The Pearl River, the largest river in southern China, historically harbors abundant fishery resources. However, the fishery resources have severely declined in recent decades owning to dam cascade development, overfishing, water pollution, and so on. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate fishery resource utilization and exploitation, which provides scientific guidance for fishery resource conservation in the Pearl River. Generally, the per recruitment model has been widely applied to the dynamics of single fish populations. The per recruitment models mainly consist of the yield per recruitment model (YPR) and the spawning biomass per recruitment models (SBR). The YPR model prevents overgrowth overfishing and is usually used to determine the fishery management parameters (e.g. mesh size and catch rate). This model could provide management guidance for the development and utilization of fish stocks. The spawning biomass per recruitment model prevents supplemental overfishing. This model is utilized to assess whether parental biological residues and spawning stock are sufficient to maintain the stock of larvae supplementation, and then it estimates the status of resource utilization. The barbel chub () is an important economic fish inhabiting the middle and lower reaches of the Pearl River. An assessment of the current status of utilization is important for reasonable resource exploitation and maintenance. The data of the present study were collected in the Zhaoqing section of the Xijiang River (an important stem of the Pearl River) between 2009 and 2014. We analyzed the growth and mortality characteristic parameters and evaluated the resource exploitation status by the YPR model, SBR model, and biological reference points. The relationship between standard length and weight was expressed as:=0.9595, =2346). The von Bertalanffy growth equation was selected as the optimal growth model and was expressed as ]. The present fishing intensity (=0.86) have far exceeded the level of sustainable population development. The stock of was overfished in its vegetative form. We suggest to increase the catch age to 3 years old (or to a standard length of 238 mm) for the stock conservation of in the Xijiang River; the yield per recruitment could thus be increased by 175%. The protective efficacy could increase with a fishing moratorium in the Pearl River, and relevant fishery management measurements should be improved at the same time.