Stocking Plan for Salisbury and District Angling Club Coarse Lakes 2021-2025
May 2021
Since the unfortunate fish kills on the coarse lakes of recent years we have, rightly so, become reluctant to talk about the stocking of fish into the coarse lakes. The main reason being that in the past there was a lack of planning and structure to these stockings, and this, in part has had a role in the incidents that we have seen across the portfolio.
We have now incorporated robust and achievable management plans approved by the committee that are having a positive effect on the fisheries, now it is time, to start planning for the next few years, enabling us to reach the end goals as laid down in past meetings.
We have been offered a quantity of small fish by the EA, Jim Allen has been in touch and has said that he will source some skimmers and tench from Calverton. Now this on the one hand is great as it is the EA once again providing us with support, but I do not believe that we, Salisbury and District Angling Club, require a much appreciate helping hand in the form of small fish to try and bring the fishing back to a decent standard in a reasonably sensible timeframe.
My main concern is that they will be 1 summer old fish and generally less than 120mm the exact size of fish we are trying to remove from the lakes, So I would like to propose that we use the annual stocking allowance to gradually help the fisheries recover to a level where they may once again start to naturally recruit, bringing new and different problems.

End Goals 2025+

Petersfinger Clarks:
Specimen type water with a focus on large carp, tench and pike medium difficulty. Stock to come from Hands Lake during netting operations and purchase if required, (Not before 2025).
This lake is 1.32ha
Recommended biomass1 = 330Kg
Current biomass best guess: Unknown, 63kg of small fish removed in 2020 and 38kg of pike and carp added from Hands Lake. We are currently conducting improvement work on the fishery to enable easier management practices.
Petersfinger Hands:
Mixed pleasure fishery, slightly more focused on tench and crucian carp. It is recommended that perch are to be the main predator in this lake due to possible crucian predation by pike.
This lake is 1.23ha
Recommended biomass = 308Kg
Current biomass best guess: Since we did not conduct a valid mark recapture netting assessment we can only guess on the remaining biomass, but we returned 132kg of small fish over the netting last year over the 3 days, Assume we recaptured 50% of the first returnees and that could be 90kg, we then added another 45kg of tench, plus the carp that were not caught that have been seen (20 @ 7kg = 140kg) and angled for successfully since, we can assume that the biomass is already pretty close to that level.
Steeple Langford Pleasure Lake:
Mixed pleasure fishery, tench and carp will be the predominant species as it will be used to grow on smaller fish to maintain stocks in White Bird Lake.
This lake is 0.9ha
Recommended biomass = 225Kg

1 EA stocking guide Mature Gravel Pit 250Kg/ha recommended Biomass

Current biomass best guess: 50-80kg, based on past sightings of carp, although only 3 seen in last 8 months, and few small pike.
Steeple Langford White Bird Lake:
Medium difficulty specimen carp water, any other species will be naturally recruited.
This lake is 3.6ha
Recommended biomass = 900Kg
Current biomass best guess:350-450kg, based on visual assessments, approx 40 carp average 9kg, 30(?) pike up to 5kg and a small shoal of roach/rudd, maybe 5kg tot. All of this is speculatory due to the difficulty in fish spotting, lack of anglers returns and no successful netting operations. Only 6 confirmed captures of carp and maybe 20 pike captures.
Timeline
So to achieve our end goals I would like to look at annual targets, 2021 will be the busiest and most expensive year but once we start the stocking cycle we can continue to maintain the lakes more easily and well within budget.
2021
Clarks and Hands:
Net, remove small roach, skimmers, perch and rudd, anything smaller than 120mm.
All pike to be removed, less than 2kg to be humanely destroyed, over 2kg moved to Clarks Lake.
All carp captured to be measured, weighed, photographed and tagged before transfer into Clarks Lake.
45kg of tench @1kg in size to be purchased and stocked into Hands. £1680 Approximate cost
Pleasure and White Bird:
Net, all carp captured to be measured, weighed, photographed and tagged before transfer into White Bird Lake. All other fish to be measured, weighed, photographed and tagged before return to lake.
Stock, 50 C2 carp and 10 C3 carp approximately 73kg in biomass and £1320 in cost
2022
Clarks and Hands:
Net, remove small roach, skimmers, perch and rudd, anything smaller than 120mm.
All pike to be removed, less than 2kg to be humanely destroyed, over 2kg moved to Clarks Lake.
All Carp captured to be measured, weighed, photographed and tagged before transfer into Clarks Lake.
Crucians to be purchased and stocked. Amount and size to be discussed in April Committee meeting 2022. (100lb of 1.25-2lb fish = 100lb x £21.60 =£2160)
Pleasure and White Bird:
Monitor
2023
Clarks and Hands:
Monitor
Pleasure and White Bird:
Net, all carp captured to be measured and weighed to assess growth, all carp over 4.5kg to be moved into White Bird lake. Stock C2 carp equal in weight to 50% of removed carp. (Estimate 30 fish x 2lb Avg x £5.70/lb  = £342)

2024
Clarks and Hands:
Net, remove small roach, skimmers, perch and rudd, anything smaller than 120mm.
All pike to be removed, less than 2kg to be humanely destroyed, over 2kg moved to Clarks Lake.
All carp captured to be measured, weighed, photographed and tagged before transfer into Clarks Lake.
April 2024, discuss previous years catch reports use results to decide stocking plan, net before stocking to confirm plan.
Pleasure and White Bird:
Monitor
2025
Clarks and Hands:
Monitor
Pleasure and White Bird:
Net, all carp captured to be measured and weighed to assess growth, all carp over 4.5kg to be moved into White Bird lake.
Stock C2 carp equal in weight to 50% of removed carp
Moving on from this date every odd year will see the Steeple Langford lakes get netted and assessed and in even years Petersfinger lakes, this will relieve some of the management burden on the keepers and team. We will continue with all the other management protocols, such as the maintenance of trees, barley straw, SILTEX and anti-predation tasks.
Projected Stocking Costs
2021
£3000 (£1680 tench Hands, £1320 carp Pleasure Lake)
2022
£2160 (£2160 crucians Hands)
2023
£2000 as per budget
2024
£2000 as per budget
2025
£2000 as per budget
As you will notice there is a difference between the projected cost and the cost of the proposed purchase, this provides a buffer and allows emergency stock to be purchased for other venues.
Conclusion
So, we have had our panama moment, planned the best way out of the situation we found ourselves in, started phases 1 and 2 and now is the time to start the next phase of plan. We have seen the benefits of the small stocking of tench that went into Hands lake in Dec 2020 as they have been providing sport at the tail end of the coarse season. So, let’s start to use the tools at our disposal to help return the sport on our coarse lakes back to a level that will help to draw back the

membership. This will not be a quick fix though and we need to take measured steps to ensure that we do not get carried away. It is my firm belief that although we could get free fish from the EA, we are going to be better off stocking fewer, larger fish to help with the recovery of our fisheries and provide more readily available sport.
As always, I look forward to you input over the coming season.
I would like to thank the members of the coarse sub group for their help and input and to the rest of the club committee for their continued support.
Ben Bentley
Vice Chairman (Coarse)