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Severn river trust

The various trusts carry out fantastic work up and down the country Terry, I'm mainly fixated on barbel bothering and still fully support the SRT, not overly sure where the 'game fish only' thing comes from? Although, I did recently attend the Leaping Lights Salmon Festival in Newtown the other month, a superbly organised event with masses of adults, children, and anglers celebrating the old 'bar of silver' and its journey up the Severn. They had all the local kids build hundreds of fishy lanterns so that they could walk them upstream to the park in celebration, it was bloody brilliant to see, I would support them off that alone. Although, it was awfully game fish like mind you!

I wonder if they would do something similar for the barbel, or do they fear it'd be full of grumpy old men who can't agree with one another? The annual barbel show is always a good laugh and full of smiles, so that's possibly not a true view about us.

I believe one of the aims of the restoration project is 'To return the river to a more natural condition and ecological health by restoring the rivers more natural form and function over the next 50 years'. That would suggest removing any man made structures that are felt to be hindering the rivers recovery to former glory - 'The river restoration plan is based on a detailed scientific understanding of the river and floodplain'. I would much rather have faith in what these folk, it's all part of the process in achieving a 'good status' in the EU's WFD.

Some of the opinions in this thread need to be taken with a pinch of salt Terry, these experts on barbel and river ecology were the same folk saying 'the lower Severn is finished as a barbel fishery' just two-three seasons ago.

Regarding the otter support, imagine a day some time in the future where representatives from various wildlife and angling groups are all stood on the river bank together discussing how to improve the river as a whole for all the creepy crawlers, furry rodents, slimy fish, and flowers. Oh wouldn't it be great! Wonder who'd be the first to put their foot in it though and upset the others? :D
 
Cheers for that Bobby. I await the PhD results with bated breath. I'm a bit pessimistic though that any 'results' will be acted upon. We'll see eh.
Re. the conflict of views expressed on here .. looking for a positive slant on it all, it does show that a lot of anglers DO care, and do have opinions..however varied and contrasting they may be.
ATVB
Terry
 
Well you would say all that wouldnt you Bobby, I suppose your remarks are probably aimed at me and whilst I have had very good season on the lower Severn, probably better than most, I still stick to my guns and say that the Severn barbel population as a whole is in decline and this includes the lower Severn, whilst I and others are catching some good barbel and many doubles, there appears to be a a considerable gap from those fish and the amount of back fish that we would hope would come through, once again we have someone from the barbel society coming on here casting insults and doubting the credibility of my views and others, I am not an expert in river or barbel ecology and never proclaimed that, but I have an opinion based true concerns, I am just a barbel angler that wants the best for the species and its environment, you are typical as the ones you represent how you perpetually project an image how its cool to be unconcerned in any issues of barbel conservation, and any concern is put down in a sneering manner, my concerns are not personal or against anyone, however once again we have a committee member of the Barbel Society wading in and putting the rest down as grumpy old men, and anything they say as rubbish and quackery, how dare you, I have done more for barbel that you will ever do and that earns me the right to have an opinion, by all means enter the discussion, put you views forward, but please leave the personal attacks and your bitterness out of it, it does you and the Barbel Society no favors at all in my opinion and I say that as a current barbel society member and founder member .......
 
Hi Lawrence,

Merely highlighting that Terry should keep an open mind regarding the SRT and its involvement with the Teme. The 'grumpy old men' comment was a general one! Look at the rest of the post...'possibly not a true view'. I'll leave it there.

***edit*** A little note on your incorrect comments....'Perpetually project an image how its cool to be unconcerned in any issues of barbel conservation'..........Erm, sorry Lawrence, you must've missed the Midlands' Rivers Research And Conservation fundraiser I just put on for the Barbel Society in September. So unconcerned that I spent weeks of my very limited free time to raise funds to commit to the Teme barbel PHD project and future Severn catchment/Midland rivers schemes.
 
Bobby I read all the post,you shouldnt have said anything about grumpy old men, there was no need, you also said take what others say with a pinch of salt, thats disrespectful to anyone that has a different view to you, anyone on here has a view, it may be different to mine, I respect their views and I endevour to explain why I think the way I do, its a discussion. I have always shown you absolute respect and friendship in the past, even though we have disagreed publicly on certain issues, my concerns regarding the barbel are based on being a barbel angler for over 40 years on the River Teme, Severn and Warks Avon, I have earned the right to have an opinion, not snipe at anyone one person, I now will bow out of this discussion because I fear by taking part I will encourage negative debate just because I am involved, I therefore bow out, graciously.
 
