[Lincs Yellowbelly]

Originally Posted by Airehead

Gill -
firstly, re water voles - may I ask why you want to find the burrows, and have you seen voles in the water? because if not I would say there is no point in looking for burrows.

Secondly, re 25cm fish - as I said, there is no loach or gudgeon so big. I agree with Lincs Y, I don't see what they could be other than small barbel but they are not blotchy. Maybe this was the light? Sunlight through ripples gives that effect. How brown/bronze/green they look depends on their age, the light, the colour of the river bed and the whole situation (On one of my very rare visits to a commercial fishery I caught a barbel in still, strongly coloured water and it was an anaemic silver. Usually, the clearer the water normally is, the more colour the fish develop). Barbel have 2 pairs of barbules.

Thirdly - it sounds to me that you are the person to solve your question of "where are all the fish". I have been fishing all my life and have never seen bottom-dwelling fish so clearly that I would have been able to see that they had 2 pairs of barbules. However, it seems to be a prerogative of the more southerly rivers to be able to regularly spot fish in the water. Around here we have to rely on more subtle skills! I have not seen the southern rivers but I assume this is a result of different average depth, water colour and perhaps most importantly the colour of the river bed.
By the way, you might be interested to know that neither barbel not grayling are native to the rivers which flow south and west. Their only indigenous habitat in this country is these Yorkshire rivers which I fish, which flow to the North Sea. This is because these rivers were once part of the 'European' river system which existed before the North Sea.

Are Barbel not native to the Trent then Airehead? i always thought they were