Wye Barbel

[chub angler]

Were the Wye barbel stocked from the Severn or from the Lugg?.

 

[marie marling]

wanted you to have at least 1 answer so you don't feel ignored.

 

[preston96]

Rumour has it that anglers transfered them from the Severn to the Wye..........i have fished the lugg since i was 17 (i'm 53)and certainly neither me or my pals caught them in those early days from there, so it is fair to say they moved up from the Wye.

I often wonder if barbel were able to enter the Wye via it's shared estuary with the Severn............i know the circumstances would have to be soc on, eg, low saline content, perhaps at times of freshwater floods?

Fanciful thoughts perhaps, but i have known stranger things in nature.......i also know some Severn barbs are very nomadic and are well capable of travelling huge distances.

 

[Fred Bonney]

Paul, it is said, the Hampshire Avon barbel did that, to enter the Dorset Stour.

Although it appears , according to Jon Berry's "A Can of Worms", it is accepted they were illegally placed in the Lugg, or the main river in the 1970's.

 

[preston96]

Fred, ... the Lugg is the first river anyone coming from the Severn to the Wye valleywould "hit"........Lugg mill, on the Worcester road to be exact, so i suppose it is the logical place for anyone with a bucket of small barbel to stop off at.

Thats presuming nature didn't do it's own bit....does the Severn estuary have the "windows" for natural stocking? .....i don't know.

All i can say is that i and a band of friends fished the Lugg a lot on warm summer nights,during the early to mid 70's,mainly with lob worms, loads of chub, eel etc but the barbel came later.

I will have to have a good chat with my old Lugg/Wye mentors, in case i'm getting it wrong, but i don't think so.

 

[chub angler]

I was told the first Wye double came from the confluence

 

[preston96]

<blockquote class=quoteheader>chub angler wrote (see)</blockquote><blockquote class=quote>I was told the first Wye double came from the confluence</blockquote>
So, even if true, it proves nothing at all.

 

[chub angler]

Paul I think they came from the lugg as well in the late 60s they had a lot of barbel on fownhopes waters. but they wernt seen at Belmont in large numbers until the late 70s early 80s but like you say you cant prove it

 

[preston96]

i can't remember lots of barbel on Fownhope etc in the late 60'sand a fair few of my older mates were eeling the area....lobworms at night etc and they have never mentioned catching barbel during that period....later yes, but not as far as i know in the 60's.

In 68 i would be 13 so i can only go on what my older pals tell me......but even the Severn "barbs" were "newish" then, so i wouldn't imagine there would have been time to illegally move them from the Severn to the Lugg/Wye and for them to colonise Fownhope so much......would there?

 

[chub angler]

your right on that one PaulI was talking to someone today and he said the barbel wernt on Fownhopes stretch until the 70s and he also said barbel only showed up in large numbers at Belmont in the late 80s.

 

[preston96]

<blockquote class=quoteheader>chub angler wrote (see)</blockquote><blockquote class=quote>

your right on that one PaulI was talking to someone today and he said the barbel wernt on Fownhopes stretch until the 70s and he also said barbel only showed up in large numbers at Belmont in the late 80s.</blockquote>
Would that "someone" have a tackle shop on the Brecon road? /forum/smilies/wink_smiley.gif

 

[chub angler]

got a shop but not on the Brecon road