The Trent may well have small Barbel, but the other rivers are having major problems. I am not worried about the Barbel, as i think they have been over stocked in some rivers, and stocked in rivers where they shouldn't be at all.
Barbel are also the down fall of fish stocks on some of the rivers i fish, until they turned up, the sport was fine, now other than the river pigs, those sections are void of fish, and its not Otters.
The reason anglers aren't on rivers is as i say, Carp puddles and a quick fix for anglers. It is also true that far to many anglers want to park in the swim. That is fine for those who are not able to walk or carry their gear due to medical reasons, but for the majority of anglers, they are just to Lazy Ar$ed.
I do think you will get more anglers on the rivers without a close season, the fair weather angler would have more time on them than now for a start.
Lets not go down the spawning road, as we all know, fish spawn as and when they are ready, not before june 16th, and many spawn after june 16th anyway, as we also know, which makes the close season even more of a Joke.
If anglers don't want to fish the close season, they don't have to, at least they have a choice, and we also know that its about 50% either way on the close season debate. So 50% of anglers don't have a choice.
