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Angling Times otter article

I started fishing the ivel in 2013 and while it was never an “easy” river if you knew it well and fished short sessions till dusk you could catch a proper barbel or 2 on 80% of your sessions. Alot of these fish were special captures any where between 10 and 14lb with the odd few going bigger. They weren’t all over the river but they were plentiful in certain parts.
In 2017 I cast my last line into that river. It took less than a year for it to go from an 80% to a 10% catch rate and now I would hazard a guess that a full season in the most prolific areas would probably see less than 5 fish for your efforts. it didn’t suffer a gradual decline it suffered a great big smack in the face.
We knew the big girl had been taken out and in fairness it was an old fish and looked weathered last time it was caught so one could say it was inevitable that at some point some how it didn’t have that long to go. But then in such a short space of time bodies were being found or seen in the water from many other barbel much younger fitter creatures too. I heard one or two decent pike fell to them also.
Yes the river suffered from anglers pressure
Especially in recent years as the big girl started tipping people’s scales at over 19lb but it was 100% down to that fury menace that obliterated the barbel stocks in there. In a very short space of time they came and killed most of the large specimens in that river. Truly heartbreaking as I would say it had to be one of the best places in England to wet a line.
 
My catches on the Lower Severn have dropped by 90% this season. Every session I see either Otters or Cormorants or both. The females have 5 young at a time. In Worcester they have been raiding residential ponds taking out the ornamental fish. Here is an Excerpt from Wiki to be aware of :
The pests can grow up to 4 feet long and weigh up to 30 pounds. If an otter feels threatened, its heavy, muscular body and sharp claws are enough to overpower pets and small children. Otters can transmit rabies to humans and pets. Immediate medical help is needed for any scratches or bites.
Also after the COVID mink episode where they slaughtered millions of them on mink farms after the virus was transmitted to humans it gets you wondering whether Otters could do the same.
 
Steven Hodges said:
My catches on the Lower Severn have dropped by 90% this season. Every session I see either Otters or Cormorants or both. The females have 5 young at a time. In Worcester they have been raiding residential ponds taking out the ornamental fish. Here is an Excerpt from Wiki to be aware of :
The pests can grow up to 4 feet long and weigh up to 30 pounds. If an otter feels threatened, its heavy, muscular body and sharp claws are enough to overpower pets and small children. Otters can transmit rabies to humans and pets. Immediate medical help is needed for any scratches or bites.
Also after the COVID mink episode where they slaughtered millions of them on mink farms after the virus was transmitted to humans it gets you wondering whether Otters could do the same.
Click to expand...
4 feet long?! I think your referring to another species, North American River Otter perhaps? I’m not aware of any documented records of Eurasian Otters attacking small children or transmitting rabies.
 
Joe Winstanley said:
4 feet long?! I think your referring to another species, North American River Otter perhaps? I’m not aware of any documented records of Eurasian Otters attacking small children or transmitting rabies.
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Joe you only have to google river Otters to get the info:

People also ask​

How big is a full grown otter?
A river otter can grow three to four feet (0.9 to 1.2 meters) long including its tail and weigh between 11 and 30 pounds (5 to 14 kilograms). Males are generally larger than females.

People also ask​

How big are otters in the UK?
95-130cm

In the UK otters can only really be confused with the introduced American mink, but otters are much larger (95-130cm in length, including tail), with a distinctive white throat.
 
I did read somewhere that a fox will kill an Otter if the opportunity arises but otherwise they have no natural predators:
Other mammal remains occasionally reported in Red fox diets include otter (Lutra lutra), stoat (Mustela erminea), weasel (Mustela nivalis), deer (including red deer, Cervus elaphus, roe deer, Capreolus capreolus, Reeves' muntjac,
www.miltonkeynes.co.uk

WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT: Are hungry otters killing swans in Milton Keynes?

A wildlife-lover has described his horror at seeing a swan killed and disembowelled by three otters at Willen Lake in Milton Keynes.
www.miltonkeynes.co.uk www.miltonkeynes.co.uk
 
Richard Isaacs said:
I reckon they’d be capable of this one Joe. They really don’t have a problem with squaring up to us. I’ve experienced it several times. Otters in the water hissing and swimming towards you rather than backing away.
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I dare say a stoat if cornered would attack an adult, let alone a small child. But as far as I know there are no documented otter attacks on people in the UK.
 
Steven Hodges said:
Joe you only have to google river Otters to get the info:

People also ask​

How big is a full grown otter?
A river otter can grow three to four feet (0.9 to 1.2 meters) long including its tail and weigh between 11 and 30 pounds (5 to 14 kilograms). Males are generally larger than females.

