Stocking 2004
During the Autumn 2003 extensive work was undertaken on this 350 year old lake, repair work that was deperately needed to address water loss problems and the silting up of the lake bed. Initially the lake was drained and the fish removed, to be stored in a purpose built stock pond at the house end of the venue.
The work was then carried out with a large quarry digger to deepen the silted up shallows, and to reinforce the banksides. The damwall end was completely redone to prevent the loss of water.
Once the water had been limed and tested it was time to reintroduce the carp back to their natural habitat.
So on the last day of January in horrendous weather conditions, bitterly cold and wet, the netting of the stock pond was undertaken. Local help was called in to transport the fish the few yards down the bank to the main lake.
The cold and uncomfortable task of Winter netting was carried out by the lake owner Lee Thorn and his friend Tony. With the water temperatures of around 6°C it was two brave men that placed the net for a first sweep of the stock pond.
The net was in place by lunch time, and following a brief break for some well earned sustenance, it was back to the chilly water to move the carp. This sweep had been a successful one and around 45-50 carp were moved. The average size was very good at around 25lb with a number of fish over the thirty pound mark, to 36lb, including a 33lb common and a 40lb plus catfish. Also captured in this netting were a number of mad grass carp, upto 25lb.
A further netting two days later was a repeat of this one with a further
50 odd carp moved over to the fishery the largest just topping the 40lb
mark.
Five hundred kilos of new stock has also been added to the fishery with an
average weight of 10 kgs.