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Otters, Threat or Not??

Ian Crook

Ian Crook

Senior Member
It was interesting to read in this week's Anglers Mail that of the 20 mature Barbel tagged and tracked in the Gt. Ouse over the last 2 years, not have fallen victim to otters.

Is the threat really that grave?

Please discuss, after all, the closed season wouldn't be complete without a good otter thrashing :)
 
To individual fish, yes. To entire stocks, I suspect not. However, I suspect that much depends on the river (or stillwater) concerned and what the otter population was like in the general area prior to and introductions or re-introductions.
I know that others disagree, but I feel that my most local river, which has had a stable otter population for decades, has barely been affected, certainly no more than could easily be attributed to rainfall levels and temperatures. The rivers and stillwaters in the area, that haven't seen an otter for years, seem to have been quite badly affected.
Worst hit seem to be relatively shallow stillwaters (in reasonably close proximity to the rivers) with a predominance of carp in them.
 
Aww! Not again!
I think Chris has it pretty spot on. This carp obsession needs thinning out anyway, too many ponds stuffed full of the things, an otter banquet!
 
If you witnessed the decline in barbel stocks on my patch, the 'munch' damage and large fish being found dragged up the bank then be very afraid if it happens on your water. There is no question that they have had a serious effect. Never mind, they even seem to be having a go at the chub now. The prolonged cold spell of 2010-2011 probably saw the worse damage, barbel grouped up, torpid and very little place to go - easy munch fodder.
Small, narrow shallow waters seem to suffer the most. The larger fish copped it big time.
Report ends from 'Otter Cafe'.
Cheers
Bob
 
Ian Crook said:
It was interesting to read in this week's Anglers Mail that of the 20 mature Barbel tagged and tracked in the Gt. Ouse over the last 2 years, not have fallen victim to otters.

Is the threat really that grave?

Please discuss, after all, the closed season wouldn't be complete without a good otter thrashing :)
Click to expand...

Ian I assume you missed the 'one' out of the sentence?
 
Crooky

It is true, however nearly all of those Barbel have not stayed very long in the "traditional" Barbel swims.

I must admit I found some Barbel at the back end of the season just gone and I was looking for them in places that some may think Barbel would not frequent.

I think that some fish have "adapted and overcome"!!!

Just as an example, in all my years of studying "watercraft" I would never have guessed that areas that have a good supply of "Dog toffees" would be an indicator of Barbel presence!
 
Ive caught at least 1 of those tagged fish and it had an ottered tail, as do most barbel I catch on the Ouse now. So they have had few near scrapes.

I have defo come full circle on the Otter issue, the more I see them the less I believe they are a or even the problem. They very much belong on rivers.

It will be interesting to finally read Karens paper when it becomes available. I hope she has some ideas for increasing spawning success rates and perhaps some sugestions for improving habitat aswell.
 
Getting bored of these Otter threads...

There is no denying that in a small number of cases small river specimen fish and Otters do not mix.

However first we need to deal with Cormorants and Goosanders which are systematically fishing out some stretches of river to the point that only larger fish are left. Take some stretches of my local River Dane, where the predominant fish are now Chub in the 3 - 4lb range (very few small fish are present and coming through to maturity). When an Otter moves through these areas, this is all it has to munch on.

If we can get the small fish (Roach, Dace, Skimmers, Chubletts...) back to a healthy state, this will IMHO solve much of the perceived otter problem.
 
Neil Blood said:
If we can get the small fish (Roach, Dace, Skimmers, Chubletts...) back to a healthy state, this will IMHO solve much of the perceived otter problem.
Click to expand...
Now that makes sense to me. I believe it was shown that otters prefer to feed on smaller fish, so we need to make sure there are plenty of them to stop them eating all those lovely big barbel.

So we need to tackle the comorant/goosander problem, but also look to improve the fish's habitat/spawning as Steve just said, a proper joined-up solution. Then perhaps we can enjoy the otters living alongside the fish in a balanced river.
 
Someone once posted on this site that otters were more than happy to eat crustaceans, if that were to be the case, they should get very fat on signal crayfish. Result, they would be too slow to catch large barbel.
 
Ian Crook said:
It was interesting to read in this week's Anglers Mail that of the 20 mature Barbel tagged and tracked in the Gt. Ouse over the last 2 years, not have fallen victim to otters.

Is the threat really that grave?

Please discuss, after all, the closed season wouldn't be complete without a good otter thrashing :)
Click to expand...

Is the threat really that grave?

No of course it's not, the Gt Ouse is still the thriving Barbel river it always was, all those big Barbel are just hiding somewhere, i really don't know what the fuss is all about :rolleyes:

Ian.
 
Say Good Bye
Its going to be Carp fishing world in 20 odd years...But a lot of people on here wont be here to see it all the same..:)
 
didn't Izaak Walton get things so right, he hated otters,villainous vermin.
 
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Ian Grant said:
Is the threat really that grave?

No of course it's not, the Gt Ouse is still the thriving Barbel river it always was, all those big Barbel are just hiding somewhere, i really don't know what the fuss is all about :rolleyes:

Ian.
Click to expand...

Why don't you give an opinion, some rational argument one way or another, rather than sarcasm Mr. Grant.............. it'd be the first time you didn't have one.....

I don't really have a strong opinion either way at the moment, expert opinion seems to differ greatly, hence I thought it would be good to discuss this particular article..............
 
Hi men,

Anyone who thinks they ain't a problem ain't in the real world . Less anglers on the banks of the Ouse , fishing for less fish , and you only have to look at the popular areas to see this . Obviously fry survival , abstraction , pollutants , crayfish are a big problem , then a apex preditor comes along to highlight these , in fact magnify it many fold , showing the underlining faults . Tags ?, the 5 fish found in the last big cold spell had no tags , perhaps we should tag as many as possible !. There are areas that may be better off than others , and tributaries like the Ivel have a well known area where they seem to be ok , but I know a very well known , good barbel angler with lots of good fish under his belt who have given up on it , and moved on .

So have they made the fishing better ? , no , would we have been better off without them on our bit , yes . They are here , things will change , but we can't do anything about it anyway.

Hatter
 
Ian Crook said:
Why don't you give an opinion, some rational argument one way or another, rather than sarcasm Mr. Grant.............. it'd be the first time you didn't have one.....

I don't really have a strong opinion either way at the moment, expert opinion seems to differ greatly, hence I thought it would be good to discuss this particular article..............
Click to expand...

An opinion on Otters - are you serious !!! go back over the old threads mr Crook, i'm not banging my head on that wall again, in fact i don't know what posessed me to post this time, a moment of madness - very out of character ! :p
 
Ian Grant said:
An opinion on Otters - are you serious !!! go back over the old threads mr Crook, i'm not banging my head on that wall again, in fact i don't know what posessed me to post this time, a moment of madness - very out of character ! :p
Click to expand...

Ya grumpy git :p
 
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