People also ask​

How big are otters in the UK?
95-130cm

In the UK otters can only really be confused with the introduced American mink, but otters are much larger (95-130cm in length, including tail), with a distinctive white throat.
Click to expand...
I don't need to google anything to know how long a full grown Eurasian dog otter can get to which is a shade over 3' without the tail. The North American 'River' Otters your referring to go to 4' without the tail.
 
Joe Winstanley said:
Reminds me of the Scottish Gamekeeping Association warning that White-Tailed Sea Eagles would soon start targeting small children and babies.
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You may mock .....
how-golden-eagle-snatches-kid-ruled-the-internet-1-3264-1364495269-7_big.jpg
 
Otters may only be part of the issue- I still think water quality and what is going on the rivers is also a large contributing factor.

Those fishing the lower reaches of the Severn will know how much shi*e was being pumped into the river over the winter and tail end of the season. At times the water looked like it had a white gleam to it, there was foam in the margins and it smelt like a mix between sewage and industrial detergent at times. The river has been out of sorts all season and that cannot be down to just otters
 
Joe Winstanley said:
The North American 'River' Otters your referring to go to 4' without the tail.
Click to expand...
I know a good chunk of bigfoot sightings in the US and Canada are actually river otters. So, y'know, the reverse could be true and maybe we've got bigfoots living by England's lowland rivers. Barbel taking b'stards. "BLOODY BIGFOOT!" you often hear on the riverbank. And you just roll your eyes and say to yourself "typical - just got rid of otters and cormorants and now we've got bigfoot coming in and having his dinner".
 
I have witnessed a great deal of otter activity. Some bizarre sights include families throwing frozen fish bought from Tescos in Abingdon to a bevy of otters on the river Ock running alongside the car park. Another was a young couple trying to entice an otter pup in the Windrush at Witney with bread they were feeding to the ducks. The ducks were not bothered by the otter.

I have seen the tail end of a battle between a dog otter and a swan from the far bank. It was gruesome and the noise and carnage was staggering - the otter won.

I and another angler watched an otter chase a fox the whole length of a field into a wood.

Last season - autumn/winter 2019 I spotted otters frequently. This season I have only come across spraints and paw prints.

For me, otters are half way down the list of issues affecting the rivers I fish.
 
In my humble opinion.
Ok guys... But what gave the Otter the opportunity to eat the barbel? If the water quality has dropped, as with the kennet; the fish are sick from gorging on unhealthy baits we as anglers use, that means they also lose their sexual drive to spawn or even produce eggs..... Bad handling by novices to barbel fishing who mishandle and don't rest the fish enough.
Graham, the wye has declined in the years of increase in chicken farming oversaturating the river with Phosphates. the kennet decline from the reopening of the navigation.
So a perfect storm.,.....Old fish and no younger fish coming through because of the shit they eat (Pellets) and lack of a large enough food source for the Otter, so they turn to the easy meal........... A slow sick bloated barbel created by our need to continue catching a bigger one at any costs.

Would it not be a good idea if we as anglers stopped looking at Otters and other water users as enemies, and looked at meeting them were they are at and fighting a common fight........ Bad water usage for profit.
 
Otters are running out of carp to eat because any club with the funds and permission to do so will put fencing up. They are running out of barbel to eat because they've scoffed most of them. Please note that chub are a lot more savvy re predation and will spook a lot quicker than any barbel.
Otters have scoffed most of the crays in the Ouse and Ivel, I've not swung in a cray for a couple of years.
So, now otters are turning to the wildfowl along the river banks. The last spraint that I picked up was made up of duck feather and quills. The otters have been taking 60-75% of all signets on my local Ouse and Ivel, so they have little to fear when it comes to their choice of dinner.
I'm not exclusively blaming otters for the decline of the barbel stocks, there are many reasons. A major one on ex crayfish infested rivers is the amount of sediment produced by the burrowing of the crays, which ends up lodged in the gravel. This was noted in the survey carried out on the Ouse in 2017.
Otters just ain't shy critters these days, it's been bred out of them. Just like they ain't exclusively nocturnal now and they will hunt 24/7, or when it's convenient.
This little video shows just how bothered they are with the presence of humans and in my mind, it's more attacks like this that joe public witnesses, especially with their children out to feed the duckies, that will give ammunition to fuel some kind of control of the otter numbers.
https://www.facebook.com/Dinglepeninsulafishingandhunting/posts/4060219770659799
 
I find it quite amazing that people seem shocked and upset by the sight of otters predating wildfowl. Otters have been predating wildfowl since time immemorial, it's what they do. And it's one if the reasons why most species of native British wildfowl have evolved to produce large broods of young.

That people find this natural behaviour upsetting shows just how disconnected from nature most people have become.
 
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