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Prolonged heat

I've seen some Anglers on the Trent already use the battery operated aquarium pumps, when retaining barbel in cradles like the korum fast mats that can hold water, to help them recover. Apparently those particular pumps offer very little, if any benefit to the fish and they possibly cause the fish to be retained out of their natural environment longer than necessary, when they should be being rested and recover in the river.
 
Yeah, the contribution of oxygen to the water by a typical battery powered air pump would in my assumption not be sufficient to replenish the oxygen uptake of a large fish like a barbel. It’s lip service. If I remember correctly only about 20% of the air injected into water via an air pump dissolves and it’s the agitation and disruption of surface tension that’s of more benefit. It’s not just about oxygen in, it’s about co2 out.

The best place for a fish to recover is back where it came from if possible, we all know that.
 
As an road cyclist I inflate tyres with co2 canisters. Attach those filled with o2 to a tube with an air stone at the end?
 
Richard Isaacs said:
Something that neatly hooks or drops on to the inside of a net frame would be quite nice Jon and blows a good volume of air and turbulence into the net with a recovering fish.
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I'm thinking minn kota leccy outboard and leisure battery. Perfect for roaming on a backwater.
 
Mark Harridence said:
I've seen some Anglers on the Trent already use the battery operated aquarium pumps, when retaining barbel in cradles like the korum fast mats that can hold water, to help them recover. Apparently those particular pumps offer very little, if any benefit to the fish and they possibly cause the fish to be retained out of their natural environment longer than necessary, when they should be being rested and recover in the river.
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Yes I've seen that on the web Mark. Some guy with the best of intentions seemingly stressing a retained barbel in a 'fish poacher' with an air pump that doesn't seem up to the job. Bob Roberts and others trying to persuade the guy that what he is promoting is not beneficial to barbel handling care.
 
Mark Harridence said:
I've seen some Anglers on the Trent already use the battery operated aquarium pumps, when retaining barbel in cradles like the korum fast mats that can hold water, to help them recover. Apparently those particular pumps offer very little, if any benefit to the fish and they possibly cause the fish to be retained out of their natural environment longer than necessary, when they should be being rested and recover in the river.
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I’m not surprised because that’s just about the worst place you could want to recover a fish.
I do think Jon has a nice idea of being able to agitate the water and put oxygen flow right onto them while recovery is happening in the river itself when it’s not always possible to hold them head upstream in turbulent water.
If it helps by just making recovery 5% faster then it’s a winner
It would need to be thought out well in order to work. Directional and powerful to get the bubbles where they are needed.
 
Joe Winstanley said:
How about just waiting till the temps have dropped back down to normal levels before targeting barbel? No need for any Heath- Robinson style oxygenating contraptions then 🙂
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To be fair, I was totally tongue in cheek. I think if you need something like that to revive a fish, then it's too hot to be catching them. I understand others may disagree, and I'm not even interested in arguing over it.
 
Although, if I really felt the need to , I would use a car tyre pump. I gave my livey bucket a blast with one once, blew the lid off the bucket.
 
Stephen Crowhurst said:
When fish are packed for shipping that’s quite often what’s done. The bag is inflated with O2 or the vat is injected with it.
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If rivers are suffering to the point of killing aquatic life, injecting dissolved oxygen into the water can't be that difficult surely.
 
Jon Young said:
i was thinking of something to use all season long to help speed up the recovery time not something to give people an excuse to head out in dangerous conditions
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Yeah I knew what you meant Jon even if others didn’t catch on.
Certainly not as a reason or excuse to fish in these heat wave conditions. Just forward thinking and trying to improve on fish care further in general.
If it’s not viable or something that will work there’s no harm in thinking about these things.
 
Damian Kimmins said:
If rivers are suffering to the point of killing aquatic life, injecting dissolved oxygen into the water can't be that difficult surely.
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I’m sure if you started doing the maths there you’d reach a conclusion.

In a warming world where we expect these things to be more frequent and extreme we would be wise to make modifications that increase flow and agitation. We’d also be sensible to decrease unnecessary abstraction and organic input. But that would be sensible.
 
Stephen Crowhurst said:
I’m sure if you started doing the maths there you’d reach a conclusion.

In a warming world where we expect these things to be more frequent and extreme we would be wise to make modifications that increase flow and agitation. We’d also be sensible to decrease unnecessary abstraction and organic input. But that would be sensible.
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Exactly Stephen, it’s just about moving a little further forward and not about trying to find a work around for bad angling practices
I haven’t fished for barbel for weeks now and I’m not going to “Heath Robinson” something up to enable me to do so. However I am, when it’s safe to do so, going to look at Jon’s suggestion a little more seriously. I don’t think you can do enough to provide fish care for barbel and encouraging a speedy recovery at any time of year is only a positive thing.
It’s definitely a proven fact that they recover much quicker in turbulent water and it’s also a fact that we don’t always catch them in turbulent water.
Aerating which leads to oxygenating in a net with a resting fish isn’t hard to do and can only benefit your capture to a speedier recovery than if you didn’t.
There’s certainly no risk in trying it and if it does do the desired job of rapidly improve recovery, can be easily transported and activated very quickly….. then Why wouldn’t someone do it.

I don’t see it as a joke I see it as a potentially fantastic idea.
 
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