The Good The Bad & The Dam Right Ugly

The river wensum close to my Norwich home has seen some highs and lows over the years and continues to have both good times and bad.

Firstly the bad times hit again last week when a Barbel that my old mate Ginger Wells caught in the summer at well over 15lb and a fish I had caught in the past at well over 16lb was found dead on the banks of the river after an Otter was chased from its carcass, it had just pulled it from the river and had eaten its eyes and by the look of it its gills and guts were next.

Ginger with the barbel in the summer

Moments after its sad death last week

What hacks me off more than anything else about the Otter plague that has destroyed many of our barbel in the last few years is the amount of idiots out there that still dont see otters as a problem on our rivers.

Either these people have not witnessed the decline of barbel stocks in their river or just dont care but either way they will live to regret their actions or rather lack of them. Some of these anglers are well know and very experienced anglers and should know much better, but I feel its more down to their pecieved status and not wanting to be seen making statements that might do their "status" some harm.

On a much brighter note

Yesterday I was asked to attend a stocking of barbel into the river Wensum.

Well over 800 2nd year barbel were stocked into the River spread over 4 different points

Typical size of the stocked Barbel

 A crowd gathers to witness the stocking

Great news to end with and a big well done to all those who have worked so hard to make this stocking possible.