• You need to be a registered member of Barbel Fishing World to post on these forums. Some of the forums are hidden from non-members. Please refer to the instructions on the ‘Register’ page for details of how to join the new incarnation of BFW...

River Reports

T

Tony Carter

Senior Member
When I joined this forum (the original one) over ten years ago, the river reports threads were a great source if exchanging info for people all fishing the same rivers and helping each other out.

Apart from a small handful of people who are genuinely helpful the reports now just seem to be for a clicky group of people who pat each other on the back and post up pictures of fish!

Can't see the point in them you may aswell put your fish picture in the gallery and save the back slapping for there.

Sad to see the Bfw site is a shadow of its former self and mainly just for clicky little groups to exchange information to each other....
 
David Hall said:
Who's upset you then!
Click to expand...

No one it just seems that most of them are a complete joke, The Thames thread I know some people were pm'd for giving out useful info, Loddon, Wye I haven't bothered looking in the others I remember similar situations with the Wey, Mole etc etc

When I first joined people fishing the same rivers always helped each other out, met up on the bank as like minded people local to each other with a passion for fishing you may aswell read a yellow pages these days!
 
Tony Carter said:
No one it just seems that most of them are a complete joke, The Thames thread I know some people were pm'd for giving out useful info, Loddon, Wye I haven't bothered looking in the others I remember similar situations with the Wey, Mole etc etc

When I first joined people fishing the same rivers always helped each other out, met up on the bank as like minded people local to each other with a passion for fishing you may aswell read a yellow pages these days!
Click to expand...

Still the same as old around here Tony, except at the moment I am as useful as a chocolate teapot.
 
I think the glass is half full in respect to the threads I visit. I would love for more people to contribute, not only with their successes but also failures. I personally have encouraged those posting to volunteer as much info as they are happy with including general location, bait, tactics, temperatures, flow and such. I think leading by example and positive encouragement is the best way to get people on board and involved.

All the best,
Stephen
 
Try a bit of reverse logic . Some of the rivers reports , particularly the smaller rivers that are known to contain very big barbel are sometimes suspicously quiet . I reckon that's a fair indicator that they may be fishing well and people are just keeping stum . NB , this principle does not work on all rivers .....:)
 
Last edited:
Tony, it seems a lot of the guys who used to post with a decent level of details have had the realities of barbel fishing today thrust down their throats, with swim jumpers and sometimes the whole circus arriving on their waters because they published their catches.

Seems sad to me....but having seen a carp fishery complex totally ruined by the same thing, I see their point.

This thread may explain....https://barbel.co.uk/site/vbulletin/forum/barbel-talk/8296-tell-not-tell.html

Cheers, Dave.
 
I can't comment on the situation ten years ago, but perhaps the decline in informative posts is linked to the dramatic increase in social networking sites over the same period. Everybody knows what everyone else is doing, when, where and how! This period has also seen an increase in the number of anglers targetting barbel, leading to there being greater pressure on a diminishing number of fish, due to predation etc. In addition, the 'newer' anglers have, courtesy of digital imaging, been able to share their catches with everyone and then perhaps later wished they'd kept the genie in the bottle. Finally, we are no longer anonymous on this site and this may, I repeat may, have a bearing on what people are willing to divulge.
 
Nor can I comment on the threads 10 years ago , but I agree with Anthony. This site is good and the river reports really come in to their own when there are problems like flooding, pollution or misuse whatever. I don't think it's cliquey so much as mates having a chat and banter but knowingly it's all on the www. It's a public forum and catches and specific tactics and locations... well that's a prerogative of whosoever and fine by me if they keep it to themselves really, I don't want to fast track knowledge with the things I prefer to be learning first hand either by fishing or chatting on the day if I bump into someone. The real river reports come when you stick a bait in the water and chat on the bank - and that's pretty perfect - being there sort of thing. Online it's a bit of replacement therapy for not being there, that's all.
 
I think the reality is that many are freely posting their catch reports and trophy shots on FaceBook rather than here.

The big question is why are they not posting on here too?

Stephen
 
Nick Clark said:
Nor can I comment on the threads 10 years ago , but I agree with Anthony. This site is good and the river reports really come in to their own when there are problems like flooding, pollution or misuse whatever. I don't think it's cliquey so much as mates having a chat and banter but knowingly it's all on the www. It's a public forum and catches and specific tactics and locations... well that's a prerogative of whosoever and fine by me if they keep it to themselves really, I don't want to fast track knowledge with the things I prefer to be learning first hand either by fishing or chatting on the day if I bump into someone. The real river reports come when you stick a bait in the water and chat on the bank - and that's pretty perfect - being there sort of thing. Online it's a bit of replacement therapy for not being there, that's all.
Click to expand...

Spot on Nick. Good post.
 
Stephen Bond said:
I think the reality is that many are freely posting their catch reports and trophy shots on FaceBook rather than here.

The big question is why are they not posting on here too?

Stephen
Click to expand...
Very true. I'm not a fan of Facebook as prefer twitter. Although i discovered tonight they can be linked. Doh! :rolleyes: no escape. ;)
 
Well said Tony, I note a good example of what you have said sticks out like a sore thumb on the Loddon thread.
You asked a simple question...... 'Anyone fishing the FAS waters'?
You didn't ask 'whats being caught'?
You didn't ask what stretches'?
You didn't ask what swims?, what bait? etc etc etc.
No one posted a comment for nearly 2 days.
As soon as one of the Loddon regulars post a trophy shot 7 others reply within hours but I noticed no one replied to you unless by pm.
I had the same last season when I simply posted that I would be spending some time on the Loddon in the coming season and looking forward to meeting a few of you........................... Not one reply!
So helpful and welcoming.

Good luck to you on the Loddon
Keep your trophy shots in your album.

;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top