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Seems a worrying bit of news .

Currently watching the news on TV (suffering from Olympics overload!) and there's a special report on pollution in rivers.
Whilst it's great to have this subject kept in the spotlight, the news programme makers obviously think its a recent problem.
How many years have us anglers been banging on about the decline of water quality in our rivers?
Not just sewage but drug compounds and dangerous chemicals are found regularly by volunteers taking water samples. We've known about this for years but only now is the message getting into mainstream media.
As the saying goes "wake up and smell the coffee Joe Public" (I added that last bit!)
 
Paul Bullinger said:
Currently watching the news on TV (suffering from Olympics overload!) and there's a special report on pollution in rivers.
Whilst it's great to have this subject kept in the spotlight, the news programme makers obviously think its a recent problem.
How many years have us anglers been banging on about the decline of water quality in our rivers?
Not just sewage but drug compounds and dangerous chemicals are found regularly by volunteers taking water samples. We've known about this for years but only now is the message getting into mainstream media.
As the saying goes "wake up and smell the coffee Joe Public" (I added that last bit!)
Click to expand...
What channel are you watching Paul ?
 
Slightly off piste but……..This is why I have never blamed Otters for the demise of Barbel in the river Teme. In the 90’s the river was literally full of fish of all varieties with Barbel clearly seen in almost every swim. I also saw plenty of otters in the evenings without any noticeable decrease in fish numbers ( including Barbel ) The river From 1999 to the 2000 season the fish simply disappeared , particularly the Barbel. It was almost as if a switch was pulled and they were virtually gone overnight. I always thought it was a catastrophic pollution event that was simply ‘ongoing’. I can’t prove it of course but now we know the rivers are horribly polluted and small rivers the obvious ones to suffer the most grievous harm. Bloody heartbreaking.
G.T.
 
David Craine said:
Picked this up this morning . Whilst we are all aware of pollution this made the BBC today . A disgusting state of affairs.

www.bbc.co.uk

River Wharfe anglers get safety guidance over polluted water

Anglers on the River Wharfe in West Yorkshire say contamination has left some of them seriously ill.
www.bbc.co.uk

David
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Every river in England has varying levels of e-coli.
www.bedfordindependent.co.uk

Monthly column: Bedford's Great River Ouse e-coli levels hit new high - Bedford Independent

Local environmental campaigners, Bedfordshire Great Ouse Valley Environmental Trust (BedsGovet) who launched the...
www.bedfordindependent.co.uk www.bedfordindependent.co.uk
 
Graham Tremble said:
Slightly off piste but……..This is why I have never blamed Otters for the demise of Barbel in the river Teme. In the 90’s the river was literally full of fish of all varieties with Barbel clearly seen in almost every swim. I also saw plenty of otters in the evenings without any noticeable decrease in fish numbers ( including Barbel ) The river From 1999 to the 2000 season the fish simply disappeared , particularly the Barbel. It was almost as if a switch was pulled and they were virtually gone overnight. I always thought it was a catastrophic pollution event that was simply ‘ongoing’. I can’t prove it of course but now we know the rivers are horribly polluted and small rivers the obvious ones to suffer the most grievous harm. Bloody heartbreaking.
G.T.
Click to expand...
I have to agree with that anecdote. The H. Avon valley was under water from Oct to March that season and the '00/'01 season was a real contrast to those previous.
Simply, if agricultural run off is a problem during any year, wetter years will exacerbate the problem.
I used to think that it was a downward migration of fish that I saw, countered only by the lack of fish in lower stretches also, but the above makes more sense.
 
Ive been fishing the Wharfe last few weeks and there is a noticeable lack of barbel about , especially downstream of Tadcaster bridge , recent years it’s been full of em ! There’s 3 storm outflows just around the bridge alone , let alone the ones above the bridge.
How this is legal and being allowed to happen is totally beyond me .
 
