River Blyth

I bumped into the Bailiff yesterday on the farm stretch , apparently there was a club meeting on Monday just gone.... seemingly the EA have advised that the water has been overstocked and all , or most, of this years stock fish have gone to sea!!

So according to the Bailiff the club are not going to stock the river for a couple of years and look to drop the price for a season pass.


So there it is ...... will likely help the wild fish in the river a couple of years break from stock fish.

Ive not heard of this before with stocked fish. Anyone seen this happen before?

its nice to see a bailiff on the water we had one patrol the tees on a regular basis but I think the polish lads have scared him off the twxts  they  were trying to poach ducks but ive never heard of stockies going to sea before are you talking about stocked sea trout or browns

Reading [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] makes me think your club arnt telling you the truth.

Darren

Apparently it's the EA and Brown Trout Trust that have told the club. They have also said we should not stock next year. 

Going by catch returns!!! what i have read posted by Blood and Dazkat and a few others, and what this bailiff has said, Is it just me that smell's a red herring or is that just me? either way something is amiss and fishing club waters usually has a price, Yes you could overstock a still water but with a river I don't think you could overstock it? fish are free to run up or downstream, I think I would be dropping out of the club.

Stocked browns will go to sea- especially with increased density.
Sea trout are simply sea going browns- no biological difference.
One stretch I fish used to have a late Autumn run of 'Cricket' bat build sea trout of about 5lb. This stretch was stocked with 1.5-2lb browns every Spring until they stopped about 5 years ago..and yep- you guessed it, that run of very specific looking fish has gone.
The real argument is that if they are triploids then the last thing you want is them competing for the redds with all the urges but no 'ability'.....sadly the best thing for such fish is a tap on the head... but care is needed to avoid taking wild fish out of the equation. Dye spots are invaluable in this case.

I can see where they are coming from , if the river is overstocked and fish cannot get enough food or good habitat to get good food then they will go to Sea, that I understand, however as far as I know this stocking policy has been going on for a good few years now so what is the difference now... also depending on the type of stockfish my understanding that survival rate from year to year is something like 5% of total stock (obviously minus catches) , so 5% of 800 is 40 fish.. take away fro that what is caught and it leaves pretty much zero stock at the point when the club restock the following year... it doesn't add up to me there is a rabbit off in my opinion.

Unless they drop the Subs to a nominal fee for the coming season I am back on theDerwent infact I think I will do that anyway and see if Blyth drop them low enough for me to join both.. we will see

From an EA report...

During the summer electric fishing surveys, all fish caught were weighed, measured and counted. All larger trout were checked for tags and any recaptured stocked fish were noted.


The results of this work demonstrated a generally low persistence and probably poor survival of both types of stocked fish, particularly in the upland rivers. Approximately three months after stocking, the average persistence of triploid and diploid trout in upland rivers was only 2 and 4 per cent respectively in 2005 and 8 and 1 per cent respectively in 2006.



 

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When refering to "both" types of fish they are mentioning both diploid and triploid I think







Stephen

Sorry for replying to me own msg... I have responded like this...........


Hi David, thanks for the detailed answer.



 

Not being an expert it is difficult for me to understand fully and to counter this opinion



 

However from my limited knowledge; I understand that stock fish survival is very low at about 3-6% of original stocking levels



 

This would mean that at best at the end of the season, of the 800 fish stocked, only something like ~48 stock fish would survive out of the original 800 put in. To me this does cloud the hypothesis of overstocking somewhat; as when the river would be restocked there would barely be any stockfish in the river anyway?



 

That being said it doesn’t help to answer the question of where the fish have gone and I do agree with you that from my time on the river there is little or no sign of any illegal fishing or indeed loads of predators about, which only leaves so many answers!!



 

Regarding other members, I have indeed heard much negative feedback from many anglers I have spoken to on the banks this season, some of whom no longer fish the river despite being members,  I feel the club might have a job on their hands to hold on to current members in the coming seasons as things are.



 

As for myself, as funds are seriously restricted I will wait and see what is offered for next year before deciding where I am doing my fishing.



 

Once again thanks for taking the time to respond to my email it is much appreciated, if I can be of any further assistance then do not hesitate to contact me.

Try it in late September on a falling spate...you should see one or two returning from the briney if that is whats happened to them.

I spoke to Barry at the farm about this as I think it had been proposed at the meeting but he said that transport cost of getting the fish to the river would be prohibitive... be interesting to see how they proceed with this at the next meeting!