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This is a dedicated thread for discussing article: Steve Pope and Guests
Steve Pope and Guests
- Thread starter FishingMagic
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I could empty that swim easily 
I don't mind reading articles and they can be interesting and people catching a few fish is what its all about.
But at the end of the day, surely the challenge of working things out for yourself as to be more satisfying than paying somebody to put you onto fish, because that is all what's happening.
Not a dig at the author, fair play to him for having an hobby that pays
I don't mind reading articles and they can be interesting and people catching a few fish is what its all about.
But at the end of the day, surely the challenge of working things out for yourself as to be more satisfying than paying somebody to put you onto fish, because that is all what's happening.
Not a dig at the author, fair play to him for having an hobby that pays
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nicepix
Well-known member
Guests or customers?
no-one in particular
Well-known member
A nice read about fishing and catching barbel, informative--I remember my early barbel foray on the Kennet with my brother, he took me to a swim where he said your guaranteed to catch barbel, he taught me never to fish right on the shoal, attract them up. They lay under a weed blanket on a bend and I swim feed maggots well 50 yards above them. Keep the feed going in and eventually it will trickle past them and they will move up. Caught more than 20 that day. I never forget it, never caught that many ever since by a long chalk.
Two and half grand for a rod and reel is a bit scary though, worth more than all the tackle I have bought in my whole life. Still, looks a very nice set up but, I would be scared to use it. I would just hang it in my window just to let everyone know I owned one. Bit like those people that have a rented Ferrari in the drive but, no carpets or furniture in the house
Two and half grand for a rod and reel is a bit scary though, worth more than all the tackle I have bought in my whole life. Still, looks a very nice set up but, I would be scared to use it. I would just hang it in my window just to let everyone know I owned one. Bit like those people that have a rented Ferrari in the drive but, no carpets or furniture in the house
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B
binka
Guest
Steve,
On the issue of the deformed fish here are two Trent fish which I took recently within a week or so of each other from the same stretch of river and which had the same abnormality...
In both cases the kink was to the left which can be clearly seen in the image below and the fish were otherwise perfectly healthy, fought like you would expect and went back strong...
In over thirty years of fishing I certainly don't recall seeing it before either with barbel or other species.
After reading of your experience of it too it did make me wonder if it was something coming through the breeding programme in second (or even later) generation fish and which might be worth mentioning to Calverton?
On the issue of the deformed fish here are two Trent fish which I took recently within a week or so of each other from the same stretch of river and which had the same abnormality...
In both cases the kink was to the left which can be clearly seen in the image below and the fish were otherwise perfectly healthy, fought like you would expect and went back strong...
In over thirty years of fishing I certainly don't recall seeing it before either with barbel or other species.
After reading of your experience of it too it did make me wonder if it was something coming through the breeding programme in second (or even later) generation fish and which might be worth mentioning to Calverton?
flightliner
Well-known member
Had two or three like those on the tidal river Steve, one of them three times in a day, it loved sweetcorn and fought like a big Bream.
Alan Tyler
Well-known member
There was a bent-back barbel in the Holybrook near Reading back in the late seventies or early eighties that I caught once and saw others land a few times, so it isn't that new a phenomi-thing.
Probably did it themselves Al - Trying to swim through the thick Streamer weed on there!
wes79
Well-known member
Plenty of those bent backs coming out of the Goyt (nicknamed boomerangs).
The Mersey, starting in the centre of Stockport is fed from both the rivers Goyt and Tame, it initially receives water from both and otherwise remains un-stocked by the EA of Barbel, interestingly it contains a few escapees that have inadvertently moved over various weirs from the Goyt since it was originally stocked in the mid 90's and become a self sustaining population helped and supplemented genetically from the population found in the river Tame, both the Goyt and the Tame were illegally stocked with Barbel from the river Severn, prior to getting full EA backing and being legally stocked of Barbel.
While its not totally impossible for these fish to make there way back into the Goyt (as the last two weirs there are often drowned out by late winter/early spring rains) they are still able to navigate upto the last weir on the Tame to spawn, I would assume spending much of their time moving from the Tame into the Mersey and vice versa, more interesting still is the lack of bent backs reportedly coming from either the Tame or the Mersey (I don't know of any), all of which contained in an area of only a few miles in all three directions..
