black bass in u.k waters?

[Ken L]

It is amazing that nobody has done a deal with a power station with waste hot water to set up an exotic fishery. Afterall, the folks at "Seabait" managed it for their worms.

[Nugg]

It maybe unlikley that a fishery would get a licence, for a new fishery, for these.

http://www.hmso.gov.uk/si/si1998/19982409.htm

[Nightwing]

Ken L:

It is amazing that nobody has done a deal with a power station with waste hot water to set up an exotic fishery. Afterall, the folks at "Seabait" managed it for their worms.

I have to wonder if you would need to use a power station?

We have loads of them in Michigan, where the winters are far, far colder than the U.K., and they survive quite well here even in waters that normaly never get out of the 50's.

If cold water is still a problem, however..maybe you could use smallmouth bass. Smaller(slightly) then largemouth, they are a boarderline coldwater fish(often sharing streams with trout and salmon over here), well suited I would think to some of your waters. They fight MUCH harder then largemouths..putting up an incredible battle for their weight.

[Peter Sharpe]

They were definitely stocked into a pond at Wittering near Stamford (I think it is called White Water Reservoir). All long gone now though.

[argyll]

Nightwing, the problem is more to do with the Environment Agency paranoia about the introduction of foreign species. Some of it justified, some not. But if we were to introduce bass into the UK, then please Lord make it striped bass.

[Newt]

Striped bass need pretty large waters to thrive. Fun fish though.

 

And I agree with Nightwing that the smallmouth bass seems much better suited to UK conditions than the largemouth.

[captain cojones]

hi newt, seems a shame to me that there dont appear to be any bass in waters in the u.k, well not at present anyway. it does look like they were there in very limited numbers, in a few waters in the past. we have`sheds full`of them here in spain,a lot thrive in waters that get a lot colder than the u.k in the winter,they are incredibly popular, maybe because there are so many ways to catch them, or maybe because they spend as much time in the air as in the water when you do hook one!!?!

[Newt]

I surely like to catch them.

 

Which ones do you have over there?

[captain cojones]

hi newt, im no expert, but i think theyre the smallmouth variety, i came from england so i had no experince there of them, but here i would say that they are the most sought after fish that swims in freshwater!they are found from the north to the south.there is a huge competition every year, based on lake caspe, last year teams from over 70 countries competed.i belive your lot won. pure luck of course!!!

[Leon Roskilly]

argyll:

Nightwing, the problem is more to do with the Environment Agency paranoia about the introduction of foreign species. Some of it justified, some not. But if we were to introduce bass into the UK, then please Lord make it striped bass.

Some striped bass appeared in commercial catches on the German side of the North Sea a couple of years or so ago, leading to speculation that they had somehow started to establish a European population.

 

(Stripers readily move into, and colonise freshwater.)

 

I was at a meeting at DEFRA last week, with Graham Pickett of CEFAS and took the opportunity to ask if anything more had been heard of them - sadly his answer was 'no'.

 

Tight Lines - leon