Birmingham Anglers Association

you are right that unless the problems causing the declining recruitment are resolved, just adding more fish is a short term expensive waste of money. The Kennet has had the lot, supposed to a chalk stream but below Thatcham you wouldnt think so. It has had excessive abstraction, when the canal was extended they didnt, as promised dredge the canal, just opened it up and God only knows how many tons of silt entered the river. Crayfish, mainly signals although i believe across various rivers there are now about 6 different invasive species. Apparently a few cats appearing, cormorants by the score, a surprisingly large increase in otter numbers and a change in otter behavior. Otters main impact i can see is that they take the mature breeding stock, so less spawn, crays eat a bigger percentage, so less fry, cormorants an rainbow trout, non native, eat a bigger percentage of small to medium fish so Few make it to adulthood only to get nailed by otters.
A vicious circle of decline in my opinion although there is work by the EA, RDAA and others to try and turn the tide by recreating spawning grounds, fry sanctuaries along with some stocking. I wont see the day when you could catch doubles almost anywhere on the river, sometimes multiple fish, sometimes huge fish, but maybe there is a light at the end of a long dark tunnel..