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Britain's biggest barbel...

I think it's long overdue that the EA were taken to task over what has become of some of our rivers. Part of their remit is to maintain the quality of river fisheries, and even putting aside the failing fish stocks and the £22 million odd that anglers cough up, in a lot of parts of the country that just isn't happening:( Gravel jetting a few spots and throwing in thousands of juvenile barbel just doesn't cut it for me:mad:
 
I think it's important to remember certain underlying facts about the EA.

For instance, the EA is a quango...so the government pays a large percentage of their budget....and wages. As such, the pen pushers and talking heads at the top are going to do and say whatever their masters in government tell them to. Which means that what they do will certainly be politically advantageous to the government, but not necessarily good for the environment at all...and what they say is frequently going to be far from the truth.

Also, like all other government lackeys, they have been subject to rather savage budget cuts. Obviously, this means that they are now capable of doing far less of what we assumed they were there to do. On the face of it, as it seem that we were wrong in our assumptions as to what their duties actually were...then quite possibly, the budget cuts may be seen by some as a bit of a bonus for our fisheries :D

Seriously though, we would also do well to remember that despite the know nothing yes men at the top, there are some seriously good, hard working and caring people slaving away at the mucky end of the job, and they will often be as peed off as we are at the orders that come down from above.

Cheers, Dave.
 
Some good points there Dave.
But the reality is Anglers are being used as cash cows to fund projects that are of no benefit to Angling, such as habitat improvement to encourage Otters, oh and flood prevention etc..
I am sorry to say that based on whats already happened over the last few years, the future aint good and I suspect the EA will even try to get more money off Anglers by increasing the licence fee and doing even less for Angling than they already have or have not..
The future is very bleak if current trends continue..
I can remember well when Martin Bowler, Des Taylor, John Wilson etc just to name a few, said many years ago that Course fishing was under serious threat from predation especially when that giant Rat started appearing in numbers.
Many on here should consider themselves lucky, they enjoyed some good years before the Giant Rats started making a appearance, at the very least some have some good pictures/memory's..
I pity anglers that are just starting out as they will all see the good results of years gone by, and that's about it, just pictures and memory's, because in most cases the Venues just don't have any where near the stocks of yesterday..
 
Craig, its going the same way as car road tax, used for everything apart from a small amount which is used for the actual roads, heres hoping the otters dont
manage to thrive in our rivers, warferin has some good properties lol
 
Quite agree with you john..
If Otters are deemed to be in trouble again in the not so far furture, well the same idiots that released them before will simply do it again and again..
Some people say we have to wait and see if a balance occurs, well i think the balance has already occured it means less fish in the rivers and some lakes and that im affraid is the balance..
Some rivers have had 20 years + of Barbel shoals all but wiped out in a very short time, that is solely down to Otters..
Restocking is a complete waste of time as no sooner than a few start reaching adult size, well we can all guess what happens to them, the very same that happened to the others before them..
The BS and the AT are all a complete waste of money and time as what ever they do or say means absulutely nothing and lets be honest they would rather sit on the fence and dance around the bleeding obvious..
Too little, too late, the damage has already been done and continues even as i write this..
Anglers have been telling the AT, EA, BS etc for some time about the problems with predation and then other various groups formed like Action against Predation, like that was ever going to do anything..
Its all become a complete disaster with no end in sight..
The future of most Rivers will be canoeing and other various boating activities as Anglers will enventually have had enough and vacate the River banks, which has already started..
I have pretty much given up fishing Rivers as they are in serious decline, some more than others at the moment..
I really do dread to think what the Rivers will be like in as little as 20years time..
 
...and with a lake, as my local club is doing with some sponsorship from Korum i believe, it is relatively easy to put an otter fence up unless they become like squirrels or someone leaves the gate open...
 
