I'm not a fan of the poster in question and would have said he called it a bit too early a couple of weeks ago, that said I agree 100% with him now and I think the club in question has made a good call.
Only last Thursday I was Perch fishing (on an undisclosed stretch of river) and I was sickened to see a so called Barbel angler land a Barbel in the height of the late afternoon heat, during low water levels with low DOL, and he then proceeded to hoist the fish out without even resting it before he then suspended the fish in his landing net which was between his seated knees (he had no unhooking mat) whilst he then fannied around with his phone using wet fingers which couldn't turn the camera function on.
If he was typically representative of an angler then I would have been ashamed to be associated with the practice of angling.
The way he returned it was nothing less than diabolical too, resting it in stillwater right beside the bank before it eventually turned and bolted off... Probably to go belly up as soon as it reached the main flow.
If certain anglers displayed some common sense and half decent fish handling techniques it shouldn't be necessary to close stretches of river but unfortunately, and despite the good work of organisations such as the Barbel Society (of whom I'm not or never have been a member but credit due) and their publicising of the fish handling code, some so called anglers are beyond help.
It's not rocket science but it still seems beyond the grasp of some people
mg: