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RIP River Colne.

D

David Gauntlett

Senior Member
I returned from my holidays recently to the devastating news that otters have now been seen and positively identified in my stretch of the tiny river Colne in Hertfordshire :( In a stream the size and nature of the Colne, which is mainly very shallow and narrow, with almost non existent streamer weed in most areas and virtually devoid of sizeable snags etc., there is nowhere for large fish to hide from an efficient predator like an otter. Obviously then, this means that my fellow club members long held collective nightmare is about to become a reality. Though it breaks my heart, I must recognise that my own period of well over 40 years of enjoying the stupendous quality of fishing in this lovely little stream (which contains BIG upper double barbel, carp over 20lbs, 8lb + chub and double figure bream)....is very likely about to come to an end. Sadly, the huge pleasure and numerous PB's that this little gem of a stream has afforded to myself and generations of kids and adults alike is quite possibly about to be lost, never to return. I am devastated, to say the least.

Now, before the inevitable happens, may I just say to the tiny minority who seem not to understand....these tiny streams are UTTERLY different to big rivers, not just in size, but also in their ability to survive the affects of apex predators. Most of those lads who fish big and medium sized rivers understand this. To those who don't, and who may well be typing comments along the lines of 'My river has had a healthy otter populations for years, with no noticeable affect on fish stocks'....and to those others who seem compelled to trot out banal comments like 'Otters are natural predators, with every right to be there', and all the similar unthinking, unfeeling and pretentious guff that always follows complaints about otter damage (usually from those who have never suffered from it).......could you please not bother? If you feel that those comments are about to burst indignantlly forth, could you instead just grab them and shove them as far as you can where the light doesn't shine?

I know you are entitled to your views, but just this once, in recognition of my depressed state and the devastating effect this will quite likely have on local anglers....could you please keep them to yourselves?

Regards, Dave (A depressed, gutted, angry, saddened and utterly peed off angler, in case you hadn't already noticed :eek::( )
 
Feel for you bud my locals have gone massively down hill since the otters settled in its soul destroying.:(
 
But on the bright side this recession means there are less Eastern Europeans about. That's nature balancing her books.
 
heart breaking dave

i absolutley feel for for guys like you , you are powerless to protect what is precious to you

you then get the head in the sand crowd bringing the drivel as you say , it just rubs salt in the wound
 
Dave, if 'your' patch of the Colne is in Hertfordshire, then that truly is a small river.
Indeed, you are stuffed :mad:
My commiserations :(

I hear golf is a nice pastime.
 
Thanks guys. I know I am jumping the gun a little here, wingeing before the dirty deed is actually done, so to speak. However, it's the inevitability of the scenario that will surely follow on a river of this size and type if these critters take up residence...which almost undoubtedly they will....that is so depressing. Big fish + small river devoid of effective underwater cover/refuges = easy pickings for an apex water-borne predator. The river is too small and has too much in the way of tree cover for the 'black feathered plague' to work effectively in many areas...but it is tailor made for otters.

Of course the river won't die...even if my darkest fears are realised, there will always be some fish present...but these will be much smaller on average, fish small enough to hide in what meagre cover is available. The beautiful specimen fish that exist now (and these are NOT unnatural gut buckets, grown fat on bait...trust me on that...I have pictures to prove it) will be gone, unable to hide, nowhere to run and with no means of defending themselves.

Now...I know some will claim that this event will return the river to it's 'natural' state. I will answer that by saying....natural by whose standards? Yours? Mine?....What? I have fished this river on and off for nearly fifty years, and know others who have fished it for much longer. There have been specimen sized fish in this river for that entire period...and no otters to speak of in all that time...certainly not resident otters....that I or my friends were aware of. My maths tells me that this takes us to a time well before the general 'demise' of otters due to DDT etc. So...is it natural for otters to occupy this stream, with its sometimes busy urban setting? Or...might it be possible that the 'unnatural' fact that otters seem to have evolved to become less fearful of man, much in the way foxes have....is the reason for otters appearing in my river now? I would imagine that it's quite possible that this evolution has occurred because hunting and other types of persecution by man has ended for these animals. I really don't know, because I am not sure who writes the rules about when the fact of being 'natural' or not begins...or ends, come to that! However, it does seem to be a fact...so perhaps brazen otters moving into an urban water park surrounded by busy roads, with human habitation lining many of the river banks and boating and water skiing on the lakes...will become the norm. Will that be 'natural'? I would imagine the fishy inhabitants who are suddenly afflicted by these evolved predators will hardly think so....

