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Netting Lakeside Retreats

JOB DESCRIPTION

Fish survey and site audit

DATE

December 2023

LOCATION

Lakeside Retreats

The Pleasure Lake
Since recently taking on the site and having very little information regarding the stock of the pleasure lake this is where we started. The smaller of the three lakes tailoring to the pleasure and novice anglers was by no means the easiest of the lakes. A fiddly job having to negotiate islands, weed beds and undercut banks. Three sweeps of the net later we had a good indication of the lakes stock. We retained a few of the larger specimen carp, ready to move and removed around 100lb of very small unwanted silvers to create space for the remaining stock. This will increase food availability and reduce demand on the pond’s oxygen levels. This also created room within the pond to re-home any larger silver fish that may be caught in the other ponds later in the stock assessments.


The Specimen Carp Lake
Moving onto the carp lake we had been made aware that some catfish and nuisance silver fish had made this lake their home at a detriment to the carp fishing. Our goals were to relocate the unwanted fish and assess the carp stocks to generate a management strategy that maximises growth rates and improves the quality of the fishing.
A shallow and silty lake with a central undercut island meant the netting process had to be slow and precise as the carp will use the undercuts to try and escape the nets. We found a good head of carp from 12lb to low 20s in reasonable health and condition but slightly underweight and not growing to their potential. These factors can be put down to water quality and increased competition for food in the pond.
We removed plenty of catfish and unwanted silver fish, this created more space for the resident carp, less competition and reduced the oxygen demand on the pond, creating a more productive environment for the fish.


The Big Cat Lake
On the second and final day we took on the catfish lake, much like the carp lake our goal was to identify the stock, filter out any unwanted fish and provide a management plan to optimise the lake for the big cats and carp. We captured the netting and cropping of this lake in our first ever full-length YouTube, video check it out down below!
After a single net sweep, we soon found out the big cat lake was indeed home to some big cats! But also, lots of normal cats, a good head of carp and way too many smaller silvers fish. While loads of fish might sound great, there is a difference between a big stock and over stocked. Much like the carp lake too many fish were restricting feeding rate, growth and in this case the fishing. We filtered through the stock and cropped it down leaving a mega stock of cats and carp with new potential.


Conclusion
In conclusion the lakes across the board had an abundant, mixed stock which were interfering with the site’s efficiency as a fishery. Our combination of management strategies will undoubtedly benefit this fishery having created better environments for the fish and in turn better fishing experiences for the anglers.
In addition to the stock assessments, aeration and water quality monitoring equipment was purchased. This equipment helps the owner to better understand their site and enables proactivity in their management, preventing potentially harmful situations like oxygen crashes.

Author: Sam Bicknell

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