Swallowfield Fishing Club

Many thanks to all of those who cast a vote on the long running poll of what fish the Decoy Pond should have. The poll is now closed and with the highest opinion of 40% being for Tench, crucians, silvers, perch and a few carp, this is what the club shall be running with.

Hi Russ, just been looking at the Decoy pond pictures and cannot believe how much better it looks from when I used to work there.
Good to hear other anglers wanting tench for a pond like this, really think they will be a pleasure to fish for.

What happens about stocking, do the different species go in at different stages and how long are the fish left to settle in?

Hi Tony,

Thanks for the post. At the moment we have currently stocked about 200 tench and 450 crucians. biggest tench is about around a pound, the crucians are about 6". It was hoped that the tench might have been a little bigger but as these fish are slow growing, any orders for larger fish need to be placed quite a long way in front of stocking. We have stocked a lot more smaller tench which have plenty of growth left in them and with the abundance of natural food now in the pond we can expect some good growth this year. The supplier is also confident of a spawning this year from both species, even the smaller ones. The Rudd are a little harder to come by in quantity and are waiting on these, although i have no time scale at the moment. The twenty or so carp are also on hold so to speak, mainly to give any newly spawned fish a chance of survival. Any carp would have eaten a lot of the fry. The supplier again advised on holding back on the perch, once again to help the smaller fish get established. He also advised on getting fewer perch but bigger specimens as perch in general can have a growth hurdle which some don't get over and remain stunted. It's not been decided when to open it up yet. I personally feel that the longer it is left, the better it will be, but the line has to be drawn somewhere.

That sounds really promising Russ, really hope this project is a success.
Without trying to bring the black curse on, how is the area for cormorants? Just with all the new species being small is there any risk to them?
Also, are you planning to use the normal closed season on the pond?

Thanks Tony

Hi Tony,

Fingers crossed we've not seen them on the pond yet, even when there were no fish in there.i might be clutching at straws but possibly, 1. the cormorants haven't discovered there's fish in there yet. 2. There's no surface feeding fish stocked yet like Rudd so the tench and the crucians might be a little more difficult to see from the air. 3. There are already a pair of swans & geese nesting which may be putting them off. 4. The human presence such as the working parties and the residents of the house that walk the grounds may also be putting them off.

These might be hypothetical but something must be keeping them away.
They are still seen on the river but i don't think our situation is as bad as other areas. Although some may beg to differ.
This will be one of the issues we need to address in the Loddon Consultative's Fisheries action plan (FAP).

The committee decided to keep the pond open all season which was sensible, i think. what was the point of having this lake and closing it for three months. At least the members can still fish.

Hi All

Just an update really. Today about 1000 Rudd when into the pond to join the tench and crucians. Size was from about 3" to the biggest around 8 to 9". To date we have lost one small tench that was believed to have been taken by a heron and dropped on the bank and a small crucian from the margins. Other than these, nothing else has been visible. My only concern now is that the Rudd, being a mid water to surface feeder may draw in the predators from above. We are hoping for some spawning soon, and if successful, should stand us in good stead for later.

cheers

Russ