what a great forum

[prodero]

Originally Posted by Ripple

A very warm welcome !

Heard the Barbel grow very big in Bulgaria, is that so ?

Thanks,

Ripple.

I am not much of a barbel fisherman myself but have seen on a Bulgarian fishing channel called hobby.tv anglers catching enormous barbel in river Iskar. I didn't even know that barbel grows that big. River Iskar itself is amazing and runs through a picturesque mountain valley.

[prodero]

I used to live in Varna- a city on the Black sea coast. I've seen black and white pictures from old newspapers, probably from the sixties with massive sturgeon over 700 kg. Such beasts are rarely caught nowadays. If you go on YouTube there are some sick videos of sturgeon caught in river Danube by Bulgarian poachers.

[BoldBear]

Hi prodero and welcome to the forum.

When you fish in Bulgaria; do you do 'Catch and Release'? or do you kill and eat what you catch in Bulgaria?

We have a lot of trouble with easterners poaching our freshwater fish for their tables here in the UK, and our eastern friends seem to have a lot of trouble understanding why we practice catch and release in the UK.

It sounds great fishing in Bulgaria.

We used to have 'Atlantic sturgeon' in many of our rivers a long time ago but they have not been caught since the 1930's.

Where abouts do you fish in the UK?

Keith (BooldBear)

[prodero]

Originally Posted by BoldBear

Hi prodero and welcome to the forum.

When you fish in Bulgaria; do you do 'Catch and Release'? or do you kill and eat what you catch in Bulgaria?

We have a lot of trouble with easterners poaching our freshwater fish for their tables here in the UK, and our eastern friends seem to have a lot of trouble understanding why we practice catch and release in the UK.

It sounds great fishing in Bulgaria.

We used to have 'Atlantic sturgeon' in many of our rivers a long time ago but they have not been caught since the 1930's.

Where abouts do you fish in the UK?

Keith (BooldBear)

Unfortunately catch and release is not common in Bulgaria. Only recently it has started gaining popularity and mostly among the younger generation of anglers. I have founded a fishing forum back home: ribolov.bg and have been campaigning for some time to raise awareness that in order to preserve fishing stock, catch and release is essential.

[prodero]

BTW
I would be very grateful if you decide to take the time to fill in a questionnaire for a project for a MSc dissertation. I'm researching how social media influences the purchasing decisions of anglers when buying fishing products and services. The survey is anonymous and takes five minutes to complete. This is a link to it:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/C2HSHGY

[the pyromaniac]

Boldbear, we had Atlantic sturgeon here as well, but they haven't been seen for about the same amount of time. There is an effort on the part of the Virginia state government to increase their numbers through stocking and careful management. The target bodies of water are the Chesapeake Bay, James River, and Potomac River. It doesn't help me, as I don't personally live near those watersheds, but I'm excited about it as I've never seen a live sturgeon.

[prodero]

Originally Posted by prodero

BTW
I would be very grateful if you decide to take the time to fill in a questionnaire for a project for a MSc dissertation. I'm researching how social media influences the purchasing decisions of anglers when buying fishing products and services. The survey is anonymous and takes five minutes to complete. This is a link to it:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/C2HSHGY

Thank you for taking part in the survey. It is now closed.