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Ray Walton on the Radio

Nic Costar

Nic Costar

Senior Member
Yep, i heard our Ray on Talksports Fishermens Blues this morning talking about alsorts of items concerning our rivers and fish stocks, but one thing that got me thinking was when Ray said that barbel could live for 30 years, now would this depend on the river the barbel live in, the added pressure from anglers fishing after them, the bait that has been put in for them ie truck load of pellets / boilies, the amount of times that a barbel has been caught ie stress

Or doesn't it make any diffenerce to them ?
 
Nic Costar said:
Yep, i heard our Ray on Talksports Fishermens Blues this morning talking about alsorts of items concerning our rivers and fish stocks, but one thing that got me thinking was when Ray said that barbel could live for 30 years, now would this depend on the river the barbel live in, the added pressure from anglers fishing after them, the bait that has been put in for them ie truck load of pellets / boilies, the amount of times that a barbel has been caught ie stress

Or doesn't it make any diffenerce to them ?
Click to expand...

Hi Nic....The '30' years', and possibly longer is based on personal research and personal experience and findings, and also a bit of info from a few top knowledgeable barbel anglers.
There is no doubt, some could die younger and not reach their potential older age for many reasons to which you mention and are valid.
I logged, photographed and identified (by distinguishable ID marks and features, weight/measurements etc) individual barbel in the early/mid/late 1980's on the Hampshire Avon, Royalty Fishery which was 'hammered' all season.
When i returned to the Avon in the 2001 onwards, I set out to see if I could find/catch any of these fish that i noted back then. At the time in the 1980's, i did log 1200 fish over 6 years, some with ID marks and some without.
Eventually on returning to the Royalty, i caught 'four' that were still alive and kicking.
Considering that there is a 20+ year gap from the 1980's - 2001 onwards of captures of the same fish, and also adding the years that it would have taken the barbel to reach the original 1st capture weight and size logged, then we are looking at 25-30 years as near the mark for some of the fish identified.
The 2 top anglers i refer to state they have evidence of a barbel living to around 40 years on the Kennet.
Beau, the named Wensum barbel that Trefor West and Tony Miles caught and well publicised in their books at 12-13lb+ then dissapeared and probaly died in the late 1990's, can be traced far back to at least 1979 to where it was 10lb in weight and well publicised. Add the years it would would have taken to reach 10lb (which could be at least 9+ years), then you can see the approximate age.
As I metioned on the radio regarding the tumour/cancers found on the River Lea barbel to where the NRA (now EA) stated that it was 'normal' for old fish to have these abnormalities and saying that they were 9 years old; they were either 'caught out' or 'unknowledeable' on barbel in general . ...Ray
 
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Colin, I've had a look, there doesn't appear to be a listen again facility on Talk Sport.
 
Hi Ray , would there be any way i you can get a copy of the interview , it would make a fantastic feed for members to listen too ! cheers , James
 
Hi James..It was a five minute to and throw phone call on a few subjects, including river sewage pollution, barbel tumours/cancers, stillwater barbel, etc... and not an in depth interview. Not sure about getting a replay link to it though....Ray
 
Cheers Ray , I always like to hear every angle and opinion on all subjects barbel as i have my own opinions as well !
 
Ray Walton said:
Hi Nic....The '30' years', and possibly longer is based on personal research and personal experience and findings, and also a bit of info from a few top knowledgeable barbel anglers.
There is no doubt, some could die younger and not reach their potential older age for many reasons to which you mention and are valid.
I logged, photographed and identified (by distinguishable ID marks and features, weight/measurements etc) individual barbel in the early/mid/late 1980's on the Hampshire Avon, Royalty Fishery which was 'hammered' all season.
When i returned to the Avon in the 2001 onwards, I set out to see if I could find/catch any of these fish that i noted back then. At the time in the 1980's, i did log 1200 fish over 6 years, some with ID marks and some without.
Eventually on returning to the Royalty, i caught 'four' that were still alive and kicking.
Considering that there is a 20+ year gap from the 1980's - 2001 onwards of captures of the same fish, and also adding the years that it would have taken the barbel to reach the original 1st capture weight and size logged, then we are looking at 25-30 years as near the mark for some of the fish identified.
The 2 top anglers i refer to state they have evidence of a barbel living to around 40 years on the Kennet.
Beau, the named Wensum barbel that Trefor West and Tony Miles caught and well publicised in their books at 12-13lb+ then dissapeared and probaly died in the late 1990's, can be traced far back to at least 1979 to where it was 10lb in weight and well publicised. Add the years it would would have taken to reach 10lb (which could be at least 9+ years), then you can see the approximate age.
As I metioned on the radio regarding the tumour/cancers found on the River Lea barbel to where the NRA (now EA) stated that it was 'normal' for old fish to have these abnormalities and saying that they were 9 years old; they were either 'caught out' or 'unknowledeable' on barbel in general . ...Ray
Click to expand...



Hi Ray,

Very interesting, very interesting indeed ;)

Another angler i know told me that he felt that barbel would only live for around 15yrs ( i better let he know they can live longer :) or he may be reading this :D) the reason why we got talking was because we felt that a certain barbel or 2 that are well known to the river we fish wouldn't be around for much longer due to they size and the amount of times they get caught per season 20+ times :rolleyes: and we're not talking small fish here either ;)

We both reckon it won't be long until one of them goes to the big barbel in the sky :(
 
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