This shows the stretch to be stocked, while we were waiting for the Environment Agency (EA) to arrive, the arrival of the EA and stocking the barbel and other fish. This stretch is controlled by Milton Keynes Angling Association which is open to anyone to join.
The Upper Ouse has suffered from predation by otters, cormorants and other creatures such as mink, eating of fish eggs by the invasive signal crayfish and silting up and solidification of spawning grounds (see my last video). The once thriving barbel population, as was in the 1980’s, 90’s and early 00’s, has dwindled down to a small fraction of what it was. Together with clubs in the local area we are trying to redress the balance by introducing stock fish supplied by the Environment Agency from their fish farm at Calverton. Not all of the stock fish went into the stretch shown, some went into other stretches.
The EA has been stocking thousands of barbel into the River Great Ouse, at least annually, for many years. A recovery is now starting, with barbel showing up in several stretches. Some of these fish can be traced back to the stocking by a marker blue spot on the belly. The fish shown in the video were too small to have the blue spot, but hopefully will show in catches over the next few years. The Upper Great Ouse was once home to the British Record barbel and as these fish can live to be over twenty years old, it takes a long time for the improvements from these stockings to show. Male barbel don’t grow above 8lbs in weight, so we just want a few of these to survive to mate with the large female barbel that inhabit some of the stretches of the River Ouse. One of which, that I caught last November, is shown in the video.

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