Ambition...

[108831]

Is it common in angling(particularly barbel angling)to lose the ambition of chasing p.b.'s,these day's I love a small one as much as a big double,it could be just down to the fact i'm unlikely to better my p.b.,or decreasing stocking levels,I just don't know.

 

[binka]

Unlike one or two other species I've never really held much ambition with big barbel, I've had a few but I put that down to being on the right river during the right era and little if anything to do with any advanced level of skill on my behalf.

That's not to detract from the joy they have brought me, I love catching them but I just find them a relatively easy species to catch and I'm happy to catch any size, particularly the really tiny ones that show some new generations coming through...





If you think about it the tiny ones are far rarer to a rod and line but they never cease to leave me in awe at what they eventually grow into...



As a generalisation I think lack of ambition is either down to a waning interest or, in my and likely your case, earlier fulfilment.

 

[tigger]

As a generalisation I think lack of ambition is either down to a waning interest or, in my and likely your case, earlier fulfilment.

I think that's about right Steve, I would imagine loss of interest is the most common factor.

 

[108831]

Funnily enough I caught my p.b. in early March 2012,I never night fished the venue and today night fishing is banned,due to irresponsible anglers upsetting the locals,not that it matters today as otters have killed most of the double figure fish,including my p.b.,fishing as difficult and if you fished once at the weekend you'd be lucky to catch seven or eight fish a season,fishing on the lower Dorset Stour wouldn't say it was easy to catch a barbel(and there are more there than where I fish),chub are far easier to catch and always have been on the venues I fish,if good numbers are present,competition occurs and you can expect captures,on my river's a poor cast is an opportunity lost,because they won't accept another,for at least a few hours anyway.Any easy venues please pm me their location...my lips are sealed

 

[flightliner]

I reckon I,m in the same boat, over the years I ,ve built up a reasonable list of species bests, mostly by design but the odd one or two purely down to good fortune.
These days I,m happy fishing for anything big or small and any method in as wide a variety of places as I could want.
Maybe two ambitions not realised are a ten pound tench , (best a 9-8) and having fished for years on the tidal trent I would love to catch a sea trout, any size would do, had a rainbow and a brown but a silver tourist would be the cherry on top of the cake!.

 

[thecrow]

As a generalisation I think lack of ambition is either down to a waning interest or, in my and likely your case, earlier fulfilment.

Its all of that Steve/Whitty with me and not only with barbel, imo its down to a few reasons, first with me is that I have been there done that and got the T shirt, most of my angling ambitions have been achieved mostly through having time on the bank of the right waters not through any particular skill I might have ( I do have some I reckon but where they hide I don't know ) because of this I no longer care how big the fish that I catch are I am happy just to get a bite.

Second reason is that I no longer have any interest (or physical capability) in spending long periods on the bank day sessions are enough for me and if the fishing isn't so good its a short enough time for the fishing to keep me interested.

Third reason? my favourite river has had a lot of attention from Otters and while I don't want to get into an argument about them there is no doubt that they have done a lot of damage to some small rivers in the areas that I fished these rivers. I no longer have the will to trundle over fields on my spazmobile to reach un fished bits of the river that have been invaded and ruined by these creatures.

I shall be trying something new this coming season but I wont care a jot how big a fish I might catch.

 

[108831]

I you get my drift Mick,all I want to do these days is pick up a few decent fish that I put the net under,not too many commercial caught fish if possible,last winter I enjoyed a fair run of success trotting on the pin for chub,nothing monstrous,but a fair few 5's and do you know why I caught them...because I wasn't barbel fishing like I normally would be,as you know my barbel catches have been poor for about 3-4 years or so now,last year I had a few on the Stour,two 12lbers and a few others,if only I could do that at my home waters...

---------- Post added at 15:20 ---------- Previous post was at 15:07 ----------

I'm in agreement with mister Crow,I have no wish to kill every otter or argue their affect,my p.b. was killed by one,as a witness scared it off of it's tail damaged body and had the barbel die in his arms,minus vital organs...my memories catching barbel relatively easily on a wide variety of rivers,no longer a viable option,I fished the Teme for the first time 6-7 years ago perhaps,wonderful it was,being able to fish half a dozen swims and catch barbel(and chub)easily,now i've read many anglers have blamed prolonged high water for washing the barbel away,hasn't washed the chub away though,and it never washed the barbel away every year on the Severn and Wye,rivers that carry more than 10ft of water regularly.