It was explained to me by one of the bailiffs on the Goyt a while back that it was some sort of virus infection that would show during the juvenile stage of the young Barbels life but was unfortunately carried into adulthood, not really effecting it after the damage had already been done so living with the deformity and being otherwise healthy, I never asked at the time whether this was suffered prior to being released or was a result of something happening in the farming of the fish.
Afterthought.....
I had wondered for a while if this might be caused by the beaks of predatory birds on juvenile fish, I have caught Chub/Grayling and other silvers that have the scars and beak point still to show from escaping these birds but none have got deformed spines, so I could at least count that out as one possibility!
The Mersey, starting in the centre of Stockport is fed from both the rivers Goyt and Tame, it initially receives water from both and otherwise remains un-stocked by the EA of Barbel, interestingly it contains a few escapees that have inadvertently moved over various weirs from the Goyt since it was originally stocked in the mid 90's and become a self sustaining population helped and supplemented genetically from the population found in the river Tame, both the Goyt and the Tame were illegally stocked with Barbel from the river Severn, prior to getting full EA backing and being legally stocked of Barbel.
While its not totally impossible for these fish to make there way back into the Goyt (as the last two weirs there are often drowned out by late winter/early spring rains) they are still able to navigate upto the last weir on the Tame to spawn, I would assume spending much of their time moving from the Tame into the Mersey and vice versa, more interesting still is the lack of bent backs reportedly coming from either the Tame or the Mersey (I don't know of any), all of which contained in an area of only a few miles in all three directions..
It was explained to me by one of the bailiffs on the Goyt a while back that it was some sort of virus infection that would show during the juvenile stage of the young Barbels life but was unfortunately carried into adulthood, not really effecting it after the damage had already been done so living with the deformity and being otherwise healthy, I never asked at the time whether this was suffered prior to being released or was a result of something happening in the farming of the fish.
Afterthought.....
I had wondered for a while if this might be caused by the beaks of predatory birds on juvenile fish, I have caught Chub/Grayling and other silvers that have the scars and beak point still to show from escaping these birds but none have got deformed spines, so I could at least count that out as one possibility!
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Steve Pope
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Hi All,
Pleased to be able to talk about fishing on the forum!!
Like many others I've caught a fair few of these deformed barbel over the years and have witnessed a couple of real extreme cases.
The first was on the Royalty when a good pal caught a nice fish from Fiddlers that was literally bent 90 degrees, it fought rather strangely as you could imagine but otherwise was ok.
Then I caught a similar sized barbel from the lower Severn that looked exactly the same and probably produced the most peculiar fight I've ever experienced!
I know they have come from many other rivers as well, going back well over twenty years.
As I mentioned in the article much has been written about this condition and I suppose we can only take what information is to hand to form an opinion for ourselves.
I'm off to the Wye now, have yet to catch a deformed barbel there.
All the best and thanks for responding to the article, I try to include snippets that might stimulate general discussion and its reassuring when it happens.
Pleased to be able to talk about fishing on the forum!!
Like many others I've caught a fair few of these deformed barbel over the years and have witnessed a couple of real extreme cases.
The first was on the Royalty when a good pal caught a nice fish from Fiddlers that was literally bent 90 degrees, it fought rather strangely as you could imagine but otherwise was ok.
Then I caught a similar sized barbel from the lower Severn that looked exactly the same and probably produced the most peculiar fight I've ever experienced!
I know they have come from many other rivers as well, going back well over twenty years.
As I mentioned in the article much has been written about this condition and I suppose we can only take what information is to hand to form an opinion for ourselves.
I'm off to the Wye now, have yet to catch a deformed barbel there.
All the best and thanks for responding to the article, I try to include snippets that might stimulate general discussion and its reassuring when it happens.
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barbelboi
Well-known member
I can only remember catching one, from the Thames in the late 70's - didn't realise they were so common. If you're up the far end of the Wye Steve say hello to GM from me..............
Cliff Hatton
Well-known member
As if to confirm that fish try to blend with their environments, a small pike I caught years ago was blind and black.
Derek Gibson
Well-known member
Yes, there are many examples of deformity in the fish world. I have taken pike with identical deformities to those displayed in the barbel pic's. Also snub nosed pike that have the upper snout much shorter than the lower jaw. On closer examination there is no evidence of previous injury, so one can only conclude they are birth defects.
One ''eyed'' pike are not uncommon Cliff, however blind in both eyes is unusual in my experience, though I have had a few. Colour aberations can be bizzarre though, I have had a few amazing ones, from nearly entirely silver to ones that look as though cartoonists from the Disney studios have painted them.