All posts by Austin Battell

Society invest in some great aeration equipment and remote monitoring system is a real game changer.

The Society recently invested £25,000 into some fantastic new aeration equipment and a state of the art remote monitoring system. This is a real game changer for us, especially with the problems we have encountered over the last couple of summers. We now have sufficient aeration equipment for the Old Ballast Pit and Barden Lake which can be deployed as soon as our remote monitoring system alarm signals that there is a dangerous drop in the disolved oxygen level on either of the two lakes.
We would thoroughly recommend this system to any club, syndicate or other fishery  as this system takes a reading every 15 minutes and can be viewed on a mobile phone at any time. This enables us to respond to any potential issues quickly without having to manually check the water at silly hours of the day or going out in a boat to do so.

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First match of the new season is a grueller

The first match of the new season was the Feeder Only match which is part of the All Rounder Cup. This was held at Haysden Lake and 23 competitors turned out in very challenging conditions. Although pleasure anglers had been catching well on here in recent weeks, this turned out to be really tough for all involved. With a North Easterly wind, bright sunshine and very clear water, bites were very hard to come by. Pete Groombridge took the day’s honours with a single Bream of 4lb 8oz. Second spot went to Roger Trask with 2lb 11oz and third went to Roger Marsh with 2lb 2oz.

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NEW STOCK FOR BARDEN LAKE

This winter the Society has stocked 50 new Carp into Barden Lake with individual fish weighing up to 24lb 8oz. All fish were weighed, chipped and photographed and then put into the stocking records. We also hand selected some of the stand out smaller fish which were real stunners. Here are a handful of some of the fish that were introduced.

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MATCH CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS

This year, we can congratulate Steve Parker on winning a very close fought Match Championship. It all went down to the last match of the season but conditions didn’t allow for any upsets. Steve ended the season with 80lb 15oz, followed closely by Mick Smith with 78lb 12oz and in third spot was Tony Hyland with 77lb 6oz.

Match Champion Steve Parker

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PIKE MATCH SUCCESS

This season’s Pike match was the best attended one for many year’s. We had 16 competitors with several fish getting caught, including a couple of upper doubles.

Larry Howard took top honours with two fish for 24lb 8oz with his best fish of 16lb 6oz coming in the last few minutes of the match. Second spot went to Austin Battell with the one fish which was the biggest of the day and weighed 17lb 4oz and third spot went to Duncan Battell with two fish for 9lb 4oz.


Match winner Larry Howard with his 16lb 6oz fish

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OLD BALLAST PIT RAIL SIDE NEARS COMPLETION

The railway side track on the Old Ballast Pit has now been completed and we are now working on installing the new platforms and marginal vegetation. After last year’s planting of Iris, we have followed up this year with some Coir rolls with mixed plants pre-planted.
Hopefully within a couple of months, these will have grown well and be in full flower.


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LOW WATER LEVELS AND OXYGEN ISSUES

The club recently had some oxygen issues on the Old Ballast Pit. The already low water level and dying back lilies and algae blooms meant we were at a high risk of having major problems. As we were carrying out regular water checks, we noticed the ammonia levels had crept up a bit and the oxygen levels had dropped. With the help of the Environment Agency, we were able to put in place the equipment required to minimise fish loss. The pumps and aerators were run for around a week until the problem had passed.
Barden Lake had a similar issue and equipment was installed to minimise potential problems. Both lakes faired reasonably well in regards to fish loss, as the Ballast Pit lost a dozen fish which included Tench, Bream and Carp while Barden lost 3 of its known big fish which was more than likely due to their age.
The club will continue with it’s stocking plan for Barden Lake with around 20 fish to the 20lb mark expected to be stocked this coming winter.

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