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Otters

Craig Wood

Senior Member
Hi Everyone
I would be interested to know if any other anglers out there have good or bad stories to share regarding the re-intruduction of otters to many of our rivers..The reason i ask is simply because im hearing some very bad news regarding big barbel,big carp, and big chub being found dead on waters where they have been re-intruduced..Im also hearing stories regarding certain groups releasing otters into rivers completely un-regulated by any governing authority or the enviroment angency..Lookforward to any replies and many thanks..
 
hi there
Yes i realise that but since those articles im interested to find out if the problem is getting worse or better..This issue has not been addressed properly in the past and seems to have been swept under the carpet a little..
regards craig.
 
hi there
Yes i realise that but since those articles im interested to find out if the problem is getting worse or better..This issue has not been addressed properly in the past and seems to have been swept under the carpet a little..
regards craig.

I can only presume that you mean by the powers that be, because most of the anglers that I know (that can't really do much) bang on about it incessantly!;)
We are up against the cute and fluffy brigade and fish aren't cute and fluffy. If angling bodies get too vociferous about it they are onto a hiding to nothing in the PR stakes. Even when relatively big money is involved (commercial stillwaters and fish farms) no one seems that sympathetic.

I've no idea what the situation is nationally but I'm relieved that the conservationists local to me appear to have wrapped up their breeding and introduction programmes. They seem to think that they've done enough by way of introductions in this neck of the woods. I know several stillwaters that are claiming otter predation where there was previously none. Whether the situation is actually changing is another matter. Time will tell.
 
For the record, i think barbel are very cute and the bigger ones are quite cuddly!!
 
My other half said they are. I have now released her from the under stairs cupboard :)
 
On my local river they are, building Salmon/fish passes, eel passes, even building Otter Holts at the side of the river, so when they arrive(i have been informed they are here) the Otters have a lovely abode to base there eventual destruction of the inhabitants of the river. I speak to twitchers and having Otters is a plus as they will have a live feed videocam direct from the holt, to oooh and aaah to. Today i watched a good double figure barbel, enjoying the spring sunshine, only 200yards away from the RSPB's Otter area, but for how long. The powers that be jump on there so called environmental band wagon, and they think by having Otters in the area, is a plus, because it shows they are looking after the environment. How can introducing an A plus predator into the ecology, be beneficial, if only to oooh and aaah to.
Is it selfish of me to think this, or is it selfish for the powers to introduce/advocate Otters, for the demise of so many specimen fish?

I have had my rant and shown my card, is it just me who thinks this way.
 
The reason i was asking what other anglers have to say is because on the dorset stour several witnesses saw a otter having a 14lb barbel and its eggs were all over the bank after the kill..On this particular stretch there are a small group of big barbel which is now getting smaller..once they have gone it will have a massive knock on affect on future barbel stocks..The barbel will become an endangered species on many rivers in not so many years..
 
Im affraid some anglers will take the law into their own hands and to hell with natural england and the furry ***** brigade..Thats if they havent already..:)
 
I spoke to an old chap recently, pushing eighty at a guess, who told me that when he was a kid it wasn't unusual to see dead Otters hanging from fences alongside the river. I reckon people had the right idea regarding 'control' in those days...
 
Yeah, and as late as the early 1980s I regularly saw chalkstream keepers digging large pits for the "f----ing coarse fish" they spent a lot of time removing from their employers' trout and salmon fisheries. I've said it before: if ANYONE of us tries to mix with it some people's despised "furry brigade", the whole of Angling will lose.
 
Ive been fishing on the canal of late and an old chap told me that the Zander have killed off 90% of the fish stocks......and if i did hook any Zander i should kill it by throwing it into the bushes....:confused:....funny think is ive been catching roach ,skimmers,bream ,chub ,perch and carp...and baby Zander.Perhaps he was catching 125 lb bags on every outing and now he only land's the odd fish or two.

Its been a very pleasing fishing the canal ..perhaps the old chap just didnt like other fishers having a go on his water:).

Give it another 5 years see what happens ,or try fishing for something else other than barbal.

Paul(happy all round fisher )
 
Only if their bodys are found and also proof it was anglers that did it...fight fire with fire..believe me my friend its already happening...Do you think for one minute people are going to watch their lively hood taken away from them just because some numptys have watched tarka the otter once too often..Perhaps if natural england had done a proper survey on fish stocks before letting otters loose then none of this would be happening..
 
The same might be said of barbel. I knew several Wye salmon-fishers who made a point of gaffing any barbel they took whilst worming; they hated the fish with a passion - "illegally stocked (which they were, unlike otter), salmon spawn-eating vermin...". Still goes on - discreetly, you understand.
 
Craig, judging by the releases of otters in various places, it wouldnt have made a jot of difference what natural england surveyed or what their results were. The EA were ignored by local conservationists 15 plus years ago when the upper thames started going down hill and some of these groups ignore all of the advice they are given. Like you mention, I dare say that local land owners or fishermen are controlling or protecting their own on the quiet.
 
Actually paul barbel werent illigally stocked in the wye..The barbel in the wye came out of the river lugg which runs into the wye at hereford..It amazes me that you seem to support what is happening to barbel on alot of rivers across the country due to otter re-introduction..Dont you realise that they are not just killing lame or juvenile fish,they are killing big females which will have un-told damage for many years to come..Oh well once our rivers are devoid of any decent size fish i guess ile take up OTTER hunting instead..:D:D
 
Sorry, Craig, but you appear to totally misunderstand what rivers are about; they're not barbel (or any other desirable species to fishers) conveyor belts, producing fish in the required number and size to order (which today's pay-for-play holes in the ground are), but living entities supporting much much more than fish. Until we get this into our heads (particularly all we very newly arrived barbel-fishers), we're just beating ourselves up by wanting something we had for a mere decade or so (easily caught barbel whales in abundance) and now expect and demand to last forever, whatever it takes - otters to go etc (what next to go, I wonder). Amazes and disappoints me to see a group of fishers with their barbless hooks and knotless nets and blow-up mats and thousands of pounds worth of cameras just to get a trophy pic baying for blood like a bunch of vermin-hating Victorians and stamping our feet like terrible twos mid-tantrum. But, hey, you guys carry on.
 
Paul, what a load of rubbish. One day you may regret what you condone...
 
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