River Aire gets stocked! (Again)

Good news for all Anglers for who fish the River Aire in Leeds, Keighley and Bradford.

Over the next few years there should be in increase in catching Barbel as 3000 of the little beauties were released by the Environment Agency at various points along this river just over a week ago. This follows on from a consistent fish stocking programme the EA has undertaken in recent years around this time of year. Releasing fish into colder water is more beneficial as they can travel further in the highly oxygenated water. Tweeting about the release, Environment Agency officer Pete Turner told me that the fish were released “at Kildwick, Bingley, Hirst Wood, Apperley Bridge, Armley and Thwaite Mills. 500 at each site.”

Photo taken from Pete Turners Twitter pictures.

For those of you who are Barbel catchers, the average growth rate of Barbel in the UK’s rivers in 2009 is shown by this graph produced by Pete Reading;