There have been some good little pockets of fish at places like East Mills and Burgate in the past but never in the sort of numbers that used to be in the river from below Ibsley weirpool and on down to Dudmoor.
I don't know where they've gone but barbel are becoming fairly scarce all through the previously well populated stretches.A good indicator is the number of anglers not fishing it, if you go back 10-15 years there were some swims which required you to be there at 8.00 in the morning to get in them, now you can fish those swims whenever you like, in fact many of them are never fished at all anymore.
The Barbel Catchers Club used to regularly fish on the day-ticket stretch at Winkton (now CAC) but you hardly ever see a soul on there these days.
I used to have four or five friends that would come down every year in the autumn for a week or sometimes two and now none of them bother.
Every angler, without exception, that I talk to on the bank is saying the same thing, there just aren't anything like the numbers of barbel that there used to be
It all adds up to there not being many barbel in the river, There have been some succesful spawnings in the last couple of years because I've seen barbel much smaller than the most recent stockings, but as to whether it will be enough to revive the river, I'm afraid I doubt that it will.
English Nature have said that we are no longer allowed to stock barbel in the Avon so there will be no more coming from that route, and the small ones which are there have to contend with dozens of Cormorants and also the Otters which are returning.
I'm thinking of taking up carp fishing, now that is easy.