Liming and fish death

[BIGMAN]

Hi all,

i was reading a posting on a local website about a place near me called Nostel Priory near Wakefield, the lad said that a rather blunt bailif had told him that thay were going to lime the water to keep down the weed, he said that the week after he saw three dead good sized pike and a couple of bream and wondered if it was down to this prat throwing lime in by the bucketfull.

any thoughts or info on this practice?.

Bigman.

[Elton]

I wonder if it was the correct kind of lime:

 

http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/authors/bruno09.htm

[The Diamond Geezer]

BIGMAN:

Hi all,

i was reading a posting on a local website about a place near me called Nostel Priory near Wakefield, the lad said that a rather blunt bailif had told him that thay were going to lime the water to keep down the weed, he said that the week after he saw three dead good sized pike and a couple of bream and wondered if it was down to this prat throwing lime in by the bucketfull.

any thoughts or info on this practice?.

Bigman.

             

REPORT IT TO THE EA, that's assuming the don't already know about it! :mad:

 

[ 04. April 2003, 11:45 AM: Message edited by: The Diamond Geezer ]

[RobStubbs]

I 'think' the action of Lime affects dead fish in that it makes them pop up again - I assume something to do with the gases. I very much doubt it's application would kill fish, or that if it had it would just affect a few pike & a bream but then I'm no expert.

 

Rob.

[Wag]

Bruno will know, but I suspect Rob's right, liming fisheries is a well tried and tested way of reducing silt and getting rid of decomposing weed. the fish were probably already dead and were released by the reduction in silt (I hope - my club have recently de-silted one of our best waters by this method).

 

[ 04. April 2003, 09:48 PM: Message edited by: Wag ]

[USFisherman]

Quick lime or slaked lime, actually calcium oxide, was used in the US until 1900 to kill fish. It has been illegal for years. Dolomitic lime, calcium carbonate, which is naturally occurring is benign.

 

As I understand, it was put into a quart or half gallon glass jar and placed it the stream. It poisoned the fish so that they could be picked up for eating. All that I know of was applied in the foothills and mountains in trout streams.

 

Joe from Georgia, USA

[Apache]

Ok Thanks for that. So it can kill fish,and maybe the pike and bream were old and a bit frail...if you see what I mean.

[John Ellison]

When Wakefield AC. aquired the fishing rights on Nostell priory, they hired a fisheries consultant,Bruno Broughton. He advised liming the lake with this lime at that dosage at that time of the year and when the work was due to be carried out, the secretary of Wakefield AC saw fit to inform the blunt bailiff on saturday afternoon, that the liming was to be done the following day. So when the work party arrived to do the job, there were anglers on the lake.

I, for many years, had devoted a great deal of my spare time to improving club members facilities

by getting my backside into gear and volunteering my services for all the jobs that no one would touch with a barge pole and this liming was one of them.

As work progressed, my helmsman took leave of his senses and an incident occurred, the result of which resulted in us both being charged with bringing the club into disrepute. I was asked to go to a special meeting and give an account of what happened. I believed, they where going to lynch him. When I got to the hearing, there were two ropes strung over the rafters and I got hung for a murder I did not commit.

That ended my long association with that association.

I fished the lake a couple of times that year, and the chaps that had fished the lake for years told me that liming the lake had done a marvelous job. The lake had not fished as well for years.

On the occasion that liming was done three years ago, at the top end of the lake, the silt was four feet deep, covered by no more than 18" of water in places. So I'm quite sure that 'the prat throwing lime in by the bucket full' would be following the club's professional advice as prescribed by AN poster Bruno Broughton.