Pilgrim’s Progress

He is also a very keen angler, having come back to the sport in 1995 following a break of several years. In this regular column he will tell us about his progress as an angler – his thoughts about the sport, what he learns, the fishing trips he makes, the anguish, the humour, in fact everything he experiences as his angling career develops.

Pilgrim’s Progress – read it everyThursday!

Should barbel be stocked in stillwaters or left alone to inhabittheir natural river environment? Certainly a question that raises avariety of beliefs, with some of the debate getting quite heated. Iguess we all have our opinions on the subject. Mine is that barbelbelong in rivers and that their stocking into stillwaters should bediscouraged as much as possible. I want to use this article toexplain why, after considering the subject carefully, I arrived atthat position.

I think it’s important that whatever opinion we have in angling(or anything, for that matter), we have because we have weighed upthe facts. The kind of person who rants, raves, threatens and abuseswill never win anyone over to his way of thinking. Even if his way ofthinking is right, because of his attitude, others will be turnedoff.

One of the things we need to bear in mind when we talk aboutbarbel and stillwater, is that we are talking about ‘Barbus barbus’,the species found here in Britain. I mention that because there are38 species of ‘Barbus’ in Europe, and not everyone of that numberrequires the habitat that our own barbel does. That’s an importantpoint to consider, particularly when we are told about the barbelthat thrive in European stillwaters. Remember, although they bear thename barbel, they are not the same species as ‘barbus barbus’.

Although now present in many of our rivers, the barbel is in facta stocked fish in most of them, including the Severn. It’s hard toimagine, particularly those of us that have grown up with the Severnas a barbel river, that prior to 1956 it wasn’t the bronzed bullethaven that it is today. From just 509 stocked fish, we now have 100miles of excellent barbel fishing available. Other rivers also bearout the fact that barbel thrive when stocked (Bristol Avon, Dane,Ribble, Wye etc).

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for stillwaters. The reasonis quite simple – barbel do not belong there. They are not in theirnatural environment.

Barbel are a lithophilous species, which put simply means thatthey require flowing water and gravel to reproduce. The EnvironmentAgency advise ‘that it is dubious practice to deliberately stockbarbel into habitats where they are expected to live on a catch andrelease basis while being very unlikely to be able to spawnsuccessfully’. (Quoted from Barbel Society literature).

Barbel in stillwaters are an ‘attraction’ and help to promote thewater, but at what cost to the fish? The Barbel Society state they’are stocked into commercial stillwaters without any thought for thefish themselves but for financial gain – greed!’. Who, by taking anopen, rational view of the subject, can disagree with that?

Barbel are well known for the ability to move up and down theriver system, often covering great distances. This is not availableto them in commercial stillwater. They are limited to the boundary ofthe pool in which they find themselves.

Take a stillwater in the heat of summer. Fish such as tench andcarp thrive in that environment, that’s often the time of year inwhich to target them. But the poor barbel suffers. They are lesstolerant of low oxygen levels and high water temperatures than thepreviously mentioned fish. Rather than see a barbel basking in thesun as one sees carp, you are more likely to see it gasping for airat the surface, like a goldfish in a bowl. In fact, for barbel, thelethal concentration of oxygen is almost twice as high as it is fortench. Even when barbel are bred in fish farms, for stocking intostillwater, there is the need for extra oxygenation. That oxygendependency is not catered for when put into the stillwater.

One of the nastier sides of the modern angling scene involves fishstealing. The two main sought after species are carp and barbel. Now,please don’t misunderstand me here, and I am not justifying it evenby a tiny percentage, but, when carp are taken they are usually putinto a similar type of environment. But with the barbel, itinvariably involves being taken from a fresh, fast flowing river andthen being transferred to a pond. There is no consideration of theneeds of the fish whatsoever. It is simply providing the angler withthe convenience of catching barbel without having to venture out onthe river. In fact, barbel theft is so rife from the Teme, that BAAhave regular patrols to prevent this criminal act.

So critical is the environment that barbel find themselves in, asfar as being conducive to their welfare, that even rivers, whendisturbed significantly, have an affect upon the fish. For example,stretches of the Lee and Teme, when bankside work involved theremoval of vegetation, meant a serious decline in the barbelinhabiting that stretch. What happened, is that the fish moved to apart of the river that suited them. This option is not available forstillwater barbel.

I’ve made reference in this article to the Barbel Society. I askedtheir Chairman, Steve Pope to supply a quote for this week’sPilgrims’ Progress, which you can read below. Steve proved veryhelpful as I researched this article, sending me an article by DrPaul Garner that appeared in ‘The Barbel Fisher’ (number 10) dealingwith stillwater barbel. Paul certainly deals more scientifically withthe subject than I have chosen to do here. But for those who areinterested in delving deeper, I would recommend the article.Information on the Barbel Society is at the end of this article.

So what did Steve Pope have to say? …”Barbel fishing isundoubtedly one of the great angling experiences, catch your firstbarbel from a beautiful fast flowing river and you will surelyunderstand what I mean. I suppose I could give you many reasons, somefactual, some philosophical as to why I believe so passionately thatbarbel should not be in stillwaters; but I won’t do that here.Instead I will put to you that barbel fishing is about so much morethan merely catching the fish; It truly encompasses all that we asanglers cherish and hold dear. The escape to wild waters, flowingwaters, waters that are alive, waters that quite simply have a soul.Rivers.

This then is where the Prince of the River resides, the mostmajestic and sporting of fishes, our friend the barbel.

No one should have to travel too far these days to find a riverthat holds barbel, so go on and get down to the riverbank and catchone, a wild and powerful creature – not a commodity.

Swim wild, swim free.”

I also spoke with Dr Andy Orme, who amongst other things runs apredominantly barbel fishery on the River Teme. Andy’s site iswww.zyworld.com/andyorme.This is what he had to say…’‘I am completely opposed to thestocking of barbel into any stillwaters for three reasons:

1) Barbel are adapted to thrive in rivers and it isfundamentally cruel to force them to live in an environment to whichthey are not suited.

2) It reflects very badly on the sport of angling as a wholebecause it suggests that anglers are unconcerned about the welfareand health of their quarry.

3) The creation of a commercial market for barbel encouragesunscrupulous people to steal them from rivers.

It should be banned immediately”

The Barbel Society has a membership in excess of 1,200 includingthe most well known and successful barbel anglers in the country, aswell as complete novices. Membership runs from June 16 and costs£ 15.50. Included in the price are two magazines and three glossynewsletters plus access to top barbel fisheries. It’s an openmembership, as Steve said to me, ‘We welcome all those who basicallyenjoy barbel and barbel fishing’. Steve can be contacted on Stevepope@btinternet.com.He will gladly send you further details on joining the Society.

No, next week’s Pilgrim’s Progressis not dedicated to The Dave Clarke Five…In ‘Bits And Pieces’ I’msharing about a number of different things. See you next Thursday.Oh, by the way, if you don’t know who the Dave Clarke Five were, theywere the 60’s equivalent of Westlife. And if you don’t know whoWestlife are, then there’s no hope for you…