On Tuesday 15th December 2009 a total of 850 fish were stocked into the four major barbel fisheries on the river: Costessey Point received 250 young barbel and the remainder were split equally between fisheries at Taverham Mills, Lenwade and Lyng.
This was a two tier project which has been worked on for several years and is the result of an agreement between NACA, the WFAP committee, the Environment Agency (EA) and Natural England (NE).
The stocking at Costessey was agreed two years ago by NACA officials after its ground breaking habitat restoration project on the river was compromised and two to three years of successful spawning were lost. The second tier of the project came about after angling representatives on the committees had long been concerned that barbel stocks in the river were struggling to sustain their numbers. As barbel is felt to be a key angling species for the Wensum, it was possible that several major fisheries could have ceased to be economically viable and collapsed without them.
It is hoped that the River Wensum Restoration Strategy will help to ensure the survival of barbel in the future, through improved spawning grounds, reduced siltation, general habitat improvements, protected flow levels and enhanced migration capabilities. In the meantime, we are attempting to bolster the population with yearly injections of young fish to counteract the effects of poor spawning success and to try and compensate for the increased levels of predation by otters and cormorants.
All fish stocked were fitted with electronic tags to allow them to be tracked for monitoring purposes. The results of this tracking will be available for future reference to identify nursery areas and migration patterns.
We believe that this ongoing stocking agreement is unique and helps illustrate how Fishery Action Plans can function successfully.
In this case a number of committee members have pressed for action on both barbel and roach for a considerable time. To support the case, a report on the status of Wensum barbel stocks was produced by Tim Ellis, fishery manager at NACA Sayers Meadow, Lyng. Contributors included Roy Church (WFAP Chair), Mark Rylands (NACA Costessey Point), Simon Wrigglesworth (AW Taverham Mills), Mo’ Morrish (Lenwade Mill), Charles Sayer (Landowner), Chris Turnbull (NACA and WFAP) and Roger Gibbons (Norfolk Flyfishers Club).
We are grateful for the work put into the project by Richard Leishman from NE, Rob Dryden and Dafydd Evans at the EA. Thanks is extended to the EA fisheries team and the EA fish farm at Calverton, Notts for all their hard work on the day with stocking, arranging, tagging and supplying the barbel.