I don't know the truth, don't know the answer to all these questions. What I DO know is that fishing that little river, catching it's stunning specimens, is what is 'natural' to me. That is my reality, what matters to me and many others....some of whom were catching those fish before I was born. However selfish it may seem, that IS my natural....view that how you may.

Cheers, Dave.
 
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I really feel for you David, I wish I could tell you that it may not be as bad as you think but I can't:( My local is the Great Ouse and since seeing my first ever otter some years back, spotting them has now become a very common occurence, far more common than it is to actually catch a barbel!
Its a horrible feeling having to sit and watch a the stocks of a river that you love being systematically destroyed over a period of time, and you are right, people telling you that they were fat, pellet fed, unnatural fish that had it coming really doesn't help:mad:
If my own experience so far is anything to go by they won't wipe out all of the fish but the larger specimens will certainly suffer first of all, my advice to you is to make hay whilst the sun shines....there is little else you can do.
Gutted for you :(:mad:
 
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I feel for you and others that fish the river David. There are too many rivers in decline now and otters always seem to be the common denominator.

Dave
 
Dave, same sentiments as the rest. The Bristol Avon, as Clive says, is already in dire delcine.

The trouble with the otters v the fish this time, is that the fish are in their natural environment and the otters are not.

The otters were dead and gone. Finished. And then they were reintroduced. How unnatural is that? It they reintroduce the dinosaur because the poor little things died out i don't think people would like it as much.

They were gone, they were finished for a reason, a natural, environmental reason. Why reirtroduce them? A reason for everything. And they should have been left dead!
 
As a fellow Bristol Avon Angler I know exactly what you mean David and feel for you.obe of the problems are media coverage etc saying how fluffy tarka is. This is sold to the people who don't really understand nor take the time to understand. Where as we are out their week in week out seeing rivers destroyed but no one listens.

Ahhhh I'll get off my soap box before I get shot to pieces

Mark
 
Tone Smith said:
Dave, same sentiments as the rest. The Bristol Avon, as Clive says, is already in dire delcine.

The trouble with the otters v the fish this time, is that the fish are in their natural environment and the otters are not.

The otters were dead and gone. Finished. And then they were reintroduced. How unnatural is that? It they reintroduce the dinosaur because the poor little things died out i don't think people would like it as much.

They were gone, they were finished for a reason, a natural, environmental reason. Why reirtroduce them? A reason for everything. And they should have been left dead!
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tone, i think the argument used of why otters went in the first place was MAN!, not nature.
 
Didn't we wipe out wolves as well!
 
David Gauntlett said:
I know you are entitled to your views, but just this once, in recognition of my depressed state and the devastating effect this will quite likely have on local anglers....could you please keep them to yourselves?

Dave,

I do not for one moment doubt the sincerity of your post nor do I underestimate the depth of your feeling, but to post on a subject where people (and there are many among the angling fraternity) who disagree with you are asked not to comment rather goes against the spirit of an open forum don’t you think?
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I sympathise with you Dave - as a Watfordian I know the Colne pretty well - and as an ex-Ouse regular I have seen my sport pretty much destroyed over the past five years - albeit aided and abetted by the EA 'Flood Protection' idiots. More worryingly I thought that whilst the more rural reaches of the Great Ouse, Bristol Avon, Loddon and Teme which I fish /fished would be damaged; the more 'urban'/park stretches would survive - since the Otter is supposed to be such a shy, retiring creature. As you say - whether by acclimatisation or over-population this seems no longer to be the case...

