Excellent Zanderman. Not a lot of the conditions in the scheme would affect the fishery by the sounds of it, you have free access, catch and release, only other things would be possible habitat and following a code of conduct re handling etc its all on the site. Steve is a great bloke and has just built a fishery himself. Just mention me if you decide to go ahead. I'm the NAC environment officer.

Zanderman, I was only kidding about the guest ticket mate but thank you anyway. If i'm ever down that way I may take you up on your kind offer.

Cheers

Hard to know what the author's motives are in this article, being both, apparently, a scientist and someone with commercial interests. As a scientist I really wish he would spell "lose" correctly.

But to be more serious. I personally do not like the idea of barbel in stillwaters. Even more than that I do not like commercials. But I appreciate that many anglers like both of these, and who am I to deny anglers the right to fish for barbel in commercials.

But it is nothing new: rainbow trout in reservoirs, various foreign species in the UK, zander, catfish, ide, carp. Stillwater chub. I even remember catching big stillwater dace back in the sixties. There are so many introductions that are not natural. Add on farmed trout, salmon, plaice, halibut etc etc, and very little is natural in the UK fish world. Even our much exalted river barbel only attain their present size and portly girths because so many anglers feed them daily.

To catch a monster fish of most species these days you no longer seek out that underfished water, that area that has remained unfished. No: these days you ask which swims, which waters, have had the most bait thrown into them over the last few years.

Zanderman's water is interesting: a culvert linking the still to the river water. I suppose it is only to be expected that in heavy flood conditions barbel, and other river fish, might seek refuge in the calm of the lake. But do they then remain there from choice, or because they cannot then find the exit? They may not, exactly as with stocked stillwater barbel, be there from choice.

Oxygen levels: I sometimes worry that the oil left on the surface of stillwaters from feed, is acting as a barrier to the absorption of oxygen in that water. Oil naturally forms a very thin and widespread layer on a stillwater, even one drop can expand to affect many, many square yards. And do barbel in stillwater need as much oxygen? No current to swim against. Little need to hunt for food because it is rained down upon them, manna from heaven, with associated dinner gongs.

There is so much in modern angling that I do not like. I don't have to take part in such angling myself, but as before, I am not at all sure that I would want to deny others the right to fish in those ways, at those locations, for those species, using those methods. We have far more waters with fish in them today, due to speculators building commercial fisheries. That can't be all bad.

If nothing else, a selfish view might be that it keeps a lot of anglers out of my way. ;-)

It would take a far better researched article to convince me either way, whether the barbel are thriving...and maybe more to the point, enjoying life. The only purpose of any fish in a commercial, is surely to be caught, and caught regularly. Is this right? Don't ask me!

Jay
We made sure that Barbel (and any other fish) could access the river even in low water conditions; we will do the same on our other projected "Lagoons" when we dig those out too!

Trouble is the Barbel vote with their fins, not all of them but a lot, interestingly we probably have a lot more Barbel in this water now than we did when it was just a river.

Like you I don't like the thought of "stillwater" Barbel and despite my username I would get shot of ALL alien species if I could, in particular Signals and Cormorants!

Tight lines mate.

Originally Posted by ChrisD

1. If a species is not breeding naturally then it is not thriving.....existing is a better word 2. Sounds like a big advertisement/marketing ploy. Perhaps it would stand up if it were an independant researcher....not a supplier/fishery manager etc etc. They aren't gonna say they don't do well are they....bad for business. In fisheries mangement/science and when learning about rivers the river is split into zones, these zones are based on the fish. One of these zones is the BARBEL zone....why....because they belong in a river.

It's a play on words and a bit of plain old sensationalism, sells copies. If you read the dictionay definition of "thrive" you will see no mention of breeding success being a criteria: thrive : Oxford Dictionaries Pro

I see what you mean weylaid, perhaps i should have worded it different. Each individual animal ( in this case Barbel) may be " Thriving" but as a species Ie the whole population in a particular stillwater, are not if there is no natural recruitment ie breeding. The only way for them to exist once a year class has died out is to resort to restocking as the resident populations are not breeding if you get my meaning.

Any fish will do well in these waters as they dont have to exert any energy in finding food therefore allowing them to pile the weight on. All to artificial for my liking but thats just my opinion.

On the subject of Oxygen...i think the main problem with these sort of waters is the fact that so much food/bait etc is piled in, anything left uneaten is then acted upon by bacteria which also uses oxygen, add to that the additional nutrients, warm temperatures and relatively shallow water....which may lead to an increase in algal/plant growth, which is fine when the algae/plants are photosynthesing and releasing oxygen but at night they respire and use up oxygen, add to that the high stocking densities and it all means a huge demand for oxygen....hence the need for artificial aeration which is usually needed at night or in excessive high temperatures.

Originally Posted by ChrisD

I see what you mean weylaid, perhaps i should have worded it different. Each individual animal ( in this case Barbel) may be " Thriving" but as a species Ie the whole population in a particular stillwater, are not if there is no natural recruitment ie breeding. The only way for them to exist once a year class has died out is to resort to restocking as the resident populations are not breeding if you get my meaning. Any fish will do well in these waters as they dont have to exert any energy in finding food therefore allowing them to pile the weight on. All to artificial for my liking but thats just my opinion.

I am in total agreement with you Chris but its gutter journalism, anything to sell a few more papers.

Search hard enough and you could get a few scientists to tell smoking is good for your health.... All just meaningless bolloxs if you ask me.

Originally Posted by Zanderman

Jay We made sure that Barbel (and any other fish) could access the river even in low water conditions; we will do the same on our other projected "Lagoons" when we dig those out too! Yes, I understood that Z, Just wondered whether the barbel, used to navigating with river flow to help them, might accidentally become lost in the stillwater, and therefore unintentionally resident. Trouble is the Barbel vote with their fins, not all of them but a lot, interestingly we probably have a lot more Barbel in this water now than we did when it was just a river. Too be honest, I would have expected that. Fish moving into the lake after straying and staying leave vacant slots back in the stream for others to move up into and fill. Like you I don't like the thought of "stillwater" Barbel and despite my username I would get shot of ALL alien species if I could, in particular Signals and Cormorants! Although cormorants are actually not alien ;-) Tight lines mate.

Cheers....

Agree with you ChrisD, the barbel will only thrive in a closed stillwater whilst individuals live. This is short term thriving at best.

I think, Wey-laid that the objective might have been more to sell extra day tickets, rather than papers.

The only ways that commercials, IMHO, can possibly work profitably, is that they maintain these unnaturally high levels of stock fish, or that they provide an oppportunity to fish for exotics, barbel, ide, sturgeon, whatever.
Stocking and baiting help these objectives, but both overload the normal B.O.D. of the water, and so artificial aeration becomes required. Probably not popular with the fishery owner as it reduces profit of course.