Keepnets

Fishing the wye a few weeks back i went to talk to a fellow angler,he looked like a match angler his rods gear etc. .He said he had just caught a double figure barbel,i replyed i would have taken a photo,he said no problem its in the net.On speaking to him latter he had two more doubles and over a hundred pounds of barbel,all in the net. I dont think any barbel let alone this amount should be kept in a keep net . One alone for a short period to recover mabey JUST.

What this angler did is absolutely disgusting.

There should be one simple rule for match fishing right across the country: "No barbel to be weighed in matches and all barbel to be returned to the water immediately"!!

I think this is still quite common on the R.Severn as well. Although i don't fish it that often, i have seen dead barbel floating down belly up in numbers and would assume that they are emptied from the net without any care and attention or recovery time...Ray

Some anglers don't really care at all Ray. Actually I respect the angler who kills his catch (not barbel) more than those who slam fish up in a net for hours.

Last summer at the end of a match I had to try and revive two Trent barbel of about 4 lbs each. One of them eventually swam away, the other died.

What was interesting was finding out what that barbel had been eating. In its stomach were traces of what looked like luncheon meat, maggots and several big black snails that are extremely common on the Trent these days.

It's certainly the majority practice on the Middle Severn.In fact if you haven't got a keep net in you get funny looks and people think you haven't caught.

A few years ago I watched a certain very famous angler slam up a number of barbel around the 6lb mark in Bewdley.

No names but he has a bloody great big ginger beard.

Horrendous. The message still doesn't get through, despite angling clubs & organisations and the press trying to educate people about barbel in keepnets. I think the main problem is that keepnets tend to hang vertically in the water (unless it's very shallow). This forces barbel, which tend to be quite long, lean fish away from their natural, comfortable position, which is to hold on an even keel. This, I should imagine, does them no favours when they are trying to recover from the effort of the fight. Given that anglers are unlikely to stop putting them in nets, shouldn't we be trying to persuade them to at least stake/tie out their nets so that they sit horizontally in the water, so as to allow the prisoners the best chance of recovery?

And no more than ONE fish in the net.

They will still get their serrated dorsal fin spines caught however.

keetnets these days are only good for keeping the lagers cool.

I believe there are too many anglers who have not got a clue on how to use a keepnet correctly. If a bit of time is taken to ensure it is staked out properly in suitable water then most fish will not suffer. However, some anglers put the fish in their dry net then throw the net out into the water which I think is disgusting. Education is the key.

Also, the amount of rubbish left on the bank of the middle Severn is disgusting. I recently fished the pump house peg at Hampton Loade and actually filled a carrier bag full of empty bait bags, tin foil, cans and meat tins.