Lawrence Breakspear said:
Well you would say all that wouldnt you Bobby, I suppose your remarks are probably aimed at me and whilst I have had very good season on the lower Severn, probably better than most, I still stick to my guns and say that the Severn barbel population as a whole is in decline and this includes the lower Severn, whilst I and others are catching some good barbel and many doubles, there appears to be a a considerable gap from those fish and the amount of back fish that we would hope would come through, once again we have someone from the barbel society coming on here casting insults and doubting the credibility of my views and others, I am not an expert in river or barbel ecology and never proclaimed that, but I have an opinion based true concerns, I am just a barbel angler that wants the best for the species and its environment, you are typical as the ones you represent how you perpetually project an image how its cool to be unconcerned in any issues of barbel conservation, and any concern is put down in a sneering manner, my concerns are not personal or against anyone, however once again we have a committee member of the Barbel Society wading in and putting the rest down as grumpy old men, and anything they say as rubbish and quackery, how dare you, I have done more for barbel that you will ever do and that earns me the right to have an opinion, by all means enter the discussion, put you views forward, but please leave the personal attacks and your bitterness out of it, it does you and the Barbel Society no favors at all in my opinion and I say that as a current barbel society member and founder member .......
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Lawrence, I thought when I had time we could have a serious chat about our differing views seeing as your local knowledge is good.....but seeing your latest posts it's not worth it.

You need to be a bit more open in some of us than may have differing opinions to you.........,
 
Lawrence Breakspear said:
Well you would say all that wouldnt you Bobby, I suppose your remarks are probably aimed at me and whilst I have had very good season on the lower Severn, probably better than most, I still stick to my guns and say that the Severn barbel population as a whole is in decline and this includes the lower Severn, whilst I and others are catching some good barbel and many doubles, there appears to be a a considerable gap from those fish and the amount of back fish that we would hope would come through, once again we have someone from the barbel society coming on here casting insults and doubting the credibility of my views and others, I am not an expert in river or barbel ecology and never proclaimed that, but I have an opinion based true concerns, I am just a barbel angler that wants the best for the species and its environment, you are typical as the ones you represent how you perpetually project an image how its cool to be unconcerned in any issues of barbel conservation, and any concern is put down in a sneering manner, my concerns are not personal or against anyone, however once again we have a committee member of the Barbel Society wading in and putting the rest down as grumpy old men, and anything they say as rubbish and quackery, how dare you, I have done more for barbel that you will ever do and that earns me the right to have an opinion, by all means enter the discussion, put you views forward, but please leave the personal attacks and your bitterness out of it, it does you and the Barbel Society no favors at all in my opinion and I say that as a current barbel society member and founder member .......
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Tad prickly there Lawrence , what is going on ? I am not in the BS or any of the other barbel clubs so have no axe to grind, but I have to say that I thought Mr Bakers comments were reasonable and balanced unless I was missing something very subtle . Why would you dipping out of this debate make things better? Your comments are thought provoking and passionately argued , keep on in there Lawrence
 
Bobby Baker said:
Regarding the otter support, imagine a day some time in the future where representatives from various wildlife and angling groups are all stood on the river bank together discussing how to improve the river as a whole for all the creepy crawlers, furry rodents, slimy fish, and flowers. Oh wouldn't it be great! Wonder who'd be the first to put their foot in it though and upset the others? :D
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:D
 
Barbel Society? Is that organisation still going & what do they do?
 
Over the past centuries where ever man has stepped foot on this planet . We have destroyed habitats , Destroyed our rivers and oceans . Mammals and bird species have become extinct and now we spend large amounts of cash to try and restore the wrongs of what man has done in the past .

In this country money has been spent and work carried out to try and bring back wild life habitats and rivers and some species back from possible extinction . Native Crayfish , Birds of prey Water Voles to name just a few . I nearly forgot and Otters ? Love them or hate them . You cant get away from the fact that they were once part of our rivers a long with all the other birds and creatures that live along our rivers.

So why as anglers should we expect to be treated differently when we complain that Otters are destroying our sport ? Its not as if Otters are a alien species to our river banks . I don't how far back you would have to go back in history ? When Otters were common on our river banks ? If Native Crayfish , Water Voles , Birds of Prey etc etc are now being brought back from extinction . Then why should we expect Otters be treated any differently ?
 
Does your list include the formerly native Brown Bears, Sabre-tooth Tigers, Wild Oxen.... and Grey Seals Joe?

There may be trouble ahead tra-la-la:):):)
 
Bruno Broughton's (bless him:)) piece is worth reading....
...."However, it is clear that not all fisheries are being adversely affected by otters. Evidence gathered so far indicates that specimen barbel and chub populations have been hit hardest in smaller rivers, particularly where stocks are dominated by older fish, but rivers in the north and west, where otters have always been present, appear to be less affected".

http://www.bruno-broughton.co.uk/pdf/Otters_the_facts.pdf
 
Hi Terry,

'Otters - The Facts' was a joint publication by the AT, EA & NE, I'm pretty sure the Doc wasn't the author, he's just put it up on his website.

Cheers,

Joe
 
Thanks for that Joe, yeah I've seen it before with no mention of Doc B. Its a nice succinct piece IMHO.
ATVB
Terry
 
Damian Kimmins said:
Sorry David, I haven't really got the time to reply in full, but needless to say, unless you were actually there, it is very difficult to ask you to understand how good a job those defences did at holding back the volume of water that fell throughout Saturday, and you have to appreciate that in order to talk of the failure of the design and construction of said defences I'm afraid.
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Fair enough Damian.

Cheers, Dave.
 
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