River Great Ouse barbel stocking
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- Опубліковано 29 жов 2024
- This shows the stretch to be stocked, while we were waiting for the Environment Agency (EA) to arrive, the arrival of the EA and stocking the barbel and other fish. This stretch is controlled by Milton Keynes Angling Association which is open to anyone to join.
The Upper Ouse has suffered from predation by otters, cormorants and other creatures such as mink, eating of fish eggs by the invasive signal crayfish and silting up and solidification of spawning grounds (see my last video). The once thriving barbel population, as was in the 1980’s, 90’s and early 00’s, has dwindled down to a small fraction of what it was. Together with clubs in the local area we are trying to redress the balance by introducing stock fish supplied by the Environment Agency from their fish farm at Calverton. Not all of the stock fish went into the stretch shown, some went into other stretches.
The EA has been stocking thousands of barbel into the River Great Ouse, at least annually, for many years. A recovery is now starting, with barbel showing up in several stretches. Some of these fish can be traced back to the stocking by a marker blue spot on the belly. The fish shown in the video were too small to have the blue spot, but hopefully will show in catches over the next few years. The Upper Great Ouse was once home to the British Record barbel and as these fish can live to be over twenty years old, it takes a long time for the improvements from these stockings to show. Male barbel don’t grow above 8lbs in weight, so we just want a few of these to survive to mate with the large female barbel that inhabit some of the stretches of the River Ouse. One of which, that I caught last November, is shown in the video.
Thank for sharing this Patric. I helped Sam R with clearing gravel patches at Adams Mill in late April using the same equipment featured in the video. Sam is a hero for leading this effort if you ask me. I have some time booked off next year to help again on more venues this time 👌
As a local angler for my whole life, I really do hope it works and we see more Barbel coming through 🤞
The work that's been carried out has been laudable, but I do wonder where all the sediment and algae settles again.
For real improvement of our river, the huge amount of abstraction and the raw sewerage being pumped into the river needs to be reduced.
The Prince of Fish.
The rivers problems are not all to do with otters the ouse like its tributary the ivel are a shadow of what they were 12 years ago there are still barbel in the ouse I was told they had all basically become extint I took a break from ouse barrelling about 13 years ago due to the gloom. I decided this 2023 season to gave a campaign 20 sessions in 10 barbel 5 doubles 3 9's a 7 and a baby 2pounder that seems a fair return for my efforts
What i dont get is literally thousands have been stocked in the Ouse in comparison to the upper Thames but there seems to have been much better survival rates on the Thames especially around oxford. I think the biggest problem facing all our rivers is over abstraction of water. Shocking how much lower the Ouse is at Newport Pagnell now, compared to the 1980's and early 90's.
I agree with you. The water table around Milton Keynes and Newport Pagnell has been lowered considerably. I think a lot of this has been done with borehole abstraction. Also, building houses etc. in the flood plain doesn't help as the weirs are opened and the water rushed off to the sea, as soon as possible after rain. It used to be allowed to soak in on the flood meadows.
The polish people are rubbing their bellys
Food for the otters!
Cormorants at that size!
Otters in 10 years
I fish on the st ives lakes complex,these natural stocked gravel pits,I can catch double figure bream and large tench on a float rod,that’s how close to the bank they are. I’ve seen otters on the pits probably 10 times,I’ve never seen an ottered fish on the bank,and have not had any other fishermen say they’ve seen one 🤷♂️
What you do see is lots of huge swan mussel shells out on certain spots of the bank,that’s what the otters are going for...they could just take a great big slow lazy bream..but they don’t.
@@markhepworth we have several waters round my way, big vast pits, very low stocks, full of krays near couple rivers. Over last 5 years 2 of them have been rinsed of all the carp as we knew them very well. The krays and swan muscles were first to be hit then the bird and small mammal populations and lastly the fish! Another local water gets visits most weeks as we have trail cams as water can't be fenced. First signs were 1 fish with large gash on its side, then 3 or 4 with chunks out of tails, then we found a known 38lb common in near mint condition over 300yards away from the lake then another then another! That common was nearly 50 years old, what a way to go!!! Dragged out the lake by your face to watch your attacker eat your throat out!!!
@@markhepworth They ate the British record barbel at Adam’s Mill. The best river in the country at the time as destroyed.
Well the Otters will love em thats for sure..
A few years ago, a number reasonably big Barbel could be seen in the clear waters of the "New Cut" at the Barker's Lane entrance to Priory Park in Bedford. They seemed to disappear (there is an otter there). At the time, I thought that was a good place for them because it's gravel-bottomed and fast-flowing, but people in Yorkshire are now saying that some of their straightened rivers flow TOO fast for some fish to breed! The New Cut is dead straight and originally intended to stop the old Varsity Line railway from being flooded.Even when the navigation channel is sluggish, the New Cut flows quickly and as flood conditions approach, it absolutely belts long, before slowing again when there's no space left downstream for the water to flow too. It's a really good idea to go somewhere safe before this happens. Could the New Cut be too fast-flowing (at least at certain times)? If someone wanted to slow it down, though, they really would need to provide excess water with yet another alternative route!
Definitely not too fast. There used to be a good amount of barbel in there, until the otters arrived.
@@chrisguygeezer The other thing that's new, apart from otters, is that Little Egrets are a thing in Bedfordshire for the first time in some centuries. They might eat fish too small for a heron, cormorant or otter to bother with and I think the "fingerlings" being released in this video could be an ideal size for them. They are about the same size as the Rudd which vanished from a pond on the Biggleswade Green Wheel in the two weeks following my first sighting of an Egret in that pond in Autumn last year. They had survived prior to this, probably because he didn't know they were there until the water levels dropped with the heatwave. I've _never_ seen a Kingfisher there; they stick to the Ivel itself, the other side of town.
Barbel are still there and a few doubles too 🙂
@@matthewspencer972 Yes, something I'd not consist. Obviously perfect size for them and herons.
@@fizzyfozbuzz874 yes of course, but the same fish are coming out every season, hardly any 5-6-7s coming through to replace them when they die. Which will be soon
The EA isn’t doing a fraction of the restocking in our highly polluted rivers that they should be, I fish different regions the Thames below Abingdon and there’s vast stretches totally devoid of fish because of water pollution and Otter/ Cormorant predation.
It would help if these companies pouring raw sewage into our rivers were fined realistic amounts. I realize that £2+ million is a lot to us mere mortals but to these companies it doesn't even touch their profits. really hammer them till they get the message.
I’ve fished this water. The otters killed the last record barbel that was in here. What’s the point of putting these fish in here?
They have to try!!
Cant just leave these stretches empty, some will make there way through the ranks, HOPEFULLY!!!!
Every year, over the last 15 years or so, thousands (itro of 135,000) of fingerling barbel are stocked in to the Ouse, and yet the catch rate remains very poor. The same big females get caught every year, by the same anglers, who target the same fish. Soon these old fish will die and there are precious few to take their place.
Instead of the 10's of thousands of fingerling barbel being stocked, surely it would make more sense to stock several hundred 4-5 year old fish. They at least would have a chance of survival.
This is what I don't understand either - surely the larger 3lb+ barbel would stand more change against pike / otter / mink / cormorant (not to mention the first flood) than these fingerling barbel.
I'm not knocking the initiative though from the EA.
EA are tight wankers!!
I'm surprised you got those barbel!!!!
Thames water wiped out our local stretch of river and the EA and thames water didn't replace the stock- we got a fucking sign!!! I shit you not!!
Great stretch to stock otters comments. No cover some people are cluelss
This is A terribly written sentence.
Fish nicing that was, people do not a knowlidge