structure and function of the lateral line system, what it detects, the range over which it operates, and its role in prey detection and station holding.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Where to go next
Fish this applies to
- Blonde rayEyes on top and mouth beneath: a feeding ray cannot see its food, and locates buried prey by scent and by the electric fields of living tissue.
- Goliath tigerfishThe opposite case in an equally difficult medium. A large visual pursuit predator in the deep, turbulent, fast water of the Congo, relying on acute vision in short windows of clarity and on speed rather than on ambush — which is why it is associated with rapids and current seams rather than with cover.
- John DoryThe John Dory is the clearest demonstration in British seas of a predator built entirely around one mechanism: approach head-on where a plate-thin body is invisible, then fire a protrusible jaw at point-blank range.
- Northern pikeWhether a pike is hunting by sight or by lateral line decides whether you should be manipulating colour or displacement.
- PayaraThe most visually memorable feeding apparatus in the catalogue — long fangs that pass through sockets in the upper jaw — and a fish that hunts in fast, broken, aerated rapids where prey is disoriented rather than hidden. The teeth are a response to catching and holding a struggling fish in turbulence rather than to cutting.
- RuffeA worked example of the lateral line doing the work sight cannot. Ruffe feed at night and in turbid water using mechanoreception, which is why they thrive where visibility is poor and why they can displace perch in water that has coloured up permanently.
- Spotted eagle rayA clam buried in sand cannot be seen and leaves no useful scent trail, but it produces a weak electric field — and the ampullae of Lorenzini are what make the whole excavating strategy possible.
- Thick-lipped grey mulletMullet are famously difficult because they feed by sifting fine material rather than by attacking prey — so almost everything about conventional bait presentation is aimed at the wrong behaviour.
What these connections rest on (12)
Scientific evidence — 10 connections
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Blonde ray
A record pointing at the mechanism that explains its own behaviour, so the explanation lives once rather than on every species page.
- The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association, identification and biology of the sharks, skates and rays of the British Isles and north-west Europe.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FAO Species Identification Guides for Fishery Purposes and the FAO Species Catalogues — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Diagnostic characters, habitat and depth range as set out in the FAO species identification sheets for the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Goliath tigerfish
A species joined to the mechanism it is a worked example of, written only where the species demonstrates the mechanism unusually clearly rather than where it is merely subject to it.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Recorded environment, respiration, oxygen tolerance, feeding biology, growth, longevity and distribution of the species named.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature (Conservation authority)Relied on for: Conservation assessment, recorded threats and population trend of the species named.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Northern pike
The sensory basis of pike predation is documented in the species monograph.
- Pike: Biology and Exploitation — Chapman & Hall (Fish and Fisheries Series 19), 1996 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: Sensory basis of prey detection in pike.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Payara
A species joined to the mechanism it is a worked example of, written only where the species demonstrates the mechanism unusually clearly rather than where it is merely subject to it.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Recorded environment, respiration, oxygen tolerance, feeding biology, growth, longevity and distribution of the species named.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature (Conservation authority)Relied on for: Conservation assessment, recorded threats and population trend of the species named.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Ruffe
A link from a species to the mechanism that explains how it lives, written only where the species is a worked example of that mechanism rather than merely subject to it.
- Freshwater Fishes of the British Isles — HarperCollins (New Naturalist 75), 1992 (Reference work)Relied on for: Life history, habitat requirement, physiological tolerance and seasonal behaviour of European freshwater fishes.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Recorded environment, depth range, temperature and oxygen tolerance, feeding biology and distribution of the species named.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Thick-lipped grey mullet
A feeding-mechanism claim that explains the species' reputation, and one worth stating as biology rather than as the folklore it usually appears as.
- The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: The feeding apparatus and habits of grey mullet.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Feeding habits recorded for Chelon labrosus.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Tope
A record pointing at the mechanism that explains its own behaviour, so the explanation lives once rather than on every species page.
- The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association, identification and biology of the sharks, skates and rays of the British Isles and north-west Europe.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FAO Species Identification Guides for Fishery Purposes and the FAO Species Catalogues — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Diagnostic characters, habitat and depth range as set out in the FAO species identification sheets for the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Traíra
A species joined to the mechanism it is a worked example of, written only where the species demonstrates the mechanism unusually clearly rather than where it is merely subject to it.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Recorded environment, respiration, oxygen tolerance, feeding biology, growth, longevity and distribution of the species named.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature (Conservation authority)Relied on for: Conservation assessment, recorded threats and population trend of the species named.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Walleye
A sensory-biology claim that determines when and where the species feeds, and therefore belongs on the mechanism concept rather than only in the species prose.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: That Sander vitreus feeds at night, that vitreus means glassy alluding to the nature of the large silvery eyes, and that it favours large shallow lakes with high turbidity.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Zander
A sensory-biology claim that directly determines when and where the species feeds, and therefore belongs on the mechanism concept rather than only in the species prose.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Morphological and behavioural description of Sander lucioperca including low-light feeding.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Freshwater Fishes of the British Isles — HarperCollins (New Naturalist 75), 1992 (Reference work)Relied on for: The eye structure of percids adapted to low light and its behavioural consequence.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Practitioner consensus — 2 connections
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
John Dory
A record joined to the mechanism that explains it, which is what makes a species page transferable rather than a list of facts.
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Contemporary UK and European sea angling practice as reported by practitioners, including ground, seasonal timing, bait and method convention.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of species behaviour and regional angling practice, recorded as consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Spotted eagle ray
A record pointing at the practice or mechanism that explains it, so the explanation lives once rather than being restated on every quarry page.
