Prolonged heat

[Kevin Daly]

Won't be wetting a line for a while.....though when it's low like this it's good for a recce.
Far too hot to fish in this weather.

 

[Chris Thomson]

Winds me up seeing small barbel 6/7/8/9 lb hoisted up for photos during this weather , exceptional fish then yes but do we really need to see so many small fish all over social media , inhook in net if you must go out in this extreme heat and let swim off once recovered ,

 

[Damian Kimmins]

Winds me up seeing small barbel 6/7/8/9 lb hoisted up for photos during this weather , exceptional fish then yes but do we really need to see so many small fish all over social media , inhook in net if you must go out in this extreme heat and let swim off once recovered ,

They may be exceptional for the anglers catching them.

 

[Stephen Walker]

Won't be wetting a line for a while.....though when it's low like this it's good for a recce.
Far too hot to fish in this weather

Too hot for me too.And you’re right about it’s a good time for a recce.I’m walking the banks and finding lots of features,gravel bars,deeper holes etc.
My river is desperately low,and I don’t think anyone should be trying to catch barbel in just inches of warm water.Having said that,the barbel have gone into hiding,and I’m only seeing chub on my walks.

 

[Richard Isaacs]

Don’t think fish of any size need to be hoisted up for pics at the moment. Bigger they are the more they’ll likely suffer
Would be quite easy to kill one off at the moment but that’s often not worried about until it’s in the net white side up.

 

[Gerry Giles]

we all know there are people that THINK they need to photograph every fish they catch and post on all the facebook groups

I can understand people trying to earn a living out of fishing but they are setting such a bad example you obviously will get people thinking its the thing to do and without experience and not resting the fish
I saw one of these guys mention he hasnt seen any fish floating by but he just fishes mainly weir pools ? I got friends telling me they are seeing lots !!!!!!! its such a crying shame they need to massage their Ego`s with a picture of every fish

all they ned to do is say I caught 9 fish and just take a picture of the specimen size ones ?

 

[Ray Heath]

Winds me up seeing small barbel 6/7/8/9 lb hoisted up for photos during this weather , exceptional fish then yes but do we really need to see so many small fish all over social media , inhook in net if you must go out in this extreme heat and let swim off once recovered ,

I would say an exceptional fish would cope less than the smaller fish you hate to see hoisted up for pics

 

[Joe Winstanley]

If it's an exceptional fish then all the more reason to look after it. The bottom line is...when it's too hot don't fish for them. Then you don't have to worry about whether you photograph them or not.

 

[Chris Thomson]

I would say an exceptional fish would cope less than the smaller fish you hate to see hoisted up for pics

Is that a dig ?

 

[Clive Kenyon]

Widow's Might comes to mind. A good fish on one river might be run of the mill on another. And if you are only weighing and photographing the specimens of your own rivers then the numbers you weigh / photograph will be roughly the same whether they are 6lb or 16lb.

You can only catch what is in there.

 

[Chris Thomson]

How about then we stop getting pedantic over what counts as an exceptional fish etc and concentrate on fish welfare in low water high temp low oxygen conditions and wether we should be actually chasing them ????? Just a thought

 

[Richard Isaacs]

How about then we stop getting pedantic over what counts as an exceptional fish etc and concentrate on fish welfare in low water high temp low oxygen conditions and wether we should be actually chasing them ????? Just a thought

Chris I couldn’t agree more with this but in defense to the other posts, they were only responses to something you wrote which was suggesting it’s fine to photograph an exceptional fish what ever that weight may be but not not ok with smaller ones in this heat wave!

You can’t get stroppy if you write something like that and get afew return comments.

 

[Ray Heath]

Is that a dig ?

No not a dig but I would imagine the bigger fish would suffer more if taken out of the water more than smaller fish and you can't replace them

 

[Chris Thomson]

Right ok im not going to get bogged down in an argument/debate on what constitutes a big fish etc , we've all got differing values on what counts as big depending on river , pb etc , what im prob clumsily trying to say is that im seeing on social media lots of photos of small to average size ,for the river, fish , being posted up with references to certain bait companys and my concern is that surely we should be posting up more warning messages about catching fish in extreme weather conditions and the dangers of releasing fish back too early etc rather than ego boosting product placement posts ?

 

[Clive Kenyon]

How about then we stop getting pedantic over what counts as an exceptional fish etc and concentrate on fish welfare in low water high temp low oxygen conditions and wether we should be actually chasing them ????? Just a thought

A dangerous route that. Different people have different opinions and not all of them are based on solid evidence. But the end of that path is for there to be no fishing at all. And I don't want to go there.

 

[Roger Cramer]

Totally agree, Chris.
Having recently moved to the North-west of the UK at the end of last year and slowly trying to adjust to the capricious nature of my new venue- The Ribble, a spate river, with it's constantly varying levels, I was totally gobsmacked recently by the fact that at least two of the key water level stations on its length have currently stopped providing readings due to the lack of sufficient water levels!!!

I should add that my most recent outing last Thursday (the fourth of four blanks since the inauspicious start of this season!) will be my last for the next couple of weeks or more until weather conditions improve for the better.

Surely all of us anglers, as natural "guardians of UK's waterways", should be observing a considered and restrained approach to our favourite pursuit albeit temporarily, for the coming weeks at least, for the sake of our targetted freshwater species and their welfare.

 

[Clive Kenyon]

Not all rivers are the same. Here, the Vienne below the barrages at L'Isle-Jourdain are pretty much at normal summer levels and flowing. The Charente below Angouleme where navigation starts is always nearly full and flowing all summer. It will be the same in the UK. There will be rivers that aren't as badly affected as others.

 

[Chris Thomson]

A dangerous route that. Different people have different opinions and not all of them are based on solid evidence. But the end of that path is for there to be no fishing at all. And I don't want to go there.

So whats your criteria Clive that decides wether you go fishing in these conditions ?

 

[Alex Dalton]

Just had a few early hours on the tidal hull plenty of colour and movement with the tide , was a eel fest with a couple of not bad perch and lost a fish in a snag felt like a barbel , cool mist was rolling down the river, i would have took a photo of lost fish. I will wait a couple of weeks to fish the tidal trent but will fish further down for the same reason as the tinge of colour and tidal flow a lot more evident and much less chance of a barbel struggling and going belly up.

 

[Clive Kenyon]

So whats your criteria Clive that decides wether you go fishing in these conditions ?

If the river is suitable, and parts of the Charente and Vienne are usually suitable even in high summer. By suitable I mean that I can fish where there is flow, depth and oxygentad water. And for my confort; shade.

As for your comments about 'small' 9lb barbel being photographed I suggest that you make use of the message facility of the social media and contact the people who wind you up. Or stop reading their posts.