 

[tigger]

The rivers I fish all have otters present and they've had no noticeable impact on fish densities at all although some people beat the same old drum and do reckon they're eating all the fish, even though the anglers still catch as many fish and more than ever before. I fished this particular river since being young and back then there weren't even barbel present and the chub didn't go much over 3lb either, otters where present back then in just as high a number, along with cormorants etc etc. The reason the silvers have had some bad seasons (apart from the river conditions) is most likely due to their spawn being predated by barbel that in reality shouldn't be there at all!
A few years ago anglers blamed a seal for a fall in numbers of barbel, chub and just about all other species of fish present....they claimed it had cleared the river of most of the fish single handed but now the seal has long gone and it's time to blame the otters and cormorants, herons and mink etc etc.

 

[Philip]

The great thing about angling is there is so many facets and angles to it. If interest is waning then you can perhaps set different sorts of targets…best from a venue, bag of fish from a venue, best on the float, catch one from a new river and so on. The anglers who are only interested in upping their PB I don’t think are destined to stay in the sport very long.

 

[nottskev]

I'm no great shakes art barbel fishing, and good luck to those who set out after big ones, but two quick snapshots sum up why I've mostly lost interest. The year after I moved down to the Nottingham area, I took a friend who'd never seen a barbel to a local stretch of the Derwent. From a high bank we tempted them out of the far-side willows and watched them pick up pellets in the shallow water down the middle, then fed hemp in the some deeper water close by and waited. On starting to fish we caught 7 in two hours, between 5 and 8 lbs. Exciting, engrossing fishing. 10 years on, last year, I blanked on several early season trips to the stretch, as did a friend who lives 5 minutes from the river and knows how to catch barbel. Meanwhile, another angler, new to it and trying for his first, had a barbel of 13lb 4 oz. I don't grudge him his fish - I'm not very motivated by size anyway - but I do prefer several fish in a session to several sessions for a fish, and the shape of the population these days makes the latter more likely.

 

[steve2]

I haven’t caught a river Barbel in years although I have caught plenty from commercials in the past where they seemed to do well. So may be the future for Barbel lies with otter fenced still water commercials.
Like others I have had my fair share of big fish so size wise I have no real size ambitions apart from a big Roach or Dace. But I won’t go chasing them so they will have to be accidental captures and they won’t be thought of any less for that.

 

[108831]

I have been to the Gt.Ouse at Pavenham this morning,arriving just before 5am,I packed shortly after 9,when two otters spent more than 20 minutes cavorting in my swim,now up until the last 5-8 years I had seen 4 otters during daylight hours in 48 years of angling,since the period mentioned I couldn't hazard a guess the numbers i've seen,on 5 different rivers in various parts of the country,otters are wonderful animals,I have no wish to kill them,or push for this either,but whether we like it or not increased numbers of them,with no fear of man,hunting during daylight hours is not normal,the spawning success rate is obviously down,particularly for barbel,if barbel were killing otters it would be a different story,i'd like to know present barbel populations countrywide,i'm not in the know,but does anyone know a river where barbel numbers are increasing?I've heard rumour that the Wye and Severn seem to be slowing,but not fishing them don't have a clue.

 

[lutra]

I have been to the Gt.Ouse at Pavenham this morning,arriving just before 5am,I packed shortly after 9,when two otters spent more than 20 minutes cavorting in my swim,now up until the last 5-8 years I had seen 4 otters during daylight hours in 48 years of angling,since the period mentioned I couldn't hazard a guess the numbers i've seen,on 5 different rivers in various parts of the country,otters are wonderful animals,I have no wish to kill them,or push for this either,but whether we like it or not increased numbers of them,with no fear of man,hunting during daylight hours is not normal,the spawning success rate is obviously down,particularly for barbel,if barbel were killing otters it would be a different story,i'd like to know present barbel populations countrywide,i'm not in the know,but does anyone know a river where barbel numbers are increasing?I've heard rumour that the Wye and Severn seem to be slowing,but not fishing them don't have a clue.

All the signs I see say UK Barbel have increased massively in numbers, range and size in resent years. Can't see that stopping any time soon.

