Lake Stocking

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 7:42 pm

Just heard from the fish farmer .... looks like the weather has improved, the waters have thawed and the stocking's going to go ahead on th 15th and 16th of Jan ... next week! Off to get my ferry crossing booked!

I'll use this section to post some pics of the fish that go in.

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 9:24 pm

It would be nice to pick a few fish out that are distinctive and possibly name the fish??

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 9:37 am

as they will be new fish to the lake ....first time a carp is caught it could be named by the captor Very Happy

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 9:52 am

I wont steal Rons thunder, but I went across to help with the stocking and you guys have some cracking fish to pit your wits against

153 fish have been put in. Mostly commons and the SMALLEST fish introduced to the lake was around the 21lbs mark.

I will leave it to Ron to tell you the average size and the size of the bigger ones Shocked

You members certain have some stunning "VIRGIN" carp to fish for Very Happy

kind regards Jeff

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 1:44 pm

Hi all ……..I have just returned from the stocking of the Syndicate lake in France.

So here is a small update for you all.

I travelled over in the early ours of Wednesday morning with a friend of mine Jeff,
I was a bit unsure if we would be travelling out on the ferry I had booked the day before, as P&O had already stopped several sailings earlier the day due to travel over to France, due to the bad weather and strong winds, I had checked their web site before setting out on the Tuesday night and it said they had resumed sailings and was working their way through the back log.

Trish said she would check the website as I travelled down, just in case there was any changes or they stopped the sailing’s once again, as the weather for cast was not looking that good at the time I set out to travel.
The idea being if they did stop the sailings again, I could head for the channel tunnel instead and travel over on the train. The timing was very tight as if I did miss my sailing for any reason, I would not have made it to the lakes in time for the netting to chose my fish.

It was an eventfully journey, with the poor driving conditions due to the weather and also the fact that the M20 was closed quite close to the ferry port with the massive back up of trucks that where waiting to go on the ferry’s from the earlier cancellations.
So with this in mind we went on the M2 only to find about half way to Dover, that was also closed off at one section, with no diversion signs in place.

Well to cut a long story short, we over come the hold ups and got to the ferry port, only to be greeted by a very large back up of trucks waiting to get on the sailings, but lucky for us we sped down the side of them using the car lane and manage to squeeze on the next ferry out as we was one of the only two cars on the crossing.

Once we arrived at Callis, it was time to put my foot down on the tool roads to make it to the lake in time, driving conditions where once again against us, as we had been greeted by thick fog and more bad weather, so it was a none stop drive not dropping below 70 miles per hour, luckily the tool roads where quite empty and we made it to the lake just as they had pulled the nets through.

I had had a phone call from Paul Bachelier the fish farmer about an hour before we arrived at the lake they was netting, checking on our progress as I had spoke to him the night before, saying their might be a problems on the ferry crossing.

So as we pulled up at the lake they was neeting, he was relived to see us, as the transfure of the fish had already been put off once in December, due to the lakes in France freezing up.

We then went through the process of weighing the fish and transferring them to the Syndicate lake what was about a twenty minuet drive away

We ended up with a totally of 153 carp …..the smallest being just over 20 lbs and the largest King Carp being a 46.00 lb Common.
Paul also gave me a couple of big mouth carp for the lake.

Here are a few pictures of the bigger carp as they went into the syndicate lake.

35.00 lb Mirror

46.00 lb Common

60+ Big Mouth Carp

70+ Big Mouth carp

I would have loved to have taken more pictures of the fish that went in, but was quite buisy transferring them from the tanks in to the lake and also chipping the bigger ones for protection against fish theft.

I was trained in this process last year by a friend of mine Dr Bruno Broughton

it’s a process where a small chip about the size of a grain of rice is injected into the fish and can then be scanned to see who it is registerd too, just like you do with you pet dog.

afterwards,we went back to Paul’s lake to have a bite to eat and talk about how they control their waters etc

We then returned to the Syndicate lake, to sit and have a dink and talk with François et Benoîte the owners of the lake.

They are wonderful people and looking forward to meeting the new syndicate members and making new friends to practise their English on.

By this time the night was drawing in, so we said out goodbyes to François et Benoîte and returned back to Paul’s lake where he said we could spend the night. It did not take any rocking for me to fall of to sleep as I had been driving most the day and all the previous night, the next morning we said our good buys to Paul and set off for the ferry port on a journey back home.

Well I think I will end this update here and if you have any questions …please feal free to pm me ……….Big Ron.

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 1:48 pm

Forgot to mention ....these fish came from the big lake next to La Horee and have never been fished for by any angler Very Happy

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 3:10 pm

wow them big mouthed carp are certainly something!!!

nice work on the stocking the common and mirror look pristine!

cant wait to have a dabble for them

Very Happy

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 4:11 pm

Fantstic stock there Ron. Good to see you made it in time to choose your fish.

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 4:23 pm

I held most of the fish and certainly saw them all. They are ALL in pristine condition and have never been fished for Wink

kind regards Jeff

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 8:18 pm

hi all.

wicked pics ron. what do the big mouth carp eat ?