Up the ponds

[Kepis]

Spent a wonderful, if chilly few hours up at the ponds i look after today, where we continued to pump down one pond ready for winter maintenance and out trusty band of volunteers busied themselves repairing and stabilising some fairly soggy paths.

20171202_104515 by Mark D Emery, on Flickr

DSCN7972 by Mark D Emery, on Flickr

DSCN7982 by Mark D Emery, on Flickr

DSCN8009 by Mark D Emery, on Flickr

DSCN8031 by Mark D Emery, on Flickr

DSCN8041 by Mark D Emery, on Flickr

DSCN8050 by Mark D Emery, on Flickr

 

[Robbi]

All looks very good Sir,

what will you do once you have drained the pond ?

Do you think you are loosing small creatures ( small fish, water beetles, newts, dragon fly lava etc through the pump ? )

 

[g4ghb]

Is there lots of wildlife you have to 'rescue' when you drain the ponds Mark? And what maintenance do you do on them out of interest

 

[WealdenWoodsman]

As above, would be interested to hear what is done to minimise disruption to the ponds ecosystem. I assume these ponds are part of a fishery?

 

[Kepis]

Thanks for the comments chaps, there are no fish in this pond following a large fish kill earlier this year, where we lost approx 2500 fish, the cause was put down to a natural overstock, ie they bred themselves into oblivion, too many fish, not enough dissolved oxygen, partly down to the density of fish but also down to weed and plant growth, the lily you see in the background of the photos currently covers a third of the pond and is reducing the amount of oxygen entering the water, this pond suffers anyway as the surface is normally 2ft below the top of the bank and any wind goes straight over the top and doesn't ripple the surface, thereby introducing O2, also this pond had an algal bloom in it caused by excess nutrients (fish poo) and although it was a benign algae, by replacing the water we also get rid, as much as we can, of any remnants of that bloom, normally each winter we have sufficient rain that the pond overflows into the next one and eventually the water flows through the facility and exits the fishery and then flows for a few miles down a stream before entering the river.

The plan is to reduce the water and replace it with fresh from an on-line pond (one that has a water source such as a stream) which we are lucky enough to have here, you can see the one im going to use in the background of the fifth picture above, the pond we are draining is what they call 'off line' as it is stand alone and relies solely on what falls out off the sky to fill it up and having had a couple of dry winters, the water has not been refreshed, it wasnt stagnant, but it wasnt as fresh as it would normally be, so having lost all the fish it makes perfect sense to use the opportunity to replace the water with fresh, pump it down to a point where it is safe to get in and then remove at least 3/4's to 4/5's of the lily root, but also to have a look at the bottom of the pond to ascertain its overall condition and if necessary remove any excess biological matter (leaves) from the bottom of the pond, this particular pond is surrounded by Oak trees and the water even when fully healthy always had that peaty look to it thats caused by the tannins, although our regular Ph testing has always indicated a good Ph level and certainly never indicated anything that should raise alarm bells, we will also be inspecting the underwater sections of bank to make sure they are safe and not undercut and then addressing any problems we find accordingly, likewise there is one wooden swim there, that's going to get removed and replaced with a new one, all standard fishery management stuff really, its a shame we had to lose the fish to do it though.

Any and all detritus and lily that is removed from the pond is left on the side of the pond for a least a week to ten days before we move it away, so any life that may be present has a chance to get back in the pond.

Once all the work is done and the pond has been refilled, i shall be spending a few thousand quid restocking it, although not anywhere near the levels that we had.

We make all efforts to minimise disruption to the other pond life whilst this work is going on, the pumps have a mesh screen over the draw hose to stop anything going up it, but also the area where the hoses enter the water is also the deepest part of the pond and this will be left with water in it, in order that anything that is resident has somewhere to go as the water retreats.

 

[dwardo]

Fascinating.

I gather you have to go to these lengths as you are trying to support more fish than would be natural? You mentioned all the fish died, how quickly can such a thing happen?

Also how long does it take for a pond to recover after draining it before it will support stocks again?

Interesting stuff.

