Ph Level ???????

[dibbly88]

Hi all long time no see, i have just been checking the Ph level of the lake i help run and found it to be 6.2 therefore slightly acid. it is a mixed water and i am wondering if this Ph level is ok for carp, tench, chub and lots of silver. If the level is to acid how would i adjust it to a satisfactory one.

The reason i checked it was that someone mentioned that this is possibly the reason that last year that very few carp where caught despite 350 2-4" being added.

[chesters1]

theyl be fine if they have been in the water for a while though if there new from an alkaline water they would be stressed for a while i guess .were very acid here (sitting on 300ft of sand)and we have perfectly fit near 40lbrs that show up occasionally, over to Bruno for the technical side

[dibbly88]

cheers chester, some of the fish have been in there for 2 seasons but just refuse to get caught. its probbably just another part of fishing in scotland. it would still be interesting to hear what bruno would have to say on this matter.

[chesters1]

we have a lake that has gone downhill for 3 years ,nothing to do with ph but solely that the feeder stream hasent stopped running for 3 years ,before that as soon as the warm weather came the feeder dried up , the water then started dropping and the pond went green the fishing was great for even the worst angler ,nowadays its gin clear and the fishing sucks ,even liming it has had no effect the pond refuses to colour up ,if you look at the aerial picture fome getmapping (or whatever) the pond looks black purely because you can see the silty bottom through the water

 

[ 12. February 2005, 04:00 PM: Message edited by: chesters1 ]

[Bruno Broughton]

If a pH this lowality most of the time. it will certainly depress the productivity of the fishery and the quantity of fish it can support. Fish will acclimate to acidic pHs, but this is quite low. Remember, the pH scale is not linear; it is logarithmic. That means that as the pH falls from 7 to 6, it is actually 10 times more acidic.

 

Stimulating an increase in the pH is relatively easy. It is best achieved with carefully-applied chalk or limestone comopunds. For example, the deposition of a few tons of chalk (as rough-hewn chunks) on a feeder stream will cause it to gradually dissolve into the inflowing water, increasing the pH and raising the concentrations of dissolved calcium - an essential building block for many invertebrate animals.

 

Please feel free to email me dibbly88 via the link on my website (see below) if you would like specific advice on your lake.

 

[ 13. February 2005, 12:29 AM: Message edited by: Bruno Broughton ]

[chesters1]

our feeder stream looks like dover ,the plants do very well unfortunatly too well and i suspect their finding more natural food .its a circle the place fishes bad less anglers fish it ,the fewer anglers fishing it means less bait going in and then the fish ignore the bait because their existing on the natural food ,it used to be 14's and 1/4 of a slice of bread now on >18 and pinkies seem to work only the perch take any interest in maggots or worms ,bread catches little but rudd ,and ofcourse the more plants the less nutriants in the water i suspect the reason its gin clear

fishing close in last year we saw the fish skirting the groundbait and 1.5lb line clearly seen most of the way down under the water when i say clear its clear

 

[ 13. February 2005, 10:13 AM: Message edited by: chesters1 ]

[dibbly88]

Many thanks bruno ill be in touch soon with some questions.

[dibbly88]

hey chester, sounds like our lakes are in the same state our feeder is from a field drain and the water is only coloured when it rains heavy and causes the feeder stream to become a fountain. we also struggled for a few years with numbers of anglers so we droped our season price to £15 and then went out activly seeking them. the other drastic thing we did was to employ a feeding program through out the year and once a month fed pellet and maggot in small amounts just to keep the fish on the hunt for our unnatural food. when our pond turns gin clear i like to rake the swim i have chosen before i start to tackle up and then i like to fish a cloudy groundbait mixed with liquidised corn and milk powder for that special longerlasting suspension to give the fish the confidence.

[Newt]

dibbly88 - I did some checking on pH preference for some common UK freshwater fish. Note that while they certainly can live outside their ideal range, they won't do as well.

 

Roach - 7.0 to 7.5

 

Carp - 7.0 to 7.5

 

Rudd - 7.0 to 7.5

 

Bream - 7.0 to 7.5

[chesters1]

our anglers (well the young ones anyway) complain of weed in their swim :confused: the old hands relish making rakes and raking it ,old fashioned guff i expect the young think but it does 2 things its makes a swinm and it dislodges lots of fish atracting food ,rather than creeping up in camo chuck a rake in ,the swims that do produce border the weed .the youngsters (when i say young under 40) complain they catch the weed the; elders fish right up to it .

and its strange people ignore free advice i say fish under your feet they stick their poles out at 14mtrs and complain of sparse reward ,sense tells me if the waters clear the fish will hide if only to protect themselves from predators fish where the fish are ,not try and make them come to you.lots fish near the lillies all lillies are is stems with fat leaves cover but little food ,the weedbeds are millions of leaves and stems and plenty of cover and food.

i sit in my favourite swim and fish where i know the fish are (and mostly are) they lie near a ironstone ledge (complaints come from some that they keep catching it) that runs along one side of the pond (its an old ironstone quarry) its a fish highway they go from place to place along it ,so rather than chuck and hope use a plummet