Battle Of The Somme
Posted: 31st Jan 2013
In relation to the end of the last blog when I stated " Getting in with my waders on"
I take that off the cuff remark back and it will teach me for being a smart arse!!! Well it's been a week of serious graft and I'm not shy pulling my sleeves up but god it's been hard going. The weather has now switched as they'd forecast and I have been moaning about the very cold weather and snow holding the back bay draindown up for a good two weeks, but now it's 12oc and the ground is so waterlogged it's just a mud bath up the far end of the big lake. I have not used the pick-up all winter around the 7 acre lake to stop the ground churning up, and restricted myself to the big lake only to keep the place looking respectable for opening but it has made the job for me a real ball breaker, but needs must.
I have removed 95% of the fish now and it's only a case of a dozen grassies I have missed, and just another quick sweep of the net to round-up any small fish I have missed. The grassies were all in good order, and moving 250 of those crazy fish is like handing slippery eels, they just jump like Salmon so rounding them up is a very slow process that you cannot rush, you just have to be careful not to pen them in too tight with the net, and give them plenty room to prevent them from jumping.
Around 100kg of silver fish and small perch have been removed and a good 1000, one summer carp have been graded. I thought there would have been more but the Comorants and Herons have been slaying them by the bucket load each morning before I arrive, and they must have consumed a fair few hundred while the water level was low. I have kept 63 of the very best, and even with me grading very tough indeed, far too many first class young Commons around 400 gram in size have been sold, but not having the room to keep them they have to go.
The next stage is to run a drainage pipe through the dam wall to remove any water in the spring, fill the trench back in with the digger, make sure the spit is solid and repaired where need be, tidy-up and the jobs finished for now. I will then leave the lake bed to dry this summer before starting the major work, but the wheels are now in motion.
That's all for now and it's time for a hot bath and relax my knackered back!!!
Back soon
Team Sanctuary