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still water barbel - depressing news.


Guest lyn

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Guest Barbus maximus

I have to side with Ian here as well. I am a Barbel Society member but appreciate there is a commercial market which he has to cater for, it's the man's job for goodness sake. If we can learn from Ian's studies of these barbel then we could all benefit I trust him to monitor the situation honestly - and I couldn't trust any other fishery manager with barbel to do the same. Well done to Steve Pope for sticking with Ian too for the same reasons. But Ian what if your research show the stillwater barbel you have are not doing well? will you remove them to the river at Burfield? and stop stocking them into other lakes?

 

Ian does a difficult job and does it well, we never praise him when he gets it right only criticise when we feel he makes mistakes. Thanks for being so honest Ian and I am sure you will continue to bring more people into river barbel fishing as you have always done. And yes where is the 'forgotten' river?

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Guest Paul Williams

Ian,

As someone who loves to fish for barbel but doesn't put them on a pedastal above any other species i can to some extent see where you are coming from....but one thing worries me.

You say that anglers want barbel put into stillwaters because they don't want to struggle on a river to catch them...ok that may appear fair comment at face value but once groups like yours manufacture these easy unnatural waters holding our native river species what is going to happen to our rivers, many clubs are already struggling to justify keeping stretches of river, will we see them devoid of anglers and left wide open to the threat of flood relief.

A day or two ago i stated on another thread that the angling world i was privilaged to grow up in would be finished in 30yrs time.....if you are serious about your love of river fishing then perhaps a little deeper thought is needed, because this is one time i would love to be wrong!

What you are doing is in my opinion knocking more nails into our rivers future and that to me is far more important than the barbel themselves!

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Guest Graham E

Ian, Thank you for your lengthy response.

 

So it was a purely commercial decision that you don't agree with? That's my understanding of your answer.

 

What I can't understand is the need to challenge nature, which has had a lot longer than your hierachy to "organise" things.

 

Like others, I am saddened at this "sell out". I hope you are being paid well.

 

An extra point.....This is a MATCH lake, so those who agree with the idea also agree with fish, including barbel being in 50lb bags crammed into keepnets.

 

Time for the BS to re consider.

 

[This message has been edited by Graham E (edited 08 May 2001).]

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Guest danzante

My knowledge of river fishing is as much as knowing that the unit mass of the amoeba constantly changes it's shape.

 

I watched proudly as my son landed a five pound barbel in a still water (Lym Vale)some eight years ago, it's condition was superb, not a scale out of place, ready to go to the dance.

 

Even then i thought it a shame for such a fine handsome fish (of which my biggest in a river is half a pound and i could be exaggerating) be destined for the rest of it's life to patrol the murky waters of a lake instead of it's natural habitat.

 

 

IMO, it is ignorance why so many of us do not fish the river, certainly on my part it is, i aim to put that right in the future.

 

I also think there is not enough information as regards catching barbel in the river, maybe that is why anglers prefer the easy option of barbus in fisheries, i'm wanting to try and with the help of some of these threads so will many others smile.gif

Danny.

 

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Guest Fatboy

I always thought that it was cruel to keep any animal under conditions in which they do not thrive.

 

If they don't thrive in still water - by which I mean they don't breed, they do not live a full, 'normal' life cycle.

 

I think the attitude of catering to the demand of those who want easy fishing whilst

causing 'cruelty' is playing into the hands of the anti's.

 

Alan

 

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Guest Barbus maximus

The point is it is not cruel at all, grass carp and rainbow trout have been here for years and nobody complains because they grow well and it looks like barbel may spawn in some stillwaters anyway, they certainly appear to grow well - if they do not I'm sure RMC Angling will be the first to admit it and they then have the power to try to persuade some of the other commercial fisheries of this. As Ian Welch said in his post barbel don't breed in some rivers so let us get our priorities right and concentrate on fighting for pure rivers and don't criticise other anglers for choosing to fish for stillwater barbel when it is their right to choose to do so. Educate them and encourage them to fish for river barbel by all means but do not pillory them, they are enjoying their sport the same way we do.Anglers have to unify not divide and be defeated by the antis.

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Guest DerwentBob

With day ticket river fishing being the exception rather than the norm then demand for other Barbel fishing will only increase as the profile of the species is raised higher and higher. I used to love Barbel fishing on the Trent but now the stretches I used to fish seem to be stitched up between Works Clubs who don't admit non-employees and clubs with lengthy waiting lists and three-figure subs. While attitudes like these prevail then stillwater Barbel and Chub will become more and more prevalent.

 

Public money goes into cleaning these rivers and preventing their destruction in the first place so in my opinion they should be opened up to the general public and not locked away. That would go some way to alleviating the problem.

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Guest Jonty

I too, could not bring myself to agree with the stocking of what is patently a fast-water fish into still-waters, but I think that I was making the same mistake as many others have done, in assuming that all the still-waters in question would be little muddy `carp-puddles` (please note that I use that term merely because it is one which most people seem to understand - it does tend to conjour-up the relevant picture in ones mind).

 

However, I was given cause for further thought on this last Saturday. I was enjoying a carp-fishing session on my local club's lake, when I received a visit from my (also local - he lives a few hundred yards away from me) EA Bailiff.

 

Now Mick is one of those guys who likes a natter - and natter we did !! About all sorts of piscine interests. It was whilst we were discussing fishers without rod licences that Mick mentioned a match which he had turned-up at in order to check licences, and found the usual percentage of men there who did not have one - this was at the Browning Cudmore complex at Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffs., where barbel have been stocked for some time now.

 

As with many of us, Mick does not agree with the stocking of barbel into still-water, but he did also say that he has, in the cause of his duties, had occasion to check the fish in this complex, and he stated that the barbel at Cudmore are in superb condition.

 

At last, I have got to the point of this saga! - Cudmore has a considerable through-flow of water, and is therefore not as still a still-water as most. And it is this continual water flow which Mick thinks has helped these barbel to maintain such good condition.

 

What do you think ?? - could not this be a good parameter to be adopted where fisheries wish to stock barbel?? - allowed only where it can be shown that there is a considerable REAL flow of water??

 

Jonty

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Guest phil hackett
Originally posted by lyn:

Lyn

As an angler who has fished for most species (including barbel in rivers only) over the last 25 years, and for me to be able to understand your point of view. I have to ask you and BS, "Is your stance against barbel being stocked in stillwater based on a moral or scientific stance?"

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Guest Paul Williams

Barbus maximus,

When all interest for fishing rivers has gone, who will be bothered about fighting for clean rivers?

I still think there is a lack of foresight to all this if you claim to genuinlly care about rivers.

Rivers are the very essance of angling, and in my book the finest place to catch fish such as barbel.

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