- BlueWater Hunting and Freediving — BlueWater Freedivers, Ventura, California, 1995 (Practitioner report)Relied on for: Reef and blue-water breath-hold hunting practice, including quarry behaviour, approach, catch handling and the judgement involved in taking a shot.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of quarry behaviour and regional fishing practice, recorded as consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Where it matters
What these connections rest on (1)
Scientific evidence — 1 connection
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Spearfishing
Sensory biology determines what a fish can detect at close range.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: General sensory biology of the species involved.Background and mechanism onlyPassage read and verified
Gear this affects
What these connections rest on (1)
Practitioner consensus — 1 connection
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
Crankbaits
The mechanism is described in the explainer this points at.
- Angling Times — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Lure selection reasoning by water clarity.Citation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: The same reasoning from a separate tradition.Citation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Related reading
- Bait size, and what it selects forPrey size selection is an energetic calculation rather than a preference for the largest available item, which is why the biggest bait is rarely the optimum one.
- How fish hearHearing is a component of prey detection, particularly in turbid water.
- How fish seeVision is one component of how a predator locates prey.
- How fish smell and tasteSmell and taste do the work sight cannot.
- Live bait or artificial lures: what each is good atDetection distance is the mechanical core of the oldest argument in fishing, and it is a sensory question rather than a matter of taste.
- Live or dead: what changes for the fishMovement is detected by the lateral line at close range in any visibility; scent travels with the current for very long distances. The choice between live and dead is a choice between those two channels.
- Matching a lure to the prey that is thereSize and silhouette are what a predator resolves first and colour is what it resolves last, which is the ordering the whole matching procedure follows.
- Rattles, vibration and the lateral lineThe lateral line record carries the physiology; this record carries what does and does not follow from it for a lure.
4 more
- Reading water Explainer
- What a bait imitates, and why that matters Explainer
- What lure action means Explainer
- Why fish shoal Explainer
What these connections rest on (12)
Practitioner consensus — 6 connections
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
Bait size, and what it selects for
A mechanism edge from a record to the reasoning beneath it, resting on practice reported consistently across independent angling traditions rather than on experiment.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Diet, prey size, feeding behaviour and habitat association recorded for the species concerned.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Lateral line system of fish — Integrative Zoology 4:13–25, 2009 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: The structure and function of fish sensory systems, including flow detection and the range limits of mechanoreception.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Live bait or artificial lures: what each is good at
A mechanism edge from a record to the reasoning beneath it, resting on practice reported consistently across independent sources rather than on experiment.
- Angling Times — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Contemporary UK coarse, match and lure angling practice as reported by practitioners, including tackle convention.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Contemporary UK sea angling practice as reported by practitioners, including tackle, bait and lure convention.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Live or dead: what changes for the fish
A mechanism edge from a record to the reasoning beneath it, resting on practice reported consistently across independent angling traditions rather than on experiment.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Diet, prey size, feeding behaviour and habitat association recorded for the species concerned.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Lateral line system of fish — Integrative Zoology 4:13–25, 2009 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: The structure and function of fish sensory systems, including flow detection and the range limits of mechanoreception.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Matching a lure to the prey that is there
A mechanism edge from a record to the reasoning beneath it, resting on practice reported consistently across independent angling traditions rather than on experiment.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Diet, prey size, feeding behaviour and habitat association recorded for the species concerned.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Lateral line system of fish — Integrative Zoology 4:13–25, 2009 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: The structure and function of fish sensory systems, including flow detection and the range limits of mechanoreception.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Reading water
The two explainers are complementary and cross-reference each other.
- Still-Water Angling — MacGibbon & Kee, 1953 (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Location reasoning grounded in fish behaviour.Citation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Coarse Fishing — A. & C. Black, 1912 (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Observation-led location practice from an independent tradition.Citation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
What a bait imitates, and why that matters
A mechanism edge from a record to the reasoning beneath it, resting on practice reported consistently across independent angling traditions rather than on experiment.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Diet, prey size, feeding behaviour and habitat association recorded for the species concerned.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Lateral line system of fish — Integrative Zoology 4:13–25, 2009 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: The structure and function of fish sensory systems, including flow detection and the range limits of mechanoreception.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Scientific evidence — 6 connections
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
How fish hear
Hearing is a component of prey detection, particularly in turbid water.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Species and habitat data underlying this connection. Hearing is a component of prey detection, particularly in turbid water.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How fish see
Vision is one component of how a predator locates prey.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Species and habitat data underlying this connection. Vision is one component of how a predator locates prey.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How fish smell and taste
Smell and taste do the work sight cannot.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Species and habitat data underlying this connection. Smell and taste do the work sight cannot.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Rattles, vibration and the lateral line
Both rest on the same body of sensory physiology.
- Lateral line system of fish — Integrative Zoology 4:13–25, 2009 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: Lateral line structure and function.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
What lure action means
The sensory basis for detecting a moving object at close range is established physiology.
- Lateral line system of fish — Integrative Zoology 4:13–25, 2009 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: Lateral line function in detecting prey-generated water motion at close range.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Why fish shoal
Shoaling is a response to predation, which is prey detection from the other side.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Species and habitat data underlying this connection. Shoaling is a response to predation, which is prey detection from the other side.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How this compares
What these connections rest on (1)
Scientific evidence — 1 connection
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Why fish follow a lure and turn away
Separating detection from inspection is what makes a follow diagnosable at all.
- The Ecology of Vision — Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1979 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: Underwater visual environments and the way detection changes with range, depth and water condition.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Sources for this page
- Freshwater Fishes of the British Isles — HarperCollins (New Naturalist 75), 1992 (Reference work)Relied on for: The presence of the Weberian apparatus in cyprinids and the general sensory biology of British freshwater fish.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.