I am very fearful for the short-term future of our sport. In the long term nature will find a balance - by which time the specimen barbel will have perished. Personally, I have to fish in expectation -not hope - or I get bored - and, joking aside, I took up golf five years ago - and this year, for the first time , have spent more time on the links than the river...

It will be interesting to see how the Colne Valley carp fraternity respond to the threat...

Trying to look on the positive side - at least the 'otter-supporting, general public will actually be able to see their furry friends - that is assuming they will visit such places after dark for other than nefarious reasons......!

Regards

Paul - aka 'The Lurker'
 
Paul Murray said:
the more 'urban'/park stretches would survive - since the Otter is supposed to be such a shy, retiring creature. As you say - whether by acclimatisation or over-population this seems no longer to be the case...
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Paul,

I thought exactly the same myself, but likewise they are seemingly more brazen regarding 'mans' presence, even around dogs!.
Waterfowl seem to have perished significantly too, only last season I saw in broad daylight an otter catch and kill an Oystercatcher on the opposite bank.

Dave,

Sorry to hear about the demise of your river, this applies to other posters on this forum. Its the same up here.........

On a plus side I saw my first ever watervole on the Wharfe this morning.

Steve.
 
otters have NOT been introduced on the colne, officially anyhow, most likely a visit from one of those Thames ones, plenty of sightings on the lower around staines, 15 miles as the crow fly's is not far for this critter.
 
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Hi Guys,

Many thanks to all who have offered their sympathy and comforting thoughts, even though it is still very much a case of 'For what we are about to receive' rather than a done deal. When all is said and done, if miracles are real, it may be that these particular otters decide that the location is not up to their high standards and do a runner. Sadly, I am not really a religious person....and recent history suggests that miracles are not too effective at helping the poor old fish in a straight otter versus fish battle. We shall see, and I will keep you posted.

Richard Hamlyn said:
Dave,

I do not for one moment doubt the sincerity of your post nor do I underestimate the depth of your feeling, but to post on a subject where people (and there are many among the angling fraternity) who disagree with you are asked not to comment rather goes against the spirit of an open forum don’t you think?
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Hi Richard,

At first look, you are of course right. However, if you read my post's carefully, I have offered up very little in the way of contentious issues that any feeling person might wish to dispute. My basic message was an effort to pass on the sad fact that my beautiful tiny local river is quite possibly about to be wiped out by otters, and how I and others quite understandably find that likelihood highly distressing. I have purposely tried to avoid issues based on opinion, preferring to skirt around them in favour of facts based on recent history...plus a few 'wonder if's' for luck. I hoped there was precious little I said for a realist to find fault with, thus avoiding the need for debate, which so often ends in insults and anger where otter issues are concerned. I was not trying to generate debate as such, rather attempting to announce an item of sad news.

I have approached things in this way in an effort to avoid the 'professional disagreers', those who delight in causing arguments for the sake of it, purely because they (bizarrely) gain pleasure in rowing with others. The path usually chosen by these people is that of seeking out the most popularly held views of other forum members and debunking them....and I know for a fact that this is sometimes done even when the antagonist actually holds the same views as the person he is taking to task. Sadly, I have had the misfortune of running in to several of these slightly sad characters over the years, and just for once wished to avoid their further attentions. I merely wished to pass on distressing news...to those who actually cared. I point no accusing fingers here, merely a gentle one indicating the way I had hoped to go with this.

Cheers, Dave.
 
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Sorry Paul started reading but got distracted by this story.

KELLY Brook bursts out of a pretty two-piece during a red hot photoshoot in Miami | The Sun |Showbiz

If she's selling those otter pups I'll take the one with pink nose :D

On a more serious note, the effects of otters are bad enough on reasonable sized river and although I'm not familiar with the Colne if it is a small river then where are the fish to run too? Most of the Tees I fish is less than 4ft deep and I'm sure I had my own private otter two seasons ago. Every time I went out it turmed up and saw it take a poor moorhen chick that had been swept downstream in heacy flow, I had been unable to catch it as it tried to swim against the strong current.
Perhaps once the RSPB starting making noise about the devastating effect on wildfowl then people might listen.
 
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