SADAC Coarse Lakes Update. August 11th 2019.
We have enjoyed a very warm summer with little real rain and in many ways this is the last thing we would have hoped for our lakes. Some wetter and cooler days recently will have helped our recovery. After the all clear from the EA on the blue, green algae Whitebird Lake at Langford has been open for since July 12th with fish being caught and no fish losses reported this year.
The smaller Pleasure Lake has remained closed whilst work goes on to clear trees, allowing more wind across the lake and reducing leaf litter build up in the silt. Bank repairs and work to increase aquatic plant life is also ongoing. We will open the lake on August 23rd, there may still be some finishing up to do at that point but should not inconvenience anglers. There have been no fish losses in the Pleasure Lake.
At Petersfinger we are still seeing a few fish die, it is not clear whether these are fish weakened by the original event or an ongoing problem. Now that the silt surveys are complete we are looking in to the equipment needed for ongoing water quality measurement and need to develop a protocol for its use. We will be sending silt samples for analysis by the EA. This all needs to be done in a controlled way with the correct equipment to avoid contamination. The aerators are being run through the hot weather.
We are not likely to open Clark’s lake this year. Test fishing of Hand’s Lake has indicated the fish are still under some stress and we will be leaving them alone until the cooler months. We are leaving the option of opening Hand’s later in the year but this is by no means certain at this point.
We will be re establishing aquatic plants in the lakes , this will be done regardless of what may eventually be planned for the silt as it is a good thing in itself. We will also reduce the area of lily cover , lilies add less environmentally and blanket light from more useful plants. We are waiting for supply of the required plant species to become available.
Despite low water levels our Wellow lakes continue to provide good fishing, we have had no health problems there and the work to improve the habitat at Dandy’s is starting to take effect.
We have purchased additional day tickets at Witherington and members are using the extra spaces. We will shortly be making available two Test Valley Angling Club books to fish some of their waters. Detailed arrangements to use the books will be published separately.
Test Valley Club have been extremely helpful to our club in this difficult time, amongst other things they are hosting our summer junior sessions and the start of our “Small Fry” section. We hope to continue this link in to the future with mutual benefit.
Our match programme has had to be reassembled with alternative venues and the Match Secretary has managed to cover all the dates. On October 13th a match will be switched to the Avon and Nadder in Salisbury. There will still be space for pleasure anglers but please give the match men the room they need. This is the second last day this season for fly fishing those waters but plenty of alternatives are available.
