Fishing in drought conditions

Interesting article from Mark Wintle. It may be academic now, given that the rains seem to have arrived, but I feel we should think whether it's ethical to fish in extreme drought conditions, given Marks' comments regarding the fish's inablilty to recover quickly from injury and the low dissolved oxygen levels, which will make it more difficult for them to recover from exertions caused by the fight. Anyone got any thoughts?

I tend to do very little fishing in these conditions, mainly for these reasons. TThe fish also seem to be harder to catch, for me anyway.

Thanks for the comments. Christchurch AC stopped catch and release salmon fishing in high summer this year due to very high temperatures and low water. The salmon were dying after release. Oxygen levels are related to water temperatures so the reduction caused by rotting weed is partly mitigated by falling temperatures in late autumn. Tom Williams observations on fungal infections were made thirty years ago; I haven't seen much evidence myself this year. Despite the heavy rains the Stour has hardly risen at all though it is better than it was when the photos were taken in mid October, and most of the weed has gone now. My main concern is where the fish are heavily shoaled and then get hammered and retained in nets. I don't think it is ideal in the circumstances.

Like Mark, I have not seen any evidence of fungal infections due to low levels of water or oxygen during this current drought period.
In fact a lot of the fish I have caught since the summer appear to be harder fighting than those earlier in the year.

I also agree with Mark with respect to not using keepnets during these low level periods. Fish need to be handled with increased care and given time to fully recover before being released.

One thing has been quite clear during these past few months and that is a lot of anglers seem to be incapable of making the necessary changes in methods to handle these low levels. I constantly see anglers on the Avon using exactly the same tactics as they would regardless of season and/or water levels. This is also apparent in their feeding regimes as well.

Despite the recent downpours the Avon in my area had not risen much although the flow has increased somewhat. The forecast for today is for heavy rains and high winds which might just give the river the 'flush through' it so badly needs.

I think barbel suffer more than other species in the low level, low oxygen conditions that we've experienced this summer. They fight almost to exhaustion and will go belly up if they're not given time to recover. Its been suggested that keepnets at times like that are an advantage as it gives the fish the time to recover. Personally I never use a keepnet at anytime but I can see the sense in the argument.