Well I have waited to see what others have had to say. But I will tell you this. On some parts of the River Lea you will catch barbel and nothing else. yet only 3 years ago you would catch chub, perch, Roach, gudgeon, the odd dace and the odd barbel
Now it is Barbel or nothing, this season I have spoken to many of the anglers fishing there, not one roach or perch all season, yet down stream a mile, anglers are having a field day. It seems the Barbel have pushed the others out, lets hope things balance out soon.
I do like catching barbel myself, but when your after other species and get nothing but barbel, it makes you wonder, are we doing the right thing.
Towards the end of the 80's and ealy 90's, the same thing happened at Adams Mill, it hasn't returned back to the way it was, but then what river has.
It's not just down to Barbel, I think the rivers are to clear now, and am sure this is affecting the spawning of fish, just my view, but the rivers in the 70's were full of fish and the water alwaysseemed to havea little colour in it.