Craig, ( and anyone else ) 2 questions, do you buy a license ? have you joined the AT ?If your answers are yes and no, then i'm baffled. You are willing to fund the one doing nothing, but not the one trying to do something which costs just £2.50 a month ( less than a pint of maggots/bag of pellets). I joined on the basis that, lots of little bits make a big pile. Which would give them the funds to " try " and do something. Anyone who hasn't visited the AT,s website, just have a look, " they are trying ".

http://www.anglingtrust.net/page.asp?section=737&sectionTitle=Otter+Predation
 
Derek.
Please see my new post.

Still happy about your 2.50 a month. Who will be pulling the AT strings now?

Answers on a postcard.
 
Craig. I Consider myself very lucky to have had a great 45 years of fantastic barbel angling.


The holes will be plugged by stocked fish.
 
One of the problems today is the fact that the current stocks of otters are hand reared and in some cases tame and not afraid of man.
The otters we occasionally saw 40 odd years ago were shy and spooky which is why only anglers ever saw them. The bunny hugging do-gooders walking the banks would of course never see them and wrongly listed them virtually extinct

Just my thoughts

Mike
 
To be fair Mike , 40 years a go they weren't exactly common , but you are dead right, a lot of the otters I come across these days are clearly not fearful of man ,indeed they are positively brass necked popping up in your swim , even had them hissing at me as have other angling friends of mine :( Upside, those who are inclined to wreak vengeance on them will find their task easier given the otters fearless behaviour
 
Otters were hunted for a reason in days gone by, they were and always will be a pest.

I can see control measures coming in for them, but by then it will be too late for the fish and birds on our waterways.

Badgers are being culled, just as high up in the public's affections as Otters, it's just we are going to have to wait until the devastation that is coming to all rivers in this country happens, then there will be undisputed evidence that they need controlling.
 
Darren Scott said:
Otters were hunted for a reason in days gone by, they were and always will be a pest.

I can see control measures coming in for them, but by then it will be too late for the fish and birds on our waterways.

Badgers are being culled, just as high up in the public's affections as Otters, it's just we are going to have to wait until the devastation that is coming to all rivers in this country happens, then there will be undisputed evidence that they need controlling.
Click to expand...

The trouble is Darren, the badgers are being culled because there is reasonable evidence to suggest that they spread bovine TB between cattle, thereby endangering our food supply industry.

The same will never be true of otters, all they do is destroy fish (and other river based critters)....and nobody but us anglers gives a damn about them, especially so the fish. So, the hue and cry, the demands for action, will never be loud enough for anything meaningful to be done. Sad, but true.

Cheers, Dave
 
Mike Wilson said:
One of the problems today is the fact that the current stocks of otters are hand reared and in some cases tame and not afraid of man.

Just my thoughts

Mike
Click to expand...

Mike, all the "evidence, facts" points to now that all otters are wild...the exception being orphaned/ re-introduced.

Just my observations in oxford are that the pinnacle of damage was reached approx 5 years ago. Sightings and kills from otters are now reducing

Jason
 
Mike Wilson said:
One of the problems today is the fact that the current stocks of otters are hand reared and in some cases tame and not afraid of man.
The otters we occasionally saw 40 odd years ago were shy and spooky which is why only anglers ever saw them. The bunny hugging do-gooders walking the banks would of course never see them and wrongly listed them virtually extinct

Just my thoughts

Mike
Click to expand...

I would not normally question your thoughts old stick but I believe the hand reared otters would have died off two generations ago!

I would put their lack of fear more down to the fact humans have never posed a risk to the current animals, no hunting, etc, much like foxes these days show very little fear of humans, the built in survival instinct has no need to kick in.

Much in the same way the barbel's survival instinct has very much kicked in due to the world and his brother switching from general pleasure anglers to out and out Barbel anglers. The pressure has become immense on many southern rivers!
 
Why would the released ones die off Crooky, with a life span of around 15 years, when as you say, they have no natural or human enemies, apart from possibly the very few surviving wild otter strain?
 
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