Otters killing barbel?

[captain carrott]

not sure i am 6 foot 2 and had blonde hair down to my arse at the time and weighed about 22 stone, plus i have a yorkshire accent.

if that's the description of the bloke you spoke to then it was me.

 

[John Howard]

I witnessed an otter take a barbel on the upper Severn. I had landed and returned a 7lb + fish minutes later a head appeared in the river holding a brabel in its mouth.

I admit that the barbel was probably lying up after being caught and the otter was lucky.

 

[Thalia]

I think an otter taking fish is a given. My post was literally down to hearing the usual tackle shop probably uninformed chatter and wondered if anyone else had seen a similar level of fish being taken.

I don't personally think there is a problem beyond the wider one of the majority of our rivers having lower stocks of fish than they used to have to. Mainly down to man of course in way or another...

 

[Richard Bartlett]

Having been an angler for some 40-odd years I was well-chuffed when I saw my first otter around 7 years ago. Since then I've seen more & more each season, with around 18 or 20 spotted this year. To be fair, 7 of them were in one session though!
I'd just finished a night session & was about to pack up when I heard a bit of a commotion from upstream. I dropped below some vegetation & peered across river & saw a family of 7 otters, investigating the bank, the water, playing & tumbling over each other. I swiftly grabbed the DV & managed to get about a minutes footage before they went out of sight behind a willow. I dodged downstream around a few trees to just see them all disappearing into a flood-exposed willow root mass - clearly their holt.

Made my day, that did

There's a low res version of the video here - still 7+ meg though, so if you're on dial up, beware.

Ottervid

Oh, and apologies for the sunday R4 music. I honestly didn't have it on that loud (& was only waiting for the next programme to start!) but the DV has picked it up rather too well. Concentrate on the birdsong instead

 

[Joskin]

Do the presence of seven otters seem to have had much affect on the fishing in that particular river Richard.

 

[Fred Bonney]

Richard,excellent video,it's times like that,that will remain with you for ever.
Food must be abundant,5 cubs is rare!

 

[Richard Bartlett]

Joskin - Clearly the otters will be having an impact, although I can't say that I've noticed anything detrimental as yet. Lovely though they are, I must admit to having mixed feelings about their presence in such numbers though, particularly in view of the plumetting eel population.

Fred - I have to admit I was on a real high for a while afterwards - it was a lovely warm sunny morning & to then see a sight like that just made for a very special experience.
A few weeks prior to that I was wading the river 1/2 mile downstream (flyfishing) & saw a trail of bubbles heading rapidly downstream towards me. Moments later a dog (?)otter surfaced in a dead tree mid-river, no more than around 8 yards from me - within a couple of seconds it spotted me & crash-dived. Curiously, the water around the tree is open & no more than about calf-depth but could I see where the beast had gone? Incredible disappearing act!

 

[Thalia]

Richard - WOW!!!

You were on a high? I am myself having seen that - the whole family has just watched it and thought it brilliant too!

I only saw 1 and sadly (for some I suppose) it's only been captured on the HD in my head. I can still replay it at the moment - just hope I don't ever need to format my brain!

Seriously though - if we didn't vist the bank we wouldn't see such things. Privileged is what we are.....

 

[honslow]

Aren't there six cubs in the vid? Can't Fred count?

 

[Fred Bonney]

Do you know what, Greg, you could be right. There's a first for everything!

 

[honslow]

Ha, ha! Nice one Fred! Definitely not omnipotent.

 

[Bryan Baron 2]

Excellent bit of footage. Shame about the big lump of blue rubbish though. Nice looking bit of river as well. One day i hope i am as lucky.

 

[Richard Bartlett]

Bryan - its a spate river & at times takes some extremely serious water. No matter how conscientious our farmer friends may be (!), there are inevitably occasions when fertiliser sacks get washed in & snagged on the undergrowth - I'm fairly sure that's what it is.

A slight shame the otters chose to perform on there but hey, as far as they're concerned its just another part of their world - only our eyes are offended by it

 

[Simon Holden]

Great footage. Six cubs is unusual, the average brood being 2-3. Cub mortality is high and average adult lifespan is only about 3 years. It is unlikely that many of these lovely creatures will survive to adulthood.
My best encounter with an otter happened whilst fishing on a moonlit evening on the Avon near Ringwood. As I sat amongst the reeds I heard soomething splashing over the flooded fields towards me. Expecting to see a deer I slowly turned my head around and an otter bounded up to about 10 foot from me. It froze and we stared into each others eyes for a few moments before it bolted upstream to where my fishing partner was sitting!

 

[Wurzel]

Lovely to look at but, if i had a gun and it was legal i'd shoot em. They have started to decimate the barbel stocks on the upper thames where they were introduced around 7/8 years ago and ive know of at least three fish killed in the last 12 months. The ea did a survey before the start of this river season and found 15 barbel in an 8 mile stretch of the upper river. Dont tell me that they wont have an impact on your barbel fishing. THEY WILL!!!
Wurzel

 

[Thalia]

Thank God you don't have a gun and it's not legal

 

[captain carrott]

completey agree with that thalia, then again if i had a gun and it was legal i'd shoot that tit.

there's at least 20 million too many people in britain and no where near enough otters.

 

[Fred Bonney]

I think, I may just agree with you, Jason. ;o)

 

[Coops]

Everyone's entitled to an opinion without being called a tit.

On an area of river where some fish stocks are already at risk, some goodie two shoes reintroduces a predator because its oh so cute, but which can only do more harm, without thinking about the consequences.

Nice as they are in a balanced environment, releasing otters to the wild again in some areas may not be a good thing for the other wildlife already in existence.

 

[Fred Bonney]

What,like mink Coops?
Otter are territorial, so they will never 'plague' one location.
Anyway, to talk of shooting, doesn't do angling any favours.