new pb carp (but I'm not happy)

[Chappa]

I was out at my local fishery in the midlands this weekend and despite the mild weather the water temp still seemed quite cold and the fish pretty elusive, (well that's my excuse!)

 

When cold the only thing that seems to land a fish here is to zig-rig sweetcorn or flavoured foam between 1 and 3 feet off the bottom. So I put out said rig with 1 fake corn flavoured with pineapple with 1 real corn hair rigged. On Saturday it produced the only fish of the day in the form of a nice clean 7lb mirror. Not much to shout about as I was really hoping for an elusive tench from another rod with luncheon meat on a swim feeder, still at least not a blank. On Sunday I went all out for the carp and at 11am hooked into something solid. Once in the net (which it bent!) I was horrified to see the fish (another mirror-12lb) was covered nose to fin with what looked like small leeches or worms, pale in colour about 1/16" thick and 1" long. There were around 2 dozen of them on her and they were even climbing through the gills I cleaned the fish up as best I could and got her back into the water sharpish, then cleaned off the un hooking mat etc.

The only other fish out of the lake was to some lads 5 pegs down about 4 hrs later. I ran over to get a look and it was another nirror around 6lb in a right mess with these parasites. It had an open wound on its belly around 2" accross with these things hanging out of it.

 

To be honest I found the whole day quite distressing, I've never seen fish affected like this before, and I fish here at least once a month. Coupled with the attitude of the guy collecting money, (no interest in what's going on or how the place is fishing) I shan't be going back. What's more there's rubbish everywhere (bottles cans and tins, the usual stuff left by non-caring dross), the place is starting to look very neglected. My biggest concern is; is the plight of the fish serious? Perhaps down to the extreme weather causing the fish to shoal up for prolonged periods in one place? And is this something I should report to the EA? Or am I over-reacting and is this condition seasonal/common and non threatening? The "Bailiff" wasn't around again after the cash exchange and there were no phone numbers published to contact anyone, so the guys that own the place might not know. There are 3 lakes at this venue, and as far as I know only this one lake (lake 1 ) has this problem.

 

Any advice would be much appreciated

 

Cheers

 

Chappa

[Anderoo]

Nothing to worry about, when the water's cold the fish lie up on the bottom for long periods and little leaches stick themselves on. The small pike I had at the weekend were all covered in them too, showing that they'd been not doing much for quite some time. When the fish warm up a bit and get more active they get rid of them themselves.

 

The would on the other fish is probably a completely separate issue.

 

Well done on the PB Doesn't sound like the nicest venue though! Vote with your feet.

[WickerDave]

I've never seen that myself on carp, just a few on (small ) pike. Catching diseased or badly mouth damaged fish certainly detracts from the angling experience. Presumably that's a central/north Leicestershire water?

[Chappa]

I've never seen that myself on carp, just a few on (small ) pike. Catching diseased or badly mouth damaged fish certainly detracts from the angling experience. Presumably that's a central/north Leicestershire water?

 

 

Thanks guys, that's my mind at ease a bit!

 

The venue is just off the A50 mate, about 5 miles from the city centre.

 

Thanks again,

 

Chappa

[WickerDave]

http://www.fisheries.co.uk/grobyfishinglakes/index.htm? There's a contact number and e-mail address on there if it was.