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How far North do barbel live

I’m of the belief, that only the Themes and Yorkshire river Ouse systems had indigenous barbel populations and all other rivers have been stocked? 🤔
 
These spate rivers in Scotland which originate in upland areas are just too acidic to support coarse fish like barbel. They are only suitable for Salmonids.
The East coast Scottish rivers support significant roach populations. The Tweed, Forth, Earn etc were worth fishing when I lived up there in the 80’s. These days I think the Forth is more of a dace fishery.

I didn’t come across any barbel info during the 5 years I spent up there. Most of the locals that I fished with were only interested in pike.
 
A week ago my wife and I were in Scotland as she was running in the Loch Ness Marathon (rather more brutal than she expected!!)
Anyway, we stayed up there for a few days to look around. The rivers were impressive. Many had fast sections but with areas of slack water. They seem ideal for barbel but they aren't found up there. Is it purely due to them not being introduced or is there another factor?View attachment 32157View attachment 32158Fred crouch said , it’s too cold 🥶 for barbel to reproduce naturally 👀
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Barbel are also native to the Trent, Great Ouse, Welland and Witham systems.
A friend now sadly passed away claimed to have witnessed EA stocking the Welland with barbel many years ago. I have never seen one or indeed know of anyone who has though I did hear a third hand rumour about 15 or so years ago that someone had caught a long lean fish similar to a carp with whiskers in the Market Deeping area. Unfortunately both the Witham and Welland are large rivers and it would take nothing for a few hundred fish to disappear within them! I would love the rumours to be true!
 
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