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Wye & Usk news

Paul Bullinger

Paul Bullinger

Senior Member & Supporter
River temperatures are rising to dangerous levels in parts of the rivers Wye and Usk.
The current forecast is looking very hot and sunny from today through Sunday 15th August for the Wye and Usk river catchments. Both the Wye and Usk are currently showing extremely low water levels due to continued low levels of rain. This means, as we found in the July heatwave, that the lives of salmon, which are holed up in the lower reaches of the rivers, are at risk due to water temperatures becoming fatally high.
The Wye and Usk Foundation have been undertaking daily water temperature measurements along both rivers and as a result of the high and rising temperatures encountered, have had no alternative but to suspend salmonid fishing below Crickhowell on the Usk and below Builth Wells on the Wye. As of midnight tonight (12th August 2022), The Wye and Usk Foundation have also decided to pause salmonid fishing downstream of Brecon on the Usk and on the Monnow after both river temperatures have risen above safe levels. The extent of the ongoing closure is still under review and as the next week progresses, we may have to close Barbel fishing if the water temperatures rise above 25 degrees.
We are targeting the reopening of the affected Wye and Usk fisheries from midday on Friday 19th August. For trout and pike fisheries to reopen, river temperatures must reduce to 19 degrees or less. For salmonid fisheries to reopen, these temperatures must reduce to 18 degrees or less. Our staff, with the support of some enthusiastic citizen scientists from the Friends of the Lower Wye and Friends of the Upper Wye, will continue our daily monitoring of water temperatures in order to best assess the situation.
Please exercise caution if you are planning to be in or around the Wye and Usk or its tributaries. The river beds, where still water covered, are currently coated with extensive algae layers which are slippery and the water quality is poor for leisure use. Entering the water will also add to stressful conditions already being experienced by the fish and wildlife in the rivers.
Analyser Installation along the Usk
We are currently in the process of installing three new water analysers along the River Usk which will provide a live and continuous flow of water quality data by measuring different parameters, including total phosphorus. In addition to monitoring the effects that agriculture and sewage treatment works have on the river’s phosphorus levels, these analysers will also monitor changes in water temperature caused by climate change. This pool of data will be extremely useful in monitoring these effects, especially as increased river temperatures are expected to occur more frequently in the future.
Whilst we have unfortunately experienced several major issues with our analyser on the River Ithon, we are continually working to resolve this. However, we have an analyser which is currently running on the River Frome (Lugg sub-catchment) which continuously monitors total phosphorus and reactive phosphorus.
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Not sure if everyone has seen this report? Not a lot to say apart from Sir David Attenborough must be muttering "I told you so"!
 
The 20c is based on Salmonids, which are about as closely related to Barbel as a Robin is to Raven.
25c may seem high but what evidence has been given as to what is and isn’t suitable for specific species?
 
Stephen Crowhurst said:
The 20c is based on Salmonids, which are about as closely related to Barbel as a Robin is to Raven.
25c may seem high but what evidence has been given as to what is and isn’t suitable for specific species?
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As is all penguins are birds but not all birds are penguins? 🤔 No idea if fish species differ in their tolerance of water temperatures but I would guess that they all feel the heat in their watery environment as much as each other? There's bound to be a paper written on the subject somewhere?!!
 
Poor water quality too will be tolerated by some species and not others. They have evolved to be different. The chub seem to enjoy these conditions to be honest.
 
Paul Bullinger said:
As is all penguins are birds but not all birds are penguins? 🤔 No idea if fish species differ in their tolerance of water temperatures but I would guess that they all feel the heat in their watery environment as much as each other? There's bound to be a paper written on the subject somewhere?!!
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I 100% guarantee you that’s the case. Fish are not just fish. Penguins aren’t even the same. Variations in durability exist between different species that are very closely related let alone distantly.

Hypothetical and horrid experiment. If you took a sample of similar sized corse fish and put them in a bucket and let the sun boil it, each species would die at different points. There is a reason why monks chose Carp as a fish to distribute around Europe. Modern public aquariums don’t even bother with Salmon or Trout for the most part.

We have information on Salmon and Trout because they are a crop, loosing them equals lost profit. We don’t really have that kind of information for corse fish really, some will exist for Commercial Fisheries use but you don’t often see Barbel stocked in them because they aren’t robust enough to survive in less than idea conditions that those venues provide.
 
Stephen Crowhurst said:
The 20c is based on Salmonids, which are about as closely related to Barbel as a Robin is to Raven.
25c may seem high but what evidence has been given as to what is and isn’t suitable for specific species?
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Many barbel being reported bellied up seems enough for me to of not fished at all this season. I'd prefer to have something to fish for tomorrow rather than today.... Just my personal view.
One of my valued Syndicates has closed two or three times this season, we all voted to do so in the interest of the fish.
All advice taken from a guy that's runs his own Fishery for years and is qualified to act accordingly.
Fish just have to come first at the moment, the water quality is shocking with high levels of sewage treatment running through them. For me it's a simple decision not to be adding to the current problems. 😊
 
Stephen Crowhurst said:
I 100% guarantee you that’s the case. Fish are not just fish. Penguins aren’t even the same. Variations in durability exist between different species that are very closely related let alone distantly.

