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Post by frim on Oct 22, 2010 15:01:02 GMT
Sandwath will be closed next Thursday 28th Oct for one day only. A survey to establish fish health, age, and general welfare of stocks has been aranged, the company have come highly recommended. All results will be shown to members so you can have your say. Have we any qualified divers prepared to give us a couple of hours? pm me please. Steve
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Post by leondodd on Oct 23, 2010 7:09:23 GMT
Hi frim, can you tell me what this survey will involve? I was planning to go next Friday, (29th) and wondered if this survey may effect the fishing
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Post by frim on Oct 23, 2010 12:48:25 GMT
It sounds to me they will bring all the equipment they need and then decide after having a good look around, we have told them what to expect, but the layout of the lake will dictate what they do. Because it's not a netting to remove fish i would think they will either net small sections and maybe electro the odd margin peg, they only need a small amount to be retained for testing and hopefully everything will go back. Often after netting opps that i have been involved in, the colouring up and loosening of invertebrates can make fish feed well when things settle down, i think the conditions and the way it fishes after netting can often answer a lot of questions so let us know how you get on. I will post Thurs night to give you an idea of whats happened.
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Post by frim on Oct 28, 2010 15:25:39 GMT
As promised the findings of todays survey, these are not our opinions but the suggestions and thoughts of the company involved "with nothing taken out" They seemed very professional and matter of fact, no bulls*** and they have nothing to gain other than reputation and do not sell fish. They first netted to the left of carpark with 100mtr net. Results looked promising at the start Most of the fish were roach, hybrids, and skimmer bream Findings on small fish stock, though quite plentifull it was obvious that the fish were not moving to the next stage and very few were over 2oz, mild blackspot was evident but they did not think a problem. PART 2 IN A MINUTE JUST SORTING SOME PICS.
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Post by frim on Oct 28, 2010 15:53:22 GMT
Next electro fishing, two probes were used and though a few fish escape they felt the result's were good enough to reach a conclusion. The first circuit produced only pike, mainly Jacks but plenty of them. Next lap even more Pike, they lost a carp about 14lb and a very odd tench escaped the net, but they did get the best fish of the day a Pike of 22lb It looked a bit red and out of condition. More in a few mins.
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Post by frim on Oct 28, 2010 16:48:25 GMT
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Post by frim on Oct 28, 2010 17:38:38 GMT
I've rushed things a bit to make sure things were shown quickly "before the usual rumours" To put things in a nutshell, For a natural lake of this size the stock is unbalanced, the only fish with good year classes are the Pike, the small fish are not getting past about stage1 and very few are maturing. Mid to good size bream and tench were very few and far between, We did tell them that in a summer you could see bream and the odd carp on the surface, they reckoned what you see is usualy a large percentage of what you have got!! We have to accept the fingerling carp stocked in 07 were a complete waste of money and that very few of the 3 pounders are left, we know the bigger fish didnt last long after stocking and the supplier re-imbursed us fully, but it looks like the little fish went straight down somethings throat. They felt the lake was reaching nothing like its potential other than been a pretty place to pass a few hours. Ph, amonia, nitrate/nitrite and do tests were all pretty good so what do you think?
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Post by stumpy on Oct 28, 2010 20:39:12 GMT
Do you think there are to many pike.
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Post by gcb on Oct 28, 2010 21:16:36 GMT
If there are too many jacks then that is a sign that misguided souls in the past removed the larger pike, by fair means or foul, and are now paying for the unbalanced fishery vis a vis an explosion of jacks that now exists. The club has misguidedly put the blame at the door of pike for many years. At one point the wakefield branch of the pac were invited to fish it to assess the pike population. They found no problem with the stocks of pike but it seems some sandwath anglers were not convinced and started their own culling program. You are now paying for that.
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Post by leondodd on Oct 29, 2010 8:46:34 GMT
possibly too many jacks, but, i totally agree with gcb. it is a fact that pike will eat pike and if there were more bigger pike in there then the amount of jacks would be be at least partly reduced, as far as improving the stocks of silverfish i am at a loss as to what to suggest? i'm no expert but the best thing seems to be to leave it to it's own devices although it could take many years to reach its own balance, or much as i would be against the removal of any fish fish maybe taking out some jacks would improve things? only thing is with removing fish of any kind is you are messing with the natural balance again! as i have stated i would be against the removal of any fish. time is a great healer!
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frank
Junior Member
Posts: 55
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Post by frank on Oct 29, 2010 15:08:59 GMT
Hi Frim, You have done an excellent interim job of the report. It as much as a lot of us thought ( well the ones I have spoken to ) ... Not enough decent fish stocks !!!. Can you tell me why the small fish are not getting past stage one. Regards the pike situation to me you need to get the jacks out.
Regards Frank
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bof
Full Member
Posts: 116
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Post by bof on Oct 29, 2010 18:45:56 GMT
Dissapointed not to see Tench in the 3 to 4lb class which I used to fish for there. Even more dissapointed that the bigger Pike in the 8 / 10lb class seem to be entirely absent, being replaced by the tiny jacks. As GCB and Leondods implied there will be a natural level of weight of preditors in the lake. Take out 6 Pike weighing 50lb in total, then these will be replaced by 50lb of 6 - 12oz Jacks, ie 120 of the little so and so's, because there is nothing bigger to predate on them.
Keep big Pike, get rid of the dozens of smaller ones if you can. This makes for a healthier fishery in the long run.
Simples!
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Post by frim on Oct 29, 2010 20:53:51 GMT
I tried to show the two extremes in the pike pics, fish from 1oz to 22lb, only fish that turned over were netted and banked. One fish much bigger than the 22 was missed and other decent size fish were seen, leading to the conclusion that year classes were good. Steve
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Post by leondodd on Oct 30, 2010 8:59:32 GMT
hi all, despite the seemingly large number of pike i couldn't manage 1 in my 5 hours of trying yesterday afternoon/evening. there were lots of small fish topping and a few big fish and seemingly a few in between. although the netting seems to prove that fish stocks are not good it looks full of fish when you are sat there and they are rising all over. i will be fishing this water quite a bit over the coming months so we'll see how it pans out!!! any plans for the place frim???
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Post by kevrich on Oct 31, 2010 11:18:19 GMT
The survey doesn't seem to tally with the above posted by Stan earlier this year(July 9th), perhaps the reason for this is that it is well known that Pike are more likely to be stunned by the electrofishing process than other coarse fish.
Maybe misleading results i think
Kev
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