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What's your honest assessment?

As Graham says. Would also add that I’ve been a Wye local now for about 2 and a half years and fished a number of stretches of the Wye. I have only seen an otter on a couple of occasions and a few mink. This compares to the frequent sightings of otters on the Kennet. Pretty much every trip in fact but I don’t know whether that’s actually because by necessity the otters were more active in order to successfully hunt for food.

I was reflecting on my barbel catches on the Wye, the 2016/17 season in particular as this season has been heavily distorted by the heat wave over the summer. It’s only one season I know, but across a number of different stretches, I think I caught over 250 barbel and had only 2 doubles. I recall catching quite a few barbel (say up to 40) around the 1lb mark and all the rest were firmly in the 5-8lb range. Don’t know if that’s representative of the catch profile of other Wye regulars, but it feels like an OK weight structure/model. Although I say that without applying any scientific methodology.
 
Reverting to Julian's origins question, until this season I'd fished the Loddon fairly obsessively for five or six years. After a couple of years of trying to distinguish my a**s from elbow, I did pretty well, fishing across all sections of the river. The last two years have been terrible, and this season I've largely given up on the grounds that I've had the best of it (though giving it a shot for old time's sake tonight). Reports of the really big beasts seem to have dried up, and smaller barbel are still being caught, though not in numbers or with any predictability.

Reasons? I don't buy the otter theory, but clearly they don't help. Despite fishing many hours during the night, I've never seen enough of them to be convinced they are the main culprit - I think most anglers are getting them mixed up with the much more prevalent mink. Crayfish, on the other hand, are an absolute menace in many swims, and their march seems relentless. Never-ending housing development close to the river can't be doing anything for the water quality. My guess - and it is a guess - it there must be an "invisible" ingredient severely impacting on water quality, be it agricultural wash-off, sewage or oestrogen-related. It's such a shame...it's such a beguiling, brilliant-looking little river, but unfortunately the looks now deceive.
 
Steve Double said:
Reverting to Julian's origins question, until this season I'd fished the Loddon fairly obsessively for five or six years. After a couple of years of trying to distinguish my a**s from elbow, I did pretty well, fishing across all sections of the river. The last two years have been terrible, and this season I've largely given up on the grounds that I've had the best of it (though giving it a shot for old time's sake tonight). Reports of the really big beasts seem to have dried up, and smaller barbel are still being caught, though not in numbers or with any predictability.

Reasons? I don't buy the otter theory, but clearly they don't help. Despite fishing many hours during the night, I've never seen enough of them to be convinced they are the main culprit - I think most anglers are getting them mixed up with the much more prevalent mink. Crayfish, on the other hand, are an absolute menace in many swims, and their march seems relentless. Never-ending housing development close to the river can't be doing anything for the water quality. My guess - and it is a guess - it there must be an "invisible" ingredient severely impacting on water quality, be it agricultural wash-off, sewage or oestrogen-related. It's such a shame...it's such a beguiling, brilliant-looking little river, but unfortunately the looks now deceive.
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Completely agree and had concluded much the same in relation to the Kennet.
 
Mark Anderson said:
Hi men ,

Common denominator is small rivers

Hatter
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Indisputably ... small river + otters = barbel annihilation. And for those that doubt that, with their "Ah, buts..." : name me one small river where the barbel stock has not been greatly reduced since the return of the otter. It may be an uncomfortable fact for some, but rocket science it ain't.
 
I agree small rivers, I see plenty of otters on the stretches of Wye I fish, especially at the BAA Stacklands fishery, doesn't seem to effect the fishing that Ive noticed.
 
Terry Simner said:
Indisputably ... small river + otters = barbel annihilation. And for those that doubt that, with their "Ah, buts..." : name me one small river where the barbel stock has not been greatly reduced since the return of the otter. It may be an uncomfortable fact for some, but rocket science it ain't.
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Just takes longer on bigger rivers....the annihilation that is.
 
Neil Smart said:
Or the Bristol Avon, Warks Avon, Arrow.
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I remember Trefor West was adamant the otter was the reason why many parts of the Bristol Avon has gone down hill. He told me he hasn't fished it for quite sometime now. Hardly a barbel to be caught, from what he mentioned to me a season or so ago.
 
