Ambition...

[108831]

Can't cry about otters,they are here to stay,what I was getting at was that they are just a nail in the coffin of southern barbel,I wonder if the barbel population slumped as much as it has here that your opinion would be the same,up't north otters have probably always been there,but fish hopefully spawn more often,or at least succeed more often,don't forget our wonderful populations of signal crayfish that don't help egg and fry survival,can't cry or do anything about them either,can't see them disappearing any time soon...,cormorants hit the smaller fish hard for more than a decade,though now seem to have found a way round it,some EU's have made drastic inroads into populations of quality fish too,perhaps if we just allow everything to happen,it would all be ok in the morning....if you were an ostrich,polluters are let away lightly,especially the masses of sewage works dumping billions of litres of neat sewage nationally every year during periods of high water,killing virtually all invertebrate life in extreme circumstances.Fish have many problems in this overcrowded country of ours,especially barbel it seems,because in Europe this isn't occurring I believe.

 

[lutra]

Can't cry about otters,they are here to stay,what I was getting at was that they are just a nail in the coffin of southern barbel,I wonder if the barbel population slumped as much as it has here that your opinion would be the same,up't north otters have probably always been there,but fish hopefully spawn more often,or at least succeed more often,don't forget our wonderful populations of signal crayfish that don't help egg and fry survival,can't cry or do anything about them either,can't see them disappearing any time soon...,cormorants hit the smaller fish hard for more than a decade,though now seem to have found a way round it,some EU's have made drastic inroads into populations of quality fish too,perhaps if we just allow everything to happen,it would all be ok in the morning....if you were an ostrich,polluters are let away lightly,especially the masses of sewage works dumping billions of litres of neat sewage nationally every year during periods of high water,killing virtually all invertebrate life in extreme circumstances.Fish have many problems in this overcrowded country of ours,especially barbel it seems,because in Europe this isn't occurring I believe.

Not the same for me Alan as there not an ingredient in the hotpot up here.

Barbel and otters lived quite happily together for hundred's of thousands of years on some of our rivers. If we have reached the point that native fish are no longer self sustaining in your rivers, heads should be rolling at the EA for me, not the otters.

 

[108831]

Lol,something else that will never change,when the barbel were still in good numbers on the River Ivel in Bedfordshire,the EA in their infinite wisdom sent a team to electrofish the stretch,this occurred in May,guess what,right when the barbel were spawning,several fish were lost,including a big double,my disbelief held no bounds,that these plonkers just carried on regardless through around 50-60 spawning barbel(fish up to 17lbs plus)that were thrashing the water to a foam,it was written about in the local papers,just to prove what anglers cash pays for.

 

[Philip]

Seems to me its just cycles. When i first set out to try and catch a Barbel (i was in south London) Barbel venues where pretty thin on the ground and although the Thames held them realistically for a prolific venue you had to either go South to the Avon or Stour or do as i did and make the hour and a half trip to the Kennet. A double was a very big fish from.anywhere and a double from the Kennet was rare.

Then Barbel basically exploded and they appear to be everywhere and to gob smacking sizes. Now it appears to have peaked but at least from an outside point of view there is still a hell of allot more Barbel.about than there once was. Everything has to peak but they will.come again.

 

[108831]

I take you still live in the London area Philip,i'm interested to know what people in southern anglers think on the populations in their local venues,your views on cycles could be acceptable apart from the fact,the cycles are extremely long,I can date back many years on the H.Avon,D.Stour,Kennet,Thames,Ouse etc,up until the last ten years all rivers stayed roughly the same,after a lull after initial stockings,all rivers populations even out and stay pretty even,with fry survival rate being lower in rivers with long term populations of barbel,imo due to the adult fish predating their own,today however certainly on the Thames,Ouse and Ivel,a crash has taken place,there are still barbel present,but now I think a single hookbait,in the sit and hope method might be the best option,if anyone has seen good numbers on the Ouse on FM please let me know,even on this thread,or by pm,i'm not interested where you've seen them,just if you've seen different to me...

I'm thinking of opening another thread asking these questions.