OUSE BARBEL

[frim]

I'll leave the other threads to have a pop at each other, iv'e got a serious question for specie/match/pleasure.
DO BARBEL MOVE UPSTREAM OVER WEIRS IN TIMES OF FLOOD?
"in numbers"
I've fished the ouse for over 40yrs and "think" i know every so called barbel peg in between dunny and linton, dunny was always best, next aldwark then the rushes in the top field at hunters, the rest of hunters and especially linton was crap.
It's over 10 years since Barry Patton had two seven pounders from widdy(on a match) and it was a long time before that they seemed to go into decline.
The past couple of weeks three barbel have been caught on opens, reports of lost fish on 261 and 192 and a fair few topping up and down the river, have these fish come from Alice(nun monkton)?
It would be nice to think so
frim

[davetipping]

Hi Frim,

There's no doubt barbel do cross weirs in both directions, though whether this explains their presence at Linton I could not say. I've rarely tried to catch them in that part of the Ouse though I did once hook and lose one in the bream pegs at Hunter's Lodge.

There was a well known big barbel on the Derwent that Jon Wolfe caught to set the river record in 1989. It was usually caught below Stamford Bridge weir but on one occasion turned up above it, then next time it was back below again!

[gedthespread]

it was probably avvin a good look round for some company,can be lonely being a barbel ont derwent!

[bof]

It not unusual for the same thing to happen on the Wharfe, and the EA knew that Barbel were trying to get up the Nidd from the Ouse to spawn, but had been blocked by low flows over the gauging weir.
Well, they were until a fish pass was constructed.
I am not sure if it completely cured the problem in previous years, but last year they should not have had a problem. During the floods several weirs simply dissapeared, being merely slight humps on the water surface.

BOF

[robp]

Frim,

Just to clear up a common misconception, the river Ouse starts where the Ouse Gill Beck enters, on the right hand bank opposite the middle of Hunters (just above Cudddy Shaw Reach on the LH bank), above that it's the Ure.

As for barbel movements, yes they will move over weirs if conditions permit, just as they will willingly drop below them. However, what most people miss is that barbel are more widely distributed on the Ouse and Ure than many realise, although sparingly in many areas.

The probable reason more have shown in the areas you mention is that prolonged high water conditions have concentrated numbers of barbel in one particular area of the river. You might be suprised to know that the odd barbel is caught within York itself when there is a lengthy period of high water.

Rob

[frim]

Rob, I think all anglers know the topographical start of the ure/ouse is the beck, but ask any local that lives in dunsforth or aldwark they will say they live on the ouse, saying that they might not have google like you and me, and might just read books.
Britannica Encyclopedia Page1 of 1
river in north-central England, draining the central Pennines (via its tributaries) and the Vale of York. It is formed by the confluence of the Swale and Ure rivers east of Boroughbridge in central North Yorkshire county. :

Maybe like me who was just generalizing so are Britannica
frim