What makes small river Barbel easy for otter predation and first taken is that they live most of their life with their heads stuck tight in a snag, tails hanging out. Other species tend to be always on the move in open water so have more chance of getting away. I heard a story about Adams mill back in the early 90's when a Top lad in the Barbel world waded into the river put his arms under an undercut bank. Three scoops and 3 double fish figure fish came out like tickled trout. In winter when species like chub are mobile Barbel become almost torpid under cover so even easier to take.
 
Julian Griffiths said:
I remember Trefor West was adamant the otter was the reason why many parts of the Bristol Avon has gone down hill. He told me he hasn't fished it for quite sometime now. Hardly a barbel to be caught, from what he mentioned to me a season or so ago.
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You won't see Westie on the Teme either ... and he made a bob or two down Beck's.
 
Mark Swaby said:
What makes small river Barbel easy for otter predation and first taken is that they live most of their life with their heads stuck tight in a snag, tails hanging out. Other species tend to be always on the move in open water so have more chance of getting away. I heard a story about Adams mill back in the early 90's when a Top lad in the Barbel world waded into the river put his arms under an undercut bank. Three scoops and 3 double fish figure fish came out like tickled trout. In winter when species like chub are mobile Barbel become almost torpid under cover so even easier to take.
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Yep, it's blinding obvious to all ... except the AT, that is.
 
Mark Swaby said:
What makes small river Barbel easy for otter predation and first taken is that they live most of their life with their heads stuck tight in a snag, tails hanging out. Other species tend to be always on the move in open water so have more chance of getting away. I heard a story about Adams mill back in the early 90's when a Top lad in the Barbel world waded into the river put his arms under an undercut bank. Three scoops and 3 double fish figure fish came out like tickled trout. In winter when species like chub are mobile Barbel become almost torpid under cover so even easier to take.
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Combine this with a naturally lower population, the loss of even half a dozen breeding size females over a mile of river is a serious environmental impact.
 
Julian Griffiths said:
I remember Trefor West was adamant the otter was the reason why many parts of the Bristol Avon has gone down hill. He told me he hasn't fished it for quite sometime now. Hardly a barbel to be caught, from what he mentioned to me a season or so ago.
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Was talking to a friend of Trefor to-day, and Trefor mentioned that he observed the Barbel on the BA hang off the bottom in Winter almost torpid like, the sickening evidence was that he witnessed Otter attacking them from underneath.
 
In winter they lie torpid and are an easy target and in summer due to high abstraction rates, they are forced into the deeper pools/undercuts for cover, and again are easy targets. The adult population is wiped out in a couple of seasons and the few that remain never recover due to poor recruitment (virtually non existent on rivers with crayfish). People talk comfortingly about a natural balance being reached, imagining that it will involve satisfactory numbers of otters and fish alike, but that isn’t how nature works. Otters don’t calculate how many adult fish they need to leave alive to ensure natural recovery of stocks, they take every fish they can and then move on. In Yellowstone park when wolves were removed, the deer proliferated and all the shrubs and small trees were lost. A new balance was reached, but it didn’t include any trees or shrubs. Eventually wolves were reintroduced. Given that sea eagles and wolves no longer exist in the UK, man is the only predator of the otter, and we’ve abdicated that role. Hence a new balance is being reached and it doesn’t involve many barbel or any other fish of any size. Yes man can often have a detrimental impact on nature, but to suggest the answer is for man to have no role, is nonsense, we’re a vital part of the ecological system. My local river Bain is virtually devoid of fish on all stretches other than those which have regular dog walkers. No coincidence. The larger river are more able to accommodate otters, but the ones which fare best of all are those that have some sort of controls in place. The EA are overseeing an ecological disaster which will see the end of river fishing within 30 years (max), and no it’s not just otters, they are just the straw that broke the camels back on many rivers. Very sad.
 
as far as otters go , do as carp fisheries do when something bothers their fish. don't waste time talking about the problem, just get rid off it!
 
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