On Saturday 23 January over 30 members of the angling community from south-east England attended an Institute of Fisheries Management (IFM) Stillwater Workshop. The event, which was run by the Greater London and South-East branch of the IFM and sponsored by the Environment Agency, was designed to provide information and practical advice for angling clubs and fishery owners in helping them improve and maintain stillwater fisheries.
The workshop was held at Dorchester Sailing Club’s lake and clubhouse in Oxfordshire, proving to be an ideal venue for both classroom sessions and outside demonstrations.
A number of talks were held in the morning covering a number of areas of stillwater fisheries management, with topics ranging from advice on habitat management, fisheries appraisal and problem identification and prioritising on work delivery, helping to save time and money.
Following an excellent, hearty lunch delegates were then entertained with a practical demonstration of fishery management techniques. This included methods in deploying aeration to combat dissolved oxygen problems and ideas on how to build cheap, cost-effective fish refuges, helping to limit the effects of predation. The rest of the afternoon was rounded off with further talks on legislative issues and the Fisheries Accreditation Scheme, followed by a question and answer sessions.
Jenni Balmer from the IFM who organised the event said ”One of the main aims of the Institute of Fisheries Management is to help promote good fishery management and through workshops like this we hope to be able to pass on viable techniques and solutions so angling clubs and fishery owners alike can run their fisheries in a cost-effective and sustainable manner.”
One of the attendees on the workshop was Ian Horrocks, Oxford’s Angling Development Officer, he commented, “I found the course extremely useful as it is looking very likely that we will be taking over a small lake for use by the Oxford Angling Development Project. The lake is only just being dug, so I have the chance to take what I learned from the course and put it in to practice and hopefully develop a first class fishery for the young people.”
Many applications from angling clubs had to be turned away because the Workshop was full. Following the excellent feedback on the Workshop, it is clear it will have to be repeated – so watch out for future announcements!
Delegates being shown how to construct simple cheap fish refuges
