Heath Lake netting & Electrofishing - 15th to 17th February 2023.

Before I write this report I would like to state that it was kept quiet because of the safety aspects involved & that we did not want too many folk around during the task, therefore, a selection of volunteers & committee members carried out the task with our friend John Aplin of Casterbridge Fisheries & his expert team of 3 (Ed, Kev & Elliot Mcbride). I am pleased to report that there were no accidents or incidents during the 3 days while working with ‘water & electricity’ …’deep water & silt in excess of 3ft’ thick in places.
1. It took over 3 weeks of pumping & siphoning to reduce the lake levels to approximately 18” deep on 70% of the 4 acre lake. The recent dry spell helped enormously (there are 250 acres of lakes that all drain down into Heath when it rains).
2. Full permission was gained from the EA to carry out the task & move all fish caught to our new lakes to the north of the estate.
3. Because of the amount of silt & dying weed in the lake, netting the whole lake was not feasible, therefore, the deeper section to the south was netted 3 times & the rest of the lake was electrofished where the team worked out the fish would congregate. 
4. It is estimated that over 650lb of carp, roach, perch (3 over 3lb) & 2 skimmers (shame) have now been relocated into Lysander Lake & approximately 260lb of carp in Lucy’s pool.
5. The attached photos show various stages of the tasks & a couple of the ‘muddy’ fish we netted. Believe me, it was bloody cold in that water.. well done Chris Painter, Whisky (& me) for volunteering to do that bit & massive THANK YOU to all those who gave up a lot of their time to assist in hauling the nets from the bank, moving/shifting stuff, planting trees on the islands of the new lakes & putting up with me (safety head on most of the time 😉).
6. Yes, we did expect to get more fish but all is not lost, there will be another chance to get any remaining fish later in the year when the lake is emptied completely before it is turned into the wildlife Marsh (that has always been the plan by the developers).
7. All being well… we will be opening the new lakes to members ‘around Easter’, although there will be limited pegs/swim’s available until we get the rest of them completed (volunteers will be requested 🤪👍).
Again.. Thank you Team!
I think I’ll have a day off fishing tomorrow.
Cheers 
Steve Sudworth
DDAS CC