• You need to be a registered member of Barbel Fishing World to post on these forums. Some of the forums are hidden from non-members. Please refer to the instructions on the ‘Register’ page for details of how to join the new incarnation of BFW...

How can the Barbel Society help?

Status
Not open for further replies.
H

Howard Cooke

Senior Member
Steve Pope, on behalf of the Barbel Society, recently posted a request on Facebook and I thought I would share it here for those that may not be on FB or may have missed it. In essence, the theme of the post was the high level of debate and argument we are seeing on many social media sites in relation to the issues affecting our rivers-and for many the result is declining barbel stocks as well as stocks of other fish species. Whether the cause is predation, pollution, abstraction or general habitat changes (or all of these) it maybe that something can be done to improve things. Much of this isn't exactly new of course but there has some marked increases in the intensity of the debates-quite understandable where you have anglers whose small local rivers have been so badly affected and are, irrefutably, in decline-for whatever reason.

Steve's simple request was for people to get in touch with him directly (stevepope@btinternet.com), setting out their concerns, what has or hasn't been done locally to address them and importantly, how the Society could help. As many of you will know, the Society has an extensive research and conservation programme led by Pete Reading. Resources and time are devoted to this programme but there are natural constraints on each. However, the Society does have resources, contacts and a desire to provide whatever assistance it can in helping and providing insight to fishery managers that may lead to the gradual improvement in our rivers.

There is no magic, no fairy dust to sprinkle over the issues many of us face, but there is a desire to do what we can. So I would urge you to take Steve up on this genuine offer and lets see what can be achieved.

There is a committee meeting on 5th July and therefore, if you can get your concerns and thoughts emailed to Steve before then there will be an early chance for the committee to discuss how it can help.



Howard
 
Why hasn't Keith the seal been moved on??? Surely the people who voted Steve pope in have expressed this destructive piece of nature gone wrong.
 
I think that situation is well understood Jeff, but not one that the Barbel Society has any power to deal with directly. Anyway, I had thought that there was a joint initiative between the AT and the British Divers Marine Life Rescue Service to capture and safely relocate the seal-although that was back in early 2013!
 
We rarely look towards ourselves but I've discussed this before it could be the thing that's causing all our problems.
 
Could the decline in barbel numbers be down to modern baits?
 
Clive, do you mean if HNV pellets/boilies etc. featured much less in their diets might naturals feature more prominently- crayfish for example-leading to more natural control of their numbers leading to improved spawning success (if the habitat supports it too-spawning grounds/fry bays etc) ? And/or, the impact these baits might have on general reproductive function ?

Interesting.
 
Yes and no but I think that high fat pellets and unnatural foods may well be shortening their lives leading to a reduction in numbers.
 
Pellets and HNV baits,
could possibly cause damage to their internal organs, thus shortening their life span,
could possibly physically prevent spawning due to fat deposits around the organs,
could possibly make them more vulnerable to predation (due to being grossly overweight).

There could possibly be other implications I haven't thought of.

Would you feed these baits to your million pound prize koi carp??
 
Hi men,

Good points , but there are some bits that have suffered badly , like the Windrush , Cherwell , Evenlode etc that we fished where we never see another angler for donkeys years ?.

Hatter
 
Tim, fat deposits on the liver etc. are much more likely to result from baits such as good old fashioned Spam, or even cheese, than from the average boilie, because most of the oils used in boilies/pellets are fish oils, containing lots of fatty acids.

Carp (the usual victim of 'hate stories' concocted by elitist barbel anglers :D) can fairly be described as looking fat...but that is as much down to the strains used in breeding for size as it is the HNV baits we use. Many of them achieve that basic shape at a very young age, before they ever see a boilie....even the fry look similar. True, they may be raised on pellets, but those pellets are specifically designed by nutritionists to have optimal levels of oils for fish health. Again, it's true that some of those are not specifically designed with carp/barbel in mind, but their needs are not too dissimilar. Too much oil is never a good thing, but in my opinion this 'fat fish being down to bait' thing is quite possibly another 'urban myth' that is passed on, regardless of facts.

Cheers, Dave.
 
David Gauntlett said:
Tim, fat deposits on the liver etc. are much more likely to result from baits such as good old fashioned Spam, or even cheese, than from the average boilie...

...in my opinion this 'fat fish being down to bait' thing is quite possibly another 'urban myth' that is passed on, regardless of facts.
Click to expand...

Dave, they could never be encouraged to eat the amount of Spam or cheese to cause harm (apart from the odd extra whisker!), and I've never seen anglers using kilos of either!

IMO the absolute maximum NATURAL weight of barbel is 14lbish in summer and 16lbish in winter. The barbel of many rivers are now overweight. Look at your old photos and compare...

regards
 
Oily Pellets

Interesting one this, its no surprise that most of the forward thinking carp commercials are very careful with the type of pellets allowed - most will not allow "trout" pellets in any shape or form and as for the even oilier Halibuts that we all use - not a chance. Some will say that this all about using the fisheries own pellets and making more money and there is certainly a large slice of that - but all of the "approved" pellets are of the low oil type.

Billy Makin who started the first real carp commercial was very quick to recognise this and soon banned oily pellets, he saw first hand the damage it did to the fish and the aquatic environment. As somebody that used to do a lot of trouting and often visited some of the "bigfish" trout waters eg Dever Springs or Lechlade it was far from unheard of to have a big trout literally suffer what appeared to be a heart attack as you played it - and when you gutted these fish you could see why - they were full of fatty tissue and not particulary good to eat.

Its clearly not "the" problem as there are many factors affecting many different rivers but it could be contributing, particularly where large amounts of oily trout/halibut pellets are regularly being used?

Steve
 
There could well be something in the pellet/HNV theory but why is it just barbel who seem to pack it on. True, chub have got a lot bigger but this usually occurs on waters with a large crayfish population. What about roach and bream? Would they not also get grossly overweight? The theory that a barbels natural ceiling is between fourteen and sixteen pounds would appear fairly sound thinking given the general size range in the past hundred years or so. But I think the Adams Mill fish started to get big before much use of high protein baits.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top