On Wednesday 13th February, 2019, Countryside Management students from Moreton Morrell College came to Abbey Fields to help remove some of the fish from Abbey Lake under the direction of Fisheries Manager Jon Wall and Anthony Simmons from Leamington Angling Association.
The fish were carefully removed by Seine netting, and transported to John Wall Fisheries, Melton Mowbray, in oxygenated 1 m3 tanks. Once there, the fish were to be sorted, health-checked, fed and prepared for distribution to restock ponds, lakes and pools in the area and potentially across the UK
This year, Jon Wall had brought a fish finder to see if the location of the fish shoals could be determined before laying out the nets. Unfortunately the shallowness of the water prevented a great deal of success and as a result the team had to complete two trawls with the seine nets.
Submerged branches from last year’s tree damage caused some issues with net retrieval.
A surprising number of visitors took interest in proceedings and we fielded questions whenever possible, in order to let everyone know what was going on.
Article and photos by David Emsley.