I think they are still very localised Kevin Brown and still very much responding to moving baits aposed to static approaches. I personally haven't caught as many in a whole season as I have to date this season and they are 95% Wharfe fish. The frustrating thing is that the fines will be paid by higher bills to the end user.
 
Paul Verity said:
I think they are still very localised Kevin Brown and still very much responding to moving baits aposed to static approaches. I personally haven't caught as many in a whole season as I have to date this season and they are 95% Wharfe fish. The frustrating thing is that the fines will be paid by higher bills to the end user.
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I agree on all counts Paul. As for water bills, ours has almost doubled, and although we have used more water this last year, we have not used double the amount. Talk about smuggling price rises in under the radar!
 
Paul Verity said:
I think they are still very localised Kevin Brown and still very much responding to moving baits aposed to static approaches. I personally haven't caught as many in a whole season as I have to date this season and they are 95% Wharfe fish. The frustrating thing is that the fines will be paid by higher bills to the end user.
Click to expand...
Yeah I think there localised above Taddy bridge ! Look at the Leeds DASA matches at Ulleskelf one barbel being caught , that’s not right . Some say a lot have ended up in the Ouse with the winter floods etc plus cold spring right when they were going to spawn , last year saw a drop off around this time although it started brightly.
That’s how I’m catching em with float or rolling meat but my seasons total I could have caught in a few hours on an evening spell in recent years .
There’s definitely fewer barbel below Taddy , where they’ve gone I’m not sure , we may never see them again on that stretch ☹️
 
Paul Verity said:
I think they are still very localised Kevin Brown and still very much responding to moving baits aposed to static approaches. I personally haven't caught as many in a whole season as I have to date this season and they are 95% Wharfe fish. The frustrating thing is that the fines will be paid by higher bills to the end user.
Click to expand...
There was a media announcement a few days ago, that Yorkshire Water, and another company, were heavily fined, a certain percentage of their turnovers. Ofwat (likely toothless tigers) have stated that the companies cannot pass these fines onto their customers. The share holders have to take the losses. How that works out remains to be seen.
 
And here’s the thing…….bugger all will change under Labour either. Politicians are only interested in votes not clean water. All noise and no action. Apologies to those easily politically offended.
G.T.
 
Graham Tremble said:
And here’s the thing…….bugger all will change under Labour either. Politicians are only interested in votes not clean water. All noise and no action. Apologies to those easily politically offended.
G.T.
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my own view Graham is that politicians live within their own bubble. Our water has seemingly reached the situation where we are all at risk. We see the problems of lack of housing, medical care, water pollution etc espoused on the news ad finitum. Climate change seems to be a easy target as the cause. Unprovable of course for or against as it has no voice or historical data.
I don't suppose all our systems are overloaded due to the increase of our population of perhaps around 40% in my life time. I am sure politicians are just bursting to tell us how many extra houses/ hospitals/ water treatment plants etc they built for their planned population growth.
Please do not misunderstand me. I accept the need for immigration, I accept people are entitled to look to improve their lives in any way they can.
The current rioting is clearly totally indefensible. If the perpetrators had any sense perhaps they would seek peaceful means to make their point, but riot and peace seem uneasy bedfellows.
 
Alan Rose said:
I agree on all counts Paul. As for water bills, ours has almost doubled, and although we have used more water this last year, we have not used double the amount. Talk about smuggling price rises in under the radar!
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My water bill has almost doubled too and I'm certainly not using double the amount!
I did a 'double take' when I looked at the bill!! 😳
 
Kevin Brown said:
Ive been fishing the Wharfe last few weeks and there is a noticeable lack of barbel about , especially downstream of Tadcaster bridge , recent years it’s been full of em ! There’s 3 storm outflows just around the bridge alone , let alone the ones above the bridge.
How this is legal and being allowed to happen is totally beyond me .
Click to expand...
I agree with you Kevin. I and n my pal have both both float fished below Taddy bridge and it has been very poor
 
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