Just before Easter we noted that plenty of carp were ‘milling’ around in the edges of the ponds and not looking very fit.  Within a day or two we started to get mortalities of the carp with a fairly regular number each day, the worst affected being the carp lake and Folly lake.
We quickly engaged the services of a fish pathologist and contacted both the environment agency and CEFAS (centre for environment, fisheries and aquaculture science) looking for some cause for the fish mortalities.  Despite rigorous testing which eliminated the deadly carp virus’s, SVC and KHV, no real cause has been found for the mystery carp deaths but we did add antibiotic and parasite killing solutions to the water which abated the problem.

What now?  The mortalities have for some time now completely ceased and I would like to add that it only affected carp and no other species at all.  Despite rumours THE FISHERY HAS NEVER CLOSED and neither have all the fish died, just some of the carp!  Some of the April and early May matches cancelled but once again “good fishing” has returned to all lakes with good anglers reporting bags of up to 150lb of fish, including carp, tench, ide and skimmers.  Keep an eye on our website for details of current match results and draw your own conclusions or better still, come and give it a try.

What about “the stocking”?  Some re-stocking will be carried out within the next week on the following basis.  ‘The Orchard’ pond has for the last 2 years had a slow ‘leak’ which we have not been able to cure so we’ve decided to drain it, re-seal it and open it again for fishing at the end of the year.  For now, all the fish in the Orchard, which includes a lot of quality carp, will be transferred to the other lakes to bring their stocking back to original levels.

If you have any queries then please give me a call on my mobile, otherwise we look forward to seeing you on the bank side.

Tel:  Anthony  07860 255981