Barbel in Nets

[Tony Rocca]

Been very interesting Stuart, guess we will never know.
I tend to favour the thought that the high water temp must have played a part in this particular instance, if not, the advice given by many that its not a good idea to target barbel in such conditions is rubbish. If the DO is ok for them to feed it must be ok for recovery following your theory.
Good stuff though,...... the Trents warmed up, its rained all night, Im off for a dangle.

 

[Bob Roberts]

The fish were around the 8lb mark from memory. The rod a 1.5lb test Shimano (not mine). Both fished bullied quickly into the waiting net and returned quickly to the water so as not to alert passers by.

I personally took each of the fish 40-50 yards upstream and held them in the current until they were ready to swim off. Even got a good tail soaking for my troubles. Glasses wearers will know what a pain that is.

My greatest consern isn't so much why did it happen here, it is how often does it happen elsewhere when you can't see the fish? In 12 to 18 inches of clear water it was difficult to spot a fish in distress beneath a bed of streamer weed.

Who knows, they may do this and recover of their own accord. If so, I'd sooner do it under my control than leave it to chance. Had those fish been messed around with on the bank, as many I've seen, the outcome might not have been quite so satisfactory.

The common practise of returning fish some way upstream on smaller rivers means the angler then walks away to carry on fishing unaware of whether the fish is in difficulties.

It may well sound good in print, "I walked upstream and slipped her back, she swam off strongly, untroubled by our brief encounter. I thanked the barbel Gods and crept back to the swim where dark shapes were already hoovering up my bait again..."

How many of those articles have we read?

 

[Graham Hepworth 2]

I've caught a few barbel and kept most of them in a keepnet for a few hours without any damage to the fish whatsoever.

I've never had an instance of a barbel's dorsal fin being damaged by a keepnet.......and how can I be sure?

Easy.....I check (quickly) the condition of the barbel before I release it. The first time I saw any net related damage would be enough to make me stop putting barbel in keepnets.

In short I'm being guided by personal observation and COMMON SENSE!

I should also add that I have only ever had two barbel in a keepnet at the same time and the net I use has a soft minnow mesh.

All of us owe it to ALL of the fish we catch to look after them to the very best of our ability.

 

[john walker 2]

can i ask a serious question and get some sensible answers on it please?
with multiple Barbel in keepnets, why is this done apart from bulk weighing in?,
with bulk weighing in the real damage is done when the net is lifted, imagine 2 or 3 guys on top of you in a cargo net with you at the bottom and it gets hoisted up, the weight imposed on the bottom person is massive, with barbel especially out of the water they just do not have the strong skeletal makeup of land creatures and the bearing down of several on top of the bottom one must be incredibly bad, whichever way the net is lifted this will occur, any answers please....j.w

 

[Fred Bonney]

John,apart from the jokers,windup merchants and matchfisherman,your point is accepted.


By the way the mentioning of matchfishermen is not a knock,Barbel like any other fish,in match nets are here to stay, unless a new method can be agreed.

 

[Baz]

What price fish welfare?