At last the pond is refilled, the margins have been planted, and restocking has commenced. After much deliberation and speaking to a number of members it has been decided to stock with just crucian carp, rudd and tench. The decision to do this was based on the fact that these three species are extremely popular with silver fish anglers but, as fisheries stock carp, carp and more carp, waters containing these species are in short supply. But there is more to it than that. Roach, bream and perch are not deliberately being added. Rudd prosper in the absence of roach which tend to dominate and the very best rudd fisheries are usually roach free. Similarly crucians take a back seat to most species, perch and other predators love to eat them, (I don’t know why), and roach and bream especially bully these timid feeders to the extent that their numbers and size suffer as a result. Tench too suffer from bream, but not to the same extent, but fortunately these three species live quite well together and seem to prosper.

Fish have been added from the Carp Pond (rudd), the Stock Ponds (crucians and tench) and from Bircliffe Pond (crucians and tench) in a range of sizes. In addition a further 300 crucians, 4 to 6 inches long like the ones in the header picture, and 300 tench, 6 to 8 inches long have been ordered from a supplier. Photographs of some of the fish taken from on site ponds are shown below.