Further news that the iconic SSSI River Wensum is being heavily supported in partnership with Norfolk Anglers Conservation Association and the Environment Agency by the introduction of 650 1 year plus barbel.

This follows the introductions in 2009 and 2010 and is part of the overall program of environmental & conservation measures which partner the Rivers restoration strategy to improve the river to meet its Water Frame Work Directive Initiatives and to ensure the future of angling on this historic river.

Further support for the River has come from the Environment Agencies Roger Handford who has stressed the importance the agency places on the river Wensum and its desire to continue to work with NACA in delivering its Water Frame Work Directives, which we will be focussing on in the coming months.

The recent barbel introducions were carried out in mid December 2011 all the fish were tagged with a number of the larger fish taking both the pict tag and the acoustic tag, this will allow the tagging project to monitor the fish over the coming years and add valuable data to the project, full details of the project including some of the data can be viewed in the agencies report on the project by following this link.

This data is being used to determine movements of stocked fish on the river and has been in place since 2009 with a range of imrovements being made to the equipment over this time. The equipment consists of an arial loop system with one section located on the river bed and the top of the loop just above the river, every time a tagged fish passes through the loop it records the unique identification number of the tag inserted in the fish along with other information which allows an acurate picture to be built up of the fish resident in the areas of river monitored and of their movemenets due to time and river conditions, for more information on the other recent fish introductions to the river Wensum please follow this link.

Continued yearly fish survey work by the agency is helping piece together the plight of fish stocks on the river and now this is being supported by the recording of the tagged fish, it is now possible to deduce the levels of naturally recruited fish among the total number of fish surveyed, this will in turn help to project the numbers of fish to be stocked and where over the coming years, as it is hoped naturally recuited fish stocks will continue to increase the levels of stocking will be lower, this however depends on the continued improvements to the river taking place in the form of habitat improvements, WFD improvements and understanding the effects catchment sensitive farming initatives, and the agencies weed control measures currently have on the river and its fragile eco-system.