Joe Fletcher
No Longer a Member
We all know about the decline of Barbel over the years and a lot of the problems have been put down to the increase in the number of Otters and Cormorants the problems that they are causing to fish stocks .
Over the years that I have fished for Barbel mainly on the W/Avon I would catch the odd Barbel weighing on average of about 1lb or more in weight .
I don’t know of any one’s else experiences when it comes to catching smaller Barbel of this size and for what ever reason they to seemed to of declined in numbers or completely vanished ?
So it begs the question who or what is the reason for there decline ?
Also I have noticed that where I fish on the W/Avon the numbers of small Chub and roach have declined as well . Where they were once common
Years ago when I have fished this particular stretch . It was common to catch loads chub of any given size and now all you catch is the odd fish up to 3 to 5lb and smaller Chub are not so common as they once were .
We all know what impact Otters have had since being reintroduced with out any thought they would have on the fish stocks .
We all know about the problem that Cormorants have caused since moving inland away from there natural environment and there have been calls for culling of both Otters and Cormorants .
Nobody ever seems to mention another predator that was introduced illegally many years ago in to our rivers and waterways and is not a native species to UK waters and evidence suggests that since there introduction and rapid spread they have had a big in pact on the native fish stocks .
The illegally stocked predator that I am talking about are Zander
So is it time we considered that any Zander caught should not be returned to the water and should be culled . After all it is legal to cull any Zander caught .
I know this will probably up set a few people to dare make a such a suggestion .
Out of all the three main predators Otters , Cormorants and Zander .
The only one that can be culled legally is the Zander
If Zander are munching there way through smaller Barbel and the result is diminishing numbers of smaller fish that will grow in to larger fish . Then don’t it make sense to start culling Zander .
Documents presented at the Symposium on Stock Enhancement in the Management of Freshwater Fisheries. Volume 2: Introductions and Transplantations / Documents prsents au Symposium sur l'amlioration des stocks dans de cadre de l'amnagement des pcheries
Over the years that I have fished for Barbel mainly on the W/Avon I would catch the odd Barbel weighing on average of about 1lb or more in weight .
I don’t know of any one’s else experiences when it comes to catching smaller Barbel of this size and for what ever reason they to seemed to of declined in numbers or completely vanished ?
So it begs the question who or what is the reason for there decline ?
Also I have noticed that where I fish on the W/Avon the numbers of small Chub and roach have declined as well . Where they were once common
Years ago when I have fished this particular stretch . It was common to catch loads chub of any given size and now all you catch is the odd fish up to 3 to 5lb and smaller Chub are not so common as they once were .
We all know what impact Otters have had since being reintroduced with out any thought they would have on the fish stocks .
We all know about the problem that Cormorants have caused since moving inland away from there natural environment and there have been calls for culling of both Otters and Cormorants .
Nobody ever seems to mention another predator that was introduced illegally many years ago in to our rivers and waterways and is not a native species to UK waters and evidence suggests that since there introduction and rapid spread they have had a big in pact on the native fish stocks .
The illegally stocked predator that I am talking about are Zander
So is it time we considered that any Zander caught should not be returned to the water and should be culled . After all it is legal to cull any Zander caught .
I know this will probably up set a few people to dare make a such a suggestion .
Out of all the three main predators Otters , Cormorants and Zander .
The only one that can be culled legally is the Zander
If Zander are munching there way through smaller Barbel and the result is diminishing numbers of smaller fish that will grow in to larger fish . Then don’t it make sense to start culling Zander .
Documents presented at the Symposium on Stock Enhancement in the Management of Freshwater Fisheries. Volume 2: Introductions and Transplantations / Documents prsents au Symposium sur l'amlioration des stocks dans de cadre de l'amnagement des pcheries