River Angling/Fishing

[Hosenbugler]

I've not regulalry coarse fished for over 20 odd years now, but what has caught my eye is the seeming lack of people fishing the rivers near to me. It was the case historically, if you went by certain riverside locations you would see numerous anglers, here or there. Sometimes just a few, other times considerable numbers.

These days though, I see virtually nobody, the odd angler once in a while but thats about it. Yet when I go by private fishing lakes, there seems to be plenty of people with rods out, etc. One the other hand, I visited an old fishing spot a few weeks back and walked up a couple of miles of the bank , fish seeming to be very thin, a couple of Chub, 3lb or so, but the vast majority being fry, or fish up to a pound or so , but like said, not a lot of anything. I checked out a railway bridge which was a favourite spot of mine, you could always guarantee some nice fish under it, it was barren, nothing I could see at all (shallow clear water) nowt!

So whats happened , have fish stocks declined badly? Thats what my small survey seems to indicate , if thats the case, does anyone know whats caused it? Any ideas, views, anyone?

P/S The rivers I mention are the Nene and Welland, and backwaters, streams, of both.

[loose cannon]

I would like to fish more rivers, I currently lake fish mainly but I’m not really a carp fisherman as such, like virtually everybody seems to be today,
Most tackle shops are based around carp fishing
And most of the local angling clubs are based around carp fishing, Farnham angling have a few bits of river you can fish, there has been big issues with cormorants eating everything
Signal crayfish eating fish eggs etc
Also finding a decent parking place and having to trudge a mile or so to find a spot with a load of gear is probably what kills it for the pleasure angler and knowing which bits of river have fishing rights, oh and there’s no 40 pound carp to target called a stupid name, it seems that carp get all the hard work in being looked after all the other species seem to suffer personally I would like to see more of this in fully grown size

Edited by loose cannon on Friday 28th September 10:23

Edited by loose cannon on Friday 28th September 10:25

[Hosenbugler]

Sounds like you have confirmed my suspicions concerning Cormorants. Locally a very picturesque private lake had a very well known Heronry. Untill the influx of Cormorants who nested above the herons and effectively drove them out. The cormorants also virtually wiped out the roach and Rudd stocks . The landowner requested permission to cull the Cormorants, but was refused , sadly. I'm convinced those same Cormorants are at least part of the reason for the apparent low fish stocks in the nearby river.

I did not know about the signal crayfish eating fish eggs, apparently the areas I mention have high popuations of them, so another factor in decreasing fish stocks.
You would think the alleged Enviromentalists would do something about the matter , but I suppose they are too busy ringing their hands.

Other than that, nice fish, I particularly like the Tench, grand fighters!

[CypSIdders]

Hosenbugler said:

I checked out a railway bridge which was a favourite spot of mine, you could always guarantee some nice fish under it, it was barren, nothing I could see at all (shallow clear water) nowt.....

Another factor, IMO, is, for the past 30 years the "environmental" agencies, in cahoots with landowners, have been straightening out rivers to alleviate flooding, flooding which occurred naturally on flood plains.
Now when water levels are high, water barrels through unchecked with nothing to reduce it's velocity, something that the, now nonexistant, meanders used to do. The water rushing through, unchecked, scours the river bed of any natural habitats for breeding fish.

There's also the rise of the commercial fishery, overstocked, so anglers can catch, dopey, carp all day every day.
There's probably a whole generation of anglers who've fished on commercial fisheries, exclusively, for their whole angling life.
These people expect to catch a fish a cast, I doubt they have the skills, patience or knowledge to fish on a river or wild venue with any success, they may have tried it, but without a fish a cast probably gave it up as a bad job.

An awful lot of rivers, (particularly in Salop and the West midlands), have also gone over, exclusively, to trout and salmon fishing, fly only, with coarse angling being barred, except for grayling fishing during the winter months.

There are still good, coarse fishing, river venues, they just take a bit of research finding out where they are!

[boxsey]

The local rivers to me have more fish in them now than I've seen for years. The Mersey being a prime example...once one of the most polluted rivers in the country where you would be lucky to catch a fish 20 years ago, is now so full of roach and bream and matches are regularly won with over 20 pounds. But you're right that there are less and less of us fishing them. As mentioned above the rise of the commercial fishery is partly to blame. But also access to the rivers seems to be getting worse every year. On the one hand many of the river banks are easier to get to because foot/cycle paths have been built right next to them but on the other hand the parking has been taken away. So it's fine if you're a cyclist or out walking your dog but not so good if you're an angler with loads of tackle to take with you. So I can see why anglers are choosing commercial fisheries with their clubhouses, on-site tackle/bait shops and parking behind their peg over the harder to get to pegs that are now on a noisy river bank. Personally I still prefer the latter as I regard it as real fishing rather than hauling out starving carp from a commercial.

[Liokault]

On the Nene, I think Otter are the problem...ten year old newspaper article: https://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/sport/otters-a...

On my local river, the Thame, when I moved next to it 7-8 years ago, any nearly nice day in the summer would see every available swim occupied. Any river with barbel was more or less the same. I it was lot of pressure but I generally got 4 fish out a year, with one being a double, the others being 6-10lb. My best fish was 16lb 7 oz, 3 years ago...the same year I saw my first otter.

Now you are lucky if you see 1 or 2 anglers a week in the same area. Last year I had 3 fish, all under 2lb, this year with less traveling hence more fishing I have had 2 fish. Even the chub are dwindling in number and size.

What really worried me was that every year when there has been low water levels (50% of the time) in the closed season, any exposed bit of gravel I could get pellets onto would have barbel feeding...all up the river. This closed season just gone, I could get some reduced number of chub feeding, generally small ones, but not one barbel...also no barbel spawning for the first time this year.

If you take out the larger fish that people want to catch, they will stop going.