A crisp, cold, but thankfully dry day saw the return of Mainstream Fisheries to Bordeaux to undertake the previously discussed electro-netting survey of the lakes. Jack and Dan form Mainstream were on-site by 9am and in the water by 9-30.
The various pictures below show them and the equipment in action as they swept the lake a number of times, catching more and more fish on each sweep. The exercise was planned to give us an accurate picture of the number, size and condition of the carp in the lake.
For the ‘techies’ amongst you, the equipment used runs on a 110 volt DC pulse power source. The charge rate of the equipment was set to stun bigger fish, so the silver fish were largely unaffected. Quite a few good-sized tench were temporarily stunned to the surface, particularly at the far end of the island. A number of decent sized bream also floated by, as did one of the previously netted pike, looking to have grown by about 25% since last year.
The carp caught on each sweep were held in a temporary net / cage until the sweeps were completed. The process took about four hours, including a short refreshment break. The fish were then counted and sorted with Committee members Graham Carter, Alan Taylor and Trevor Kappes, under the guidance of the Mainstream operatives, selecting any fish for removal.
A total of 115 carp between approx. 2lb to 15lb were caught. Electro-netting normally achieves a hit rate of about 30% of the water’s fish population, so the previous estimate of a carp population of 250 – 300 was shown to be reasonably accurate.
80 carp were returned to the lake and some 35 were removed; the majority of these had mouth or scale / fin damage. All of the ‘mirrors’ were retained, bar two discovered to have particularly deformed mouths. Some very pretty looking fish were found, including a couple of fully scaled mirrors and couple of good-looking ‘linear’ specimens.
Our local EA Fisheries Enforcement Officer, Mark Page joined us once again to audit the process and went away happy with what he saw.
Massive thanks to Jack and Dan from Mainstream for their hard work in what were very cold conditions.
Saffron Walden Angling Club 