Good news for the Aire from Twitter...

[Andy Frances]

Great news for the ever improving River Aire as @EnvAgency are this week releasing 3,000 barbel around Keighley, Bradford and Leeds.

Twitter

Cheers,

Andy F

 

[Clive Kenyon]

There's never been a better time for urban angling. Amongst those dark satanic mills are miles of quality free fishing. It might not be picturesque, but it has its merits all the same.

 

[Clive Kenyon]

It gets better. According the Auntie the Don is getting 1,000 barbel too

Two Yorkshire rivers have been restocked with 4,000 fish as the county's river water quality was declared the best for two decades.

The Environment Agency is to release 3,000 barbel in the river Aire, West Yorkshire, and a further 1,000 in the river Don, South Yorkshire.

The agency said the region's rivers were at their healthiest for 20 years.

Peter Mischenko, fisheries officer, said: "The fish will be the last we put into the river Don."

Surveys carried out by the agency show that the Don's fish stocks are now at a sustainable level with a breeding population.

Its fish farming programme started about 10 years ago to help the Don recover from an industrial heritage that depleted fish stocks.

More oxygen

The barbel is a native species and is bred at the agency's fish farm at Calverton in Nottinghamshire.

The barbel released into the rivers have been marked so they can be identified if caught during fish surveys.

This will show surveyors whether caught fish have been stocked or bred naturally.

The fish will be put into the River Aire, at various locations near Keighley, Bradford and Leeds.

The river Don will see fish introduced at Blackburn Meadows in Sheffield and Kilnhurst.

The Environment Agency said November was a good time for restocking because fish travelled better in cold water as it contained more oxygen.

Something else to thank Maggie Thatcher for

 

[Steve Holt]

I wish they'd done it to the Aire 10 years ago, it would've saved me a fortune in fuel travelling to the Trent..I'll be in my zimmer frame roving my local river

 

[Clive Kenyon]

I wish they'd done it to the Aire 10 years ago, it would've saved me a fortune in fuel travelling to the Trent..I'll be in my zimmer frame roving my local river

Just because they have put barbel in the Aire doesn't mean that there weren't any barbel there in the first place.

From Leeds to the Trent you pass at least four rivers, not counting the Aire, that have yielded double figure barbel on free stretches.

 

[Steve Holt]

Yes but they are not the Trent.