1,000 Barbel Stocked 24/10/17

Pleased to be able to report that 1,000 barbel have been stocked on Tuesday 24th October 2017 to accelerate the progress of the Lower Thame Barbel Project. 500 fish were stocked at Peg 12 on the Drayton St.Leonard section of the river and the other 500 were stocked at Peg 25 on the Chiselhampton section. The fish were approximately 7 inches in length & 2.5 years old. The surviving fish should reach sexual maturity at 4 to 5 years so the expectation is that we hope to have a breeding barbel population in the river by the Spring of 2019 / 2020! The fish were purchased with the £6,000 compensation that the club received from the Thame Valley Fisheries Preservation Consultative & were supplied by Ed Brown at Furnace Mill Fishery who did an excellent job. This stocking is in addition to the 6,000 baby barbel that were supplied & stocked by the Environment Agency on the 22nd September 2016.