As a school boy (about 30-35 years ago) I spent most of my free time fishing a natural pool of about 3 acres with max depth 6ft and gradually sloping banks the water was not that clear you could see the bottom to a depth of about 9inches.I used to catch loads of perch to about 1lb Tench to 3lb roach and rudd over half lb and never landed but hooked pike and also seen something presume pike take ducklings.
I stopped fishing when I started working.But restarted 2 years ago I returned to this pool and asked the same farmer could I fish it? the reply was "yes, but you won't catch anything there is nothing in there now.I've seen the odd dead fish on the bank but not many so I don't know what happened to them"
So I went there for about 4 hours in June 2 years ago the water was crystal clear and you could see the bottom at 3ft.In that 4hrs I never had a bite and never saw any signs of a fish moving.Over the last year I have walked the dog past the lake 2or3times a week and always stop and look over the hedge for about 5 mins and have never seen any fish type movement.
The pool is 5 mins walk from home and I would love to be able to fish it and have the chance of catching but need to believe that there are still fish in it.
Can anyone give me some explanations to why there may be no fish in it now.Remembering the farmer has not seen many carcasses

Thanks for any ideas (I don't want to believe any of them really)
Dave

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Lots of posibilities.
Assuming the fish have in fact gone:
There could have been a slurry or sialige spil at some point in the not to distant past. This would have cause the available oxygen tp plumit and the fish to die without long term toxicity.
There could have been a sheep dip spill that wiped out the invertebrate population and led to the fish starning. Again, the pond would look healthy a very short time after this occurred.
If the pond is near a local river, you could have otters move in or cormerants visit and cause a rapid decline in fish stocks before moving on.
Could be that the pond has been cleaned out by "fruit pickers" with access to a net.
Who knows ? but there are certanly plenty of possibilities.

Like Ken says there are a lot of possibilities, a lot can happen in 30yrs.
The thing the that intrigues me, is the farmer saying that he's seen a few dead fish on the bank.
Obviously they have been put or dragged there.
Did you ask how many, when he saw them, what type of fish, what damage (if any) did they have?
All these will give some indication as to what might have happened.

I went back to a small mill pond after a 5 or 6yr absence. It too was much clearer than I remembered it. I blanked the first couple of visits, (never saw a sign of fish). Several people told me that the fish were still there, so I went back. It had been raining and there was a bit of colour in the water. It was like someone had just stocked it. I had 7 different species, gudgeon, roach, rudd, perch, tench, bream and carp, in a 4hour session. It took quite a few visits and many blanks before I 'sussed' out the water and felt confident I was going to catch in most conditions.

A few floating casters scattered on a warm evening will tell you if there are any fish there.

John.

The last time I looked to take on a small reservoir for a club that used to have it I had a similar tale from farmer.

He said I don,t think you will find much in there now.

It was left full of fish only a few years before. We sat one spring day and 2 of us fished it and he was right not a thing moved and no fish to be seen. We then found out he had contact with a local fish farmer/ resseller. The resevoir could easily have water level dropped.

We put 2 and 2 together and suspect he sold the fish. After all where do those fish we buy as clubs for restocking come from. The fish sellers net such waters as this. Coarse fish are expensive to buy and a pond can have several thousand pounds worth of fish.

John

I've seen/experienced the river fishing going downhill even in two years

Combination of bad angling practice and bad weather, floods last summer in particular

I could name twenty ponds in my area that all held fish in the 1940s/1950s which are devoid of fish now - for any one of half a dozen reasons already outlined by Ken and Gozzer.

One of the ponds simply silted up, became shallower and with nowhere to hide, the fish were picked off by predators (mainly herons).

Two roadside ponds succumbed to tar spillage, one farm pond to pesticide spillage.

Other ponds simply failed - exact reasons unknown but probably pollution-related..

Most of the local small streams have deteriorated - the factors are almost certainly related to run-off from factory farms, vehicle-related run-off from roads and increased sewage effluent consequent upon growing urbanization.



Now there I would disagree - I can't think of any river fishing that has suffered because of "bad angling practice" What are these "bad practices" Neil? There will always be a small minority whose fish handling skills are suspect, but this is a minority who don't catch enough fish to make a significant difference, or are you referring to piscivorous alien hordes from the East?

The Medway was fishing well after the floods - so were the Sussex Ouse and Eastern Rother.

I can think of some still-water venues that suffer from bad practice - usually removal of pike, and stocking with bream, F1s and pasties - but this is misguided fishery policy rather than "bad angling practice".

Have to disagree

Plenty of awful angling practice going on (for pike) which is shocking and the amount of pike I have caught with baits/traces in and with damaged sides etc is evidence of this. I've caught pike with traces in which have been made from garden wire with what must have been 5lb line on!

Sorry but this kind of thing just p**ses me off, I know it mostly kids going down there to have a go whilst having a few cans of lager (cans get left on the bank) but it's screwed it for everyone else.

Only solution is to go elsewhere which is a shame as the river is so close to where I live

Bad as that sounds, it is not as bad as habitat loss through the reasons I outlined in my previous post.

A few bad anglers might kill a few prime fish - bad management (be the cause farming, council, water companies, industrial waste, poor town planning etc) kills an entire river.

Can't these bad anglers be slung off the water? ...or is this a public water you are talking about?

The real threat is not just to the fish, but the potential of the water being lost to anglers due to the bad behaviour of the few. It might take just one vet's bill for a farm animal's injury caused by a discarded beer-can or a broken bottle.....

I agree, it's the difference between someone nicking your apples and someone vandalising your apple trees.

You've hit the nail on the head there Vagabond.