| DEVELOPING FISHERIES I attended one small club’s regular monthly meeting once and during a Q&A session one member asked if the club was ever going to develop its own carp pond to answer the challenge of commercial fisheries. The club’s response was an adamant – NO! The reason they gave was that they offered types of fishing that commercials were not interested in and that the cost of developing such a fishery would be too high. I felt that their views were very misguided. All clubs of reasonable size (say 200 – 600 members) should try to provide as many different types of fishing as possible and that includes carp puddles (as you might call them). The cost of developing them may not be as high as you first think. Not only will you then encourage as many types of angler as possible to become members, but you would (or should) always have some sort of fishing on offer no matter what time of year it is or what the weather throws at you.
There’s also the added benefit that you can have ponds that are not only fishable, but good breeding stock ponds from which fish can be moved to other larger ponds that are less self-sufficient. To explain let’s take a look at some waters that I was responsible for at one time and how I saw them fitting together. We had one quite small pond, less than half an acre with just eight well made swims around it. It was a good breeding pond especially for rudd and in time the crucians would probably have started breeding along with some of the bream. The pond also held green and golden tench and these would have been moved to larger ponds as they grew. All of these fish had been bought from a fish supplier (except the golden tench which were a gift from the EA) since the pond had been emptied and cleaned just before we acquired it. There was also a slightly larger pond, approximately 1 acre, that had to be dug first (see picture). It was my intention to stock this primarily with small carp (pasties) so that match anglers could practice their pole fishing skills. There were 15 pegs around this pond and the carp would have done well here putting on about 50%+ growth each year, I was advised. When they reached 8lb or so they would be moved on to the large lake. A slightly larger lake of 4-5 acres was a problem. We had already introduced 14,000 roach which came free from a fish rescue courtesy of the EA and some 4000 golden rudd and 1100 small carp that we purchased. After one season no-one could catch a rudd or a roach to save their lives and the carp seemed to have disappeared. Had pike or cormorants eaten them all? I doubt it, but hardly anyone fished the lake (poor parking to blame) so not enough data could be collected to prove any theories and even matches held on there were poorly attended.
The large lake was some 120 acres (see picture). Can you imagine trying to stock that? It was, and still is, plagued with cormorants so stocking with anything small, up to 1lb, would simply be feeding those damned birds and a complete waste of club funds. However, it is a beautiful lake where carp could grow to become 30s, 40s, or possibly 50s so this is where we would stock the 8 pounders from the intermediate pond. It also held pike, perch, big bream, and enormous bleak. With these four stillwaters we could not only cater for all tastes of stillwater angler, but we would also be able to move fish to ensure continual restocking. The smallest pond was ideal for youngsters who could almost guarantee to catch plenty of fish and where they could hone their fish-handling skills. The intermediate pond would be a good little elastic-stretching (carp bagging?) water to rival the commercial carp puddles. The small lake, although a problem, wasn’t costing anything in rent, but needed some stocks of sizeable fish, perhaps tench from the small pond since there were some good tench in there to 7 or 8lbs. The large lake should receive the carp that became too big for the other small pond and these would be too big for the cormorants to eat. Together with the rivers and backwaters we had there would always be somewhere to fish whatever the weather.
Well that was the dream, but unfortunately I gave up my position as secretary before a lot of this could be put into place. The new leaders of the club didn’t have the mettle to see the job through and as a result it has all kind of stagnated. But that’s no reason why you shouldn’t have such a plan for your club because it can work if you stick at it and have a little confidence in yourselves. Also – never be afraid to ask about a little pond or lake wherever is it, that’s how I got the smaller two lakes above. They’re both on a very private estate and the owner even provided us with parking facilities! Remember this saying – “In order to succeed we must first believe we can.” – Michael Korda. THE FINAL ANALYSIS
So what you first of all have to do is estimate where your club stands in the eyes of the public. How attractive is it, are the fees reasonable, does the public know about it, and do you always get lots of applications? You will notice down the left-hand side there are two pointers, high at the top and low at the bottom. Decide whereabouts you think your clubs stands and plot a line across the chart (as with my dashed line). Next, look along the bottom and decide on how good the quality of the fisheries are, how well the club is run in general, and whether it is fulfilling a need. Again you have to guess at where your point should be and plot a line upwards on the chart. Now you can kid yourself if you wish, but deciding where these two points should be is important, so be truthful with yourself. Where the two lines intersect is your club. I didn’t choose these terms understand, but “DOG” says it all really. You will have to do more to increase your own knowledge about running a club and all aspects of fishery management as well as doing more to make the public aware that your club exists. I’m surprised that your clubs still exists at all, in fact.
If you are in the “PROBLEM CHILD” area then you probably have a good management team and are doing things right on the ground at least. What you do need is more promotion, attract more members, and perhaps review those club fees to make them more attractive and your club a more desirable proposition. There should be more anglers wanting to join you. If you have a “CASH COW” then you should be surprised that you are doing so well with little or no effort to learn what you could be doing better. This could lead you to feeling complacent (probably where the club that I highlighted at the beginning of this article was) and this could lead to problems later. At the moment you’re on a roller-coaster, but things can quickly turn sour so get that organisation into your management now and prepare yourselves. Should you find your club in the “STAR” box, have another guess at those lines you drew because you might just have overestimated your own importance. If it is true and your club is truly a star performer then congratulations, but before you slap yourselves on the back do me a favour. Examine all of your publicity, your organisation, your fisheries, your fees, in fact everything we have mentioned and just make sure that there isn’t something that you could be doing a little better. Just like a lot of clubs in the 70s and 80s that were doing well, there comes a time when, through no fault of your own, things take a downward spiral. In the 90s we had a massive recession and many anglers just gave up fishing. If this happens again we all have to be prepared for it and by running your club as if it were a business, your own business, is the best way to ensure its success. Next: ‘Accounts and The Treasurer’ |
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