thamesoddity

If I caught a barbel on a river like the itchen or test I'd consider killing it. However realistically this wouldn't make much difference to over all stocks. I'd love to see a no release policy on non-native barbel, coupled with an eradication policy!

Do you not think the demise could in fact be down to a lack of recruitment, due perhaps to changes in ecology that occurred before the otters arrived? And that the otters are simply highlighting an issue, as opposed to causing it?

Sounds like an amazing day's fishing. Well done.

Well done, it's a lovely looking common.

I've been trying a line called "stroft", it's one of the greatest hooklink materials i've ever used.

Could there be a Snakehead in the lake, illegally released from the pet trade? I believe they can survive our climate, and are capable of biting prey fish clean in half?

I hope that an equally large and well organised group of possibly illegal canoeists descend upon the same stretch as their match and ruin it.

Sounds like you're talking about dinton pastures lakes. the fishing is supposed to be good, plenty of carp, bream, tench etc. All to very large sizes. I think there's a 40lber in there, not sure though. It's council owned, heres a link: http://www.wokingham.gov.uk/parks/countryside/fishing/

I'd suggest investing in a fly fishing set up, you won't regret it.

the only problem is that it is impossible to know the exact starting conditions, i.e. the exact coordinates and conditions of the big bang.

An interesting idea based on a deterministic perspective. Pure theory, nothing else... ...Fish are simply complex biological things, governed by genes which dictate aspects such as size, natural wariness etc, and can in theory be entirely predictable in how they interact to minute changes in the local environment. So, if you were to map out the genome of your quarry and thoroughly study every genes' effect, you could in theory formulate a statistical model, of which the only variables would be the learned behaviors of the fish, which would be brought on my things like predation and angling pressure. So you could create a statistical model on which informed assumptions such as how likely a fish is to feed, where it will feed and what it will prefer as bait, and whether or not it will respond to camouflaged line. The genetics would even make a fish predisposed to wariness or feeding with seeming abandon. Also, providing a lake isn't stocked, the genome of your lake would be discrete, so you could (if you really had the time and motivation) work out the proportion of fish in the lake that will be likely to have these predispositions to wariness or strong feeding behavior. With this knowledge you could then surely devise an equation into which you simply type in variables such as temperature, light and date and be given an approximate probability of whether or not you'd catch or not... I've probably made a false assumption somewhere, so would be interested in seeing my theory ripped into by the biologists on the forum. One obvious problem is that it assumes that fish lack freewill, and the subsequent argument would be that humans lack free will as well, being also just a creature made up of genetic predispositions and cause and effect style learned behavior.

Going down the road of duality in quantum physics, how would you even know that there are any fish in the lake to begin with, all of the underwater element would be one big aquatic superposition. Schroedinger's tench?

You can form hypotheses based on anecdotal evidence though, and then seek to prove/disprove them. SO, I guess you could form a rough mathematical model of a scenario based on anecdotes, giving likely probabilities to events, mathematically predicting your outcome. I'm only an A-level science student, so I of course am lacking sufficient knowledge, but I don't see how you couldn't create a statistical model through anecdotes, it wouldn't be reliable, but it could function and would surely be a good start point?

Imagine the drudgery involved... saying that, I would love designing an equation, similar to the drake equation, that could model the probability of a stretch of river containing for instance a 3lb roach. Variables like Ph, predation, spawning habitat, average depth/flow, mean temperature, availability of weed, typical growth rates etc. Could be a fascinating way for specimen hunters to shortlist potential waters, although the flaw would be that you'd need to do gather a lot of experimental data and process it before putting it into the final equation, time that could have been better spent gathering anecdotal evidence using a rod and line... I think you'd need multiple anglers of varying skills repeating the experiment on a variety of waters, and then get an average from this wider study group, otherwise angling skill/watercraft could reduce the reliability of the experiment. Also, the angling pressure of the water could affect the results, i'd imagine that less pressured fish wouldn't be as fussy about line camouflage as pressured fish would be.

Did you catch a glimpse of the busy water voles vagabond?

I thought it was a fantastic day's fishing, very funny situation with you mike, imagine if no one was around to help you and you were just found in that position by the keeper. A very impressive Pb grayling, I didn't think that fish of that size existed on the standard section of the LIF these days. Rusty, your baps were great, and thank you very much for organising it all.

Amazing Roach. I managed 2 big chub, both 4lbers. 4 6-8 inch grayling and a few minnows. It's interesting arbocop that you found your 15 foot greys prodigy wasn't powerful enough. I was using a 15foot greys prodigy vx, i thought it was a tad bit too powerful for general trotting to be honest, but was perfect for the big chub that I hooked, but really top heavy and stiff. Only got it a week ago as an all round float rod, I'm a tad disappointed that it's so powerful, and so heavy. My arm aches now after having fished with it all day.

I wonder what the percentage loss of productivity in the workplace AN is responsible for.

I've had Grayling take bread before, so i doubt it'd make any difference.

Rod, Pin, maggots, bread net. Sure am, should probably charge camera batteries.

I'm going to target the roach as well, so you won't be alone in the hunt for red finned leviathans.

I've had good fish from the LIF and similar venues on 3-4lb mainline, good chub, big trout and nice grayling and roach, all of which were on 1lb 9oz bottom. 6lb mono seems equivalent to rope Also, does anyone know what the river conditions are like on the Itchen at the moment?

3 to 4lb b.s should do it.

I managed a 1lb 6oz roach whilst grayling fishing on the Test on Friday, a new Pb, although on the stretch I fished I've been told of specimens of over 3lbs coming out recently.