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Impact of wels catfish on barbel populations
- Thread starter Paul Cahill
- Start date
Paul Collins
Senior Member
A 35 kilo welsl was taken from the middle Thames last year according to one of my local tackle dealers.
David Gauntlett
Senior Member
No Graham, it/they are supposedly in the Ricky stretch mate. Reports from a good few years back varied, claiming it/they were caught at 9.0 to 11.0lb, but of course they are now supposedly Nessy sized monsters 
. It could be, who knows? But I will know for sure when I see it
Cheers, Dave.
. It could be, who knows? But I will know for sure when I see it Cheers, Dave.
Paul Hayes
Senior Member
I am led to believe that When the Trent flooded a few years bag a nearby lake also burst its banks and quite a umber of fish including Cats were lost to the Trent. There are a lot of lakes adjacent to the Trent, how many contain Cats I don't know but it wouldn't take a huge amount to start a population.
Stephen Bond
Senior Member
Indeed, cats were stocked at Sunbury by Wilson'd Boatyard back in the 1920s. They certainly haven't proliferated since then as it is rare to hear of a single capture of on on the river in a season.
Stephen
Dave Taylor
Senior Member
There's no doubt that Wels have been finding their way into our rivers for decades,... didn't realise they went back that far Stephen!
What also seems to be apparent, is that as far as I can make out they haven't really established a high profile presence in any particular river. By that I refer to the lack of info as to the top UK catfish river venues .
Maybe the serious moggy anglers keep it quite.
Rather than rely on accidental captures that make the headlines, I like to look at catfish sites for some pointers, and they don't exactly seem to be brimming with pics of river caught fish, compared with stillwater captures.
15 odd years ago catfish writers were looking forward to some upturn in the Wels river populations , ... Found this article penned by Keith Lambert in 1999 and copied the relevant paragraph regarding rivers......
What I also expect, is to see more and more fish being caught from the rivers. The UK is almost unique amongst the countries in Europe (that have catfish) in that we don't have viable numbers in flowing waters. I am not for one minute suggesting that we should go chucking cats in rivers willy-nilly but merely observing a fact. However a little like the situation regarding illegally imported cats I think that it is inevitable and we shall certainly see an increase in captures (almost certainly accidentally) from some of the country's bigger rivers; probably lowland waterways like The Thames, The Great Ouse, The Nene and The Warwickshire Avon, maybe even The Severn. I don't intend to debate the rights and wrongs of this occurrence and the arguments for and against the introduction of catfish into UK waterways is something for the boffins to decide, not a humble catfisherman such as I . Never-the-less, there are enough escapees and illegal aliens out there to allow a growth in population and I will eat Des Taylor's hat if we aren't river catting within ten years. What I will state here and now is that if and when viable quantities of catfish start appearing in our rivers, then I shall be fishing for them. I have already started chasing rumours (to no avail so far) but the chance to catch cats from a flowing water in England by design, is for me I'm afraid just to good to be sniffed at and is something that I find really exciting. There isn't much left in fishing in this country that is really new but the thought of a moggie from The Thames or Great Ouse caught purposefully is something that will keep me catfishing well into the new Millennium.
I wonder if Des had to buy a new hat ?
Given that we know they breed like rabbits in UK stillwaters , it seems strange that there doesn't seem much info on juvenile cats turning up in fishery surveys, or accidental captures, maybe I missed it.
What also seems to be apparent, is that as far as I can make out they haven't really established a high profile presence in any particular river. By that I refer to the lack of info as to the top UK catfish river venues .
Maybe the serious moggy anglers keep it quite.
Rather than rely on accidental captures that make the headlines, I like to look at catfish sites for some pointers, and they don't exactly seem to be brimming with pics of river caught fish, compared with stillwater captures.
15 odd years ago catfish writers were looking forward to some upturn in the Wels river populations , ... Found this article penned by Keith Lambert in 1999 and copied the relevant paragraph regarding rivers......
What I also expect, is to see more and more fish being caught from the rivers. The UK is almost unique amongst the countries in Europe (that have catfish) in that we don't have viable numbers in flowing waters. I am not for one minute suggesting that we should go chucking cats in rivers willy-nilly but merely observing a fact. However a little like the situation regarding illegally imported cats I think that it is inevitable and we shall certainly see an increase in captures (almost certainly accidentally) from some of the country's bigger rivers; probably lowland waterways like The Thames, The Great Ouse, The Nene and The Warwickshire Avon, maybe even The Severn. I don't intend to debate the rights and wrongs of this occurrence and the arguments for and against the introduction of catfish into UK waterways is something for the boffins to decide, not a humble catfisherman such as I . Never-the-less, there are enough escapees and illegal aliens out there to allow a growth in population and I will eat Des Taylor's hat if we aren't river catting within ten years. What I will state here and now is that if and when viable quantities of catfish start appearing in our rivers, then I shall be fishing for them. I have already started chasing rumours (to no avail so far) but the chance to catch cats from a flowing water in England by design, is for me I'm afraid just to good to be sniffed at and is something that I find really exciting. There isn't much left in fishing in this country that is really new but the thought of a moggie from The Thames or Great Ouse caught purposefully is something that will keep me catfishing well into the new Millennium.
I wonder if Des had to buy a new hat ?
Given that we know they breed like rabbits in UK stillwaters , it seems strange that there doesn't seem much info on juvenile cats turning up in fishery surveys, or accidental captures, maybe I missed it.
Peter Littleworth
Senior Member
Cats certainly inhabit the Thames, few get caught, but no real surprise there, they are a top predator, probably munching bream/roach and anything else they fancy(mittens!), who uses proper livebaits for them, now the EA rules limit bait size, the use of cat size tempters, like a 2lb bream etc is illegal.
A proper ,diver assisted, netting survey might well produce some surprising results, similarly with zander, my bet would be that's there,s a lot more present than we could imagine!!!!!
peter
A proper ,diver assisted, netting survey might well produce some surprising results, similarly with zander, my bet would be that's there,s a lot more present than we could imagine!!!!!
peter