Black Bass & Giant Rudd.
Posted: 25th Nov 2012
It's been another busy week with jobs to do each day, but had a nice family day today and went fishing for a few hours in the evening with Gabriel my eldest Son. It was just a bit of fun on the float rod but we pitted our wits down on the stream first of all to try and bag a Wildie but the young man made more noise than a charging Rhino and killed the swim dead. I baited up again for a solo revisit and set off to check the stock ponds and wet a line in the far bay of the 15 acre lake for Roach & Rudd.
A few days earlier I managed after trying to source for the last 3 years some young Black Bass for growing on. I do have the biomass in the lakes under control at the moment but was looking forward to introducing some more Black Bass to keep down any young carp fry and then take over the Perch to become one of the apex predators along with the Zander. I purchased 500, all 1 summer fish, averaging 4" long, so hopefully by next summer they should be between 1lb-2lb, so look out frogs and fish, if you'll fit in their mouths, "good night Vienna"
I have also been helping a good mate of mine renovate a village house on and off this winter, and while calling back to his home for dinner we stopped off at a lake just around the corner from his house. The lake has been drained this year which is the first time for the 4 years. Steve had mentioned it had been completed last week and was now just starting to fill back-up, along with all the dead Carassin thrown back in the lake margin? These fish look like a Crucian Carp but I think they're a sub-species and look just slightly different in colour, being a little more silver than gold. The French hate this fish with a passion, which I cannot understand, and I have seen them thrown up the bank on many occassions when attending a drain down. To me it seems a total disregard for life, and to throw them back in the lake dead to rot is just stupid and irresponsible but "when in Rome" as they say what can you do? On close inspection while looking down an 8 foot concerete wall I said to Steve "I think they're Rudd"? I climbed down to pull a Rudd out around the 3lb mark, then another and another along with a real clonker around the 4lb mark. I lined 4 of them up in a row and could see another dozen lay in the silt out of reach, I just stood there in amazement of their size and also felt what a real tragedy. I'm convinced one of the old boys has mistaken them for Carassin and they have suffered the consequences, gutted!!
The carp are still very active in both lakes with the continued mild weather, but this is set to change next week and snow could be on it's way?
We will be back soon with anything else worth noting over the course of the week.
Over & out
Team Sanctuary