Drought declared. Preventative measures for fish safety introduced.

I will start this update with a focus on the drought and the actions we need to take. A shame as the fishing has been reasonably good with Carp to 38-04 from Cherry Lake, 36lb from Cherry Springs (no photo sorry) and some big catches with Carp to 33lb from Cherry Springs. I have included photos of some of the Carp caught but refrained from talking much about them.

So we are now all officially in a drought with no sign of this dry hot summer coming to an end. As you might imagine I have been doing my best 'rain-dances' all to no avail!

Having held up reasonably well until late June, water levels have now dropped considerably. This is also due to the fact that the River Churn has stopped running and is therefore not 'adding' to our water table. When the river does next get a good flow, it will help the lakes recover.

We are always concerned about Dissolved Oxygen levels, which as mentioned in my last update, have not been too bad due to the intensity of the day light and algae levels in the lakes. This will no doubt become more tense if we get heavy rain or the days simply get a lot shorter. As water levels fall though there will be less oxygen in the water, as everything in the water (fish, invertebrates etc) has less water to live in!

Water quality is becoming a bigger concern, as we no longer benefit from the natural movement of water through our lakes. This concern is compounded by the fact that each lake probably holds 15-20% less water than normal.

So, as you would no doubt expect, we are watching the lakes like 'hawks'. If we see the fish starting to stress, or water markers show a real deterioration, then we will have to follow the lead of a lot of other fisheries in closing one or more of our lakes. Ideally something we all want to avoid.

It is helpful that with our house baits only policy, that we do now have a much better handle on how much bait is going into our lakes. But given the conditions we now have to put in place some 'emergency measures', which we will probably have to keep in place until into the Autumn.

Instinctively I would like to move to a boilies only policy for the next couple of months, but for now we are asking our guests to adhere to the following

Effective from 07 August, the following will rules apply for a 3 or 4 day visits.

Boilies: A maximum of 15KG boilies These must be sourced from ourselves

Pellets. Only low oil pellets are to be used. These must be sourced from ourselves. Please do not bring your own pellets with you

Hempseed. A maximum of one bucket of Hempseed per session

Oils and other additives. No oils or other additives are to be added to Hempseed or Pellets. Some oils create very visible 'oil slicks' which not only effect natural oxygen exchange into the water but also require breaking down by bacteria etc in the water.

You can still bring your own hook baits.

Please be aware that I have asked Simon and Dave to actively ensure that guests are following these temporary rules. I hope you agree these temporary changes are sensible and if you are visiting during the next couple of months you will be supportive of our efforts.

The water quality challenges are not helped in Cherry Lake because of the huge stocks of Roach in the lake. As in past years I would like all of our guests to catch as many of these Roach as possible. Everyone removed, is one less breathing the disolved oxygen, passing waste into the water, and eating food which was meant for the Carp.

Given how difficult the lake is to net due to its contours etc, I am currently exploring the opportunity of holding several 'Roach' matches later in the year. Watch this space.