Hypothetical and horrid experiment. If you took a sample of similar sized corse fish and put them in a bucket and let the sun boil it, each species would die at different points. There is a reason why monks chose Carp as a fish to distribute around Europe. Modern public aquariums don’t even bother with Salmon or Trout for the most part.

We have information on Salmon and Trout because they are a crop, loosing them equals lost profit. We don’t really have that kind of information for corse fish really, some will exist for Commercial Fisheries use but you don’t often see Barbel stocked in them because they aren’t robust enough to survive in less than idea conditions that those venues provide.
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Exactly. According to some research, Common carp is warm water fish, and tolerates high water temperature (around 28–30 oC) the optimum temperature of growing is between 20 and 25. During those periods when the water temperature is lower than about 15–16 feeding of common carp becomes less and less intensive.

Trout, salmon are cool water fish, they are happy with water temperature below 18.

I can’t find much about barbel yet, but I think it is also a cool water fish, so don’t fish it in hot weather.
 
Julian Griffiths said:
Many barbel being reported bellied up seems enough for me to of not fished at all this season. I'd prefer to have something to fish for tomorrow rather than today.... Just my personal view.
One of my valued Syndicates has closed two or three times this season, we all voted to do so in the interest of the fish.
All advice taken from a guy that's runs his own Fishery for years and is qualified to act accordingly.
Fish just have to come first at the moment, the water quality is shocking with high levels of sewage treatment running through them. For me it's a simple decision not to be adding to the current problems. 😊
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Completely understand that viewpoint but my point is that it’s not evidence led as such, it’s anecdotal. You cannot pin the death on temperature alone. That might come across like I’m being an ass but I’m trying to be logical. I seem to recall a large part of the issue for Barbel is to do with the way they process lactic acid.

Your completely right though, there are so many compounding factors and some rivers are really suffering, Infact not many aren’t currently. If my local river was in the condition of the Wye I’d not be fishing it.

I simply find the pretext of you shouldn’t fish if the waters over 20 a little simplistic, especially when that information is based on a different animal.
 
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Huanzhou Zhu said:
Exactly. According to some research, Common carp is warm water fish, and tolerates high water temperature (around 28–30 oC) the optimum temperature of growing is between 20 and 25. During those periods when the water temperature is lower than about 15–16 feeding of common carp becomes less and less intensive.

Trout, salmon are cool water fish, they are happy with water temperature below 18.

I can’t find much about barbel yet, but I think it is also a cool water fish, so don’t fish it in hot weather.
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If you look at the natural range of Barbel, that will probably tell you exactly what you need to know.
 
I think that's what I find a little grating here, that some are assuming that like all fish being equal, all rivers are too!
Whilst the barbel on the Avon have been conspicuous by their apparent absence though a number have come out, the chub have fed in earnest and been returned in very good condition.
I think however, if we do not receive some rain soon that may change, as a vital part of the Avon's ability to provide healthy levels of dissolved oxygen may soon weaken and die off prematurely.
 
Not sure if my observations on the river Lot, France, will add much to this thread. But, here goes anyway....

I have not done much fishing of any sort recently. But as I was out for a couple of days in the camper-van, with my wife, next to the river so I had two early morning sessions.

Air temperature daytime since mid-June has consistently been over 35c and often topped 40c. Night temperatures this outing were around 24c - humid and uncomfortable for us. I forgot to check the river temperature, but from previous experience in these conditions it would have been over 25c.

First morning I caught a 3 lb barbel and the next morning another about the same size and a chub about 2.5 lbs. All three fish fought well for their size and swam off instantly I dropped the edge of the net. What most surprised me was how warm to the touch their bodies were as I unhooked them.

I suspect the barbel here are more used to the summer warm waters than perhaps UK barbel would tolerate, also the water quality here is very good. The bigger barbel were not feeding and I do not remember catching any better barbel in heatwave conditions during my five years here.

On the subject of barbel care, I would not want to unhook them on the bank just now - I think they would cook in seconds! With these fish I held the net whilst unhooking and had the fish back within seconds.
 
Being the same species, pretty relevant I recon… there could be regional adaptations that have developed over the last 10k years though. It’s telling however that you won’t find them much further north than the U.K. and won’t find them much further south than France.

In terms of French rivers being very clean, I was under the understanding that France has its own issues related to agricultural and industrial pollution of its rivers.
 
Stephen Crowhurst said:
Being the same species, pretty relevant I recon… there could be regional adaptations that have developed over the last 10k years though. It’s telling however that you won’t find them much further north than the U.K. and won’t find them much further south than France.

In terms of French rivers being very clean, I was under the understanding that France has its own issues related to agricultural and industrial pollution of its rivers.
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I heard 2nd hand that the Lot locally had been polluted. All I could find was a report that the beach at Saint Cirq la Popie had been closed. Never found out the reason but within days people were swimming there again. We are lucky on the Lot that although there are fields of corn and tobacco there does not seem to be many cattle or chicken farms.

Very little (or none!) industry and fairly low population means a low level of sewerage compared to most UK rivers.

This heatwave is causing low flow and associated weed growth. Hopefully a few thunderstorms soon will help with that!
 
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