 

[Lord Paul of Sheffield]

Is it common in angling(particularly barbel angling)to lose the ambition of chasing p.b.'s,these day's I love a small one as much as a big double,it could be just down to the fact i'm unlikely to better my p.b.,or decreasing stocking levels,I just don't know.

As long as you are enjoying your fishing that's all that really matters

 

[108831]

All the signs I see say UK Barbel have increased massively in numbers, range and size in resent years. Can't see that stopping any time soon.

Perhaps I ought to move to Lancashire then Brian,for from South Midlands down numbers are down from what I hear,still barbel there,but reduced in varying degrees,an example would be that when I used to fish the Thames around Culham i'd struggle to catch 6-7 barbel a season,so quite hard,I struggle for that now on the Gt.Ouse and Ivel,in fact last season I totalled 9 barbel,7 of which were caught on the D.Stour,years ago I could have managed that in a weekend on the Ouse,we all live in our own bubbles,unless you're the sort of guy who travels the country,as I used to,the good thing is you're populations are doing well.

 

[flightliner]

I,d agree wholeheartedly that BB have become far more widespread than ever , over the last thirty years it,s been nothing short of a miracle to see them in rivers that were once amongst the worst in europe for pollution.
In the intervening period anglers catches have gone atmospheric in the size of individual fish and numbers in individual catches .
Today however I,m beginning to sense that the rivers I fish in the east and north midlands may have peaked. Catch numbers don't seem to be as consistant as they once were and tho big specimens certainly exist they don't seem, like the big numbers catches to be making the news as often as they once did which is why witties comments kind of resonate with me which in a way suggest a invisible sort of " creep" may be taking place in a northerly direction.
The rivers I direct my comments to are the Trent, one of its tributaries, the rother in South Yorkshire and maybe the upper witham in lincolnshire.
I sincerely hope my concerns are totally unfounded as my "evidence" is based very simply on my own observances and catches along with those of my angling aquintences and reports in the angling press and remembering a time not so long ago when it was common to see very small bb taken in anglers catches but not so often seen of late.
Hope I'm badly wrong , that someone can say all my concerns are unfounded as bb have given me and many others some of the best angling I,ve had.

 

[108831]

Snap to that Mick,though I wasn't inferring about the Trent,I had two small barbel 1lb 8ozish trotting for chub on the Ivel,thinking good news was in the offing,then I was told the EA had stocked them in before the season had started last year at around 4-12ozs,so basically the larder has been filled...

 

[lutra]

Snap to that Mick,though I wasn't inferring about the Trent,I had two small barbel 1lb 8ozish trotting for chub on the Ivel,thinking good news was in the offing,then I was told the EA had stocked them in before the season had started last year at around 4-12ozs,so basically the larder has been filled...

On the plus side whitty, that's mega impressive growth rate for small barbel. Maybe all southern barbel are turning cannibal and you will just have one big fat Bert to fish for soon.

What ever the problem, it seems way deeper than Otters and more like **** poor recruitment for what ever reason. Habitat, chemicals, water quality,......, all of?

 

[108831]

Possibly Brian,the silver fish populations have bounced back in recent years 0n the Ouse and Ivel,it's just barbel,I reckon it might be water extraction related,causing gravels to silt up slightly and with lack of recruitment,otters are just lowering numbers of potential parents for the next generations,the answer,who knows,there problem isn't one,other than to accept the demise of an iconic species,for stocking small barbel that won't be viable is akin to stocking them in a commercial,ok but not ideal imo... Alan

 

[lutra]

Possibly Brian,the silver fish populations have bounced back in recent years 0n the Ouse and Ivel,it's just barbel,I reckon it might be water extraction related,causing gravels to silt up slightly and with lack of recruitment,otters are just lowering numbers of potential parents for the next generations,the answer,who knows,there problem isn't one,other than to accept the demise of an iconic species,for stocking small barbel that won't be viable is akin to stocking them in a commercial,ok but not ideal imo... Alan

Cry about otters as much as you like Alan and I don't think crying is ever going to change that.

IMO the biggest problem is all the time and money that is wasted stocking and releasing things to cover up our problems. When if we focused a bit on habitat and really kicking polluters hard so they didn't keep doing it. Our rivers and fish stocks would be way better off and you wouldn't give a monkeys about otters. Brian.