April 2023 News

A big welcome to all new members and also a big thank you to our existing members who have renewed. A gentle reminder that the renewal window closes on 30 April so if you want to join after that date you will have to do so as a new member.

I haven’t seen many recent pictures of tench on the website gallery but this must be something to do with the weather. This has been possibly the coldest and wettest April for a number of years and has certainly hindered the maintenance team as whenever we plan a Friday work party the forecast is for rain. We have managed to get out for a couple of sessions and have cleared the undergrowth from the islands on Badgers Wood and also a bit of gardening.

Frylands ponds

A number of years ago as part of a restoration project we removed a number of fallen trees from Frylands ponds but despite months of manual labour we were only able to remove a small proportion of the 30 years plus accumulations of oak leaves. As a result there has never been any more than 18 inches of depth in both ponds which has restricted the number and potential size of any fish in the ponds. However after a discussion with the owner we hired a man and his digger to try and remove some of the silt. 

We went along to have a look and one bucket load of silt was about the equivalent of what we managed in about a morning of hand raking. He was able to remove silt form in front of virtually every swim including a couple in the bay at the back of the main pond. The good news is that a hell of a lot of silt has been removed  but unfortunately it has been left on the side of the ponds. 

It is a bit of a mess  so we will be going back over the next couple of weeks to try and spread it out and make it look a bit more presentable. Until it has dried out the ponds will remain closed. Signs are in place and when the ponds are open we will also put a note on the website. If anybody wants to lend a hand we will be there this Friday 28 April from 10 am. It will be mucky work so wear old clothes plus bring a shovel, rake etc.

The main pond will stay as it is, a mixed fishery with carp, tench , roach, rudd, with a few perch and crucians. As the carp from the small pond were moved to the main pond many years ago, the plan is to restock the small pond with pure bred crucians supplied by the Environment Agency and set up our own breeding stock.

George Cragg

This is looking an absolute picture and as mentioned above the tench have yet to really come onto feed but once it warms up I am sure some decent fish will be coming out. We have had reports of a couple of sizeable bream being caught from George Cragg which is a bit of a mystery. Whether by accident or design it seems a couple have got into George Cragg so if you do catch any bream from George Cragg could you very carefully transport it them back into Badgers Wood. We would rather the dominant species in Georg Cragg is tench.

That’s it for now. The latest 100 Club draw results will be published shortly after 11 May.