 

[Kepis]

Fascinating.

I gather you have to go to these lengths as you are trying to support more fish than would be natural? You mentioned all the fish died, how quickly can such a thing happen?

Also how long does it take for a pond to recover after draining it before it will support stocks again?

Interesting stuff.

Rather than us trying to support more fish, nature tried to do it as we had never introduced any fish to this particular pond as it always fished well and it had never been heavily predated, so all the time things appear to be ok, we leave it alone, as the old saying goes "if it isn't broke, don't fix it", mother nature unfortunately had other ideas, its just one of those things unfortunately, she will always find a balance.

The majority of fish died within a 24-48 hour period, it's frightening how quickly things can change though, ive seen a pond be ok at 10am but at 10:30am there were fish the surface gasping, it can be that quick from normal to trying to prevent disaster.

Once the pond has been worked on and refilled we will leave it to settle for a month or so before restocking with fish, all the time monitoring Nitrate, Nitrite, Ph & dissolved O2 levels

 

[Robbi]

as said above, fascinating stuff, I'd love to be involved with something like that.

 

[Kepis]

This is another of the ponds at the facility, the entire place used to be an old brick works that opened in the early 1920's to support the chaps coming back from war, the original kilns are still there, although now buried under a bund, even so they are preserved, the works fell out of use in the 1950's and the excavations filed up and became ponds,

The pond in the photo was three small, overgrown & silted ponds that we knocked into one big one, as part of a three year project where we dug out and/or enlarged four ponds/small lakes at the facility.

You can see the depth of silt in this pond against the 21 ton machine,

Sept 23rd 2006 (29) by Mark D Emery, on Flickr

All of the silt had to be disposed of on site as the road outside is not strong enough to support the weight of the trucks needed to take it away, it's also very expensive to truck silt away as it is classified as toxic waste due to the number of fairly nasty chemicals to be found in it, like arsenic & cyanide, so we had to lose it all on site, although we did utilise some of it to line the bottom of the ponds, the reason we did this was two fold, one it lost some of the silt, two, more importantly it meant the ecosystem of the lake was kick started when the lake refilled.

This pic shows the same pond as the photo with the machine in it, the stand of Oaks you see in the background of the machine photo, is just off to the right in this photo.

Sept 30th 2006 (10) by Mark D Emery, on Flickr

For every tree we cut down, we replaced it with five, we have over 50 species of bird including summer migrants and we have documented, through the Sussex Botanical Recording Society 129 species of native plants, we have dedicated wild areas with no access and where no work is undertaken so nature can run it's course, we have replanted a small wooded area by the car park which is just now starting to mature with an under-storey of Hazel, Cherry, Spindle & Hawthorn doing really well under the mature Oaks, this area for the past few years has seen Nightingales nesting and we have a dedicated wildlife pond that has no fish and has been deliberately left to fill with Reedmace, Hard & Soft Rush, Bistort etc and anything else that wanted to grow there.

The management plan encompasses all sorts of things from small scale coppice rotation to heavy duty works like draining and digging a pond, but the one thing that is always in the forefront of my mind is that everything we do is sympathetic to nature and the environment and anything we do is done for a reason, not because of a whim or a knee jerk reaction ,ie, any and all ground work, restocking etc is done based on evidence and observation, heck, i don't even do the first grass cut each year until the Bluebells have set seed, that way when i cut them, the seed is distributed around the area and each spring the carpet of blue just gets bigger and better.

We actually have people join the club because of our approach to nature and the environment and not just for the fishing, which by the way is superb

yep, if you looked at this place now, you would never realise it's industrial past.

 

[Snake]

All very interesting, I am still shocked that you are able to empty a pond at this time of year, as around hear the water table rises and would never let me empty any of the ponds, anything I pump out during the day is replaced over night and you would be none the wiser. I have an old well outside the house and that maintains a consistent level through out the year as well. I pumped that out a few years ago to find out how deep it was (and to discover if there was a spring feeding it, there was not) and it also refilled back to its level within a few days.

 

[Kepis]

Final word from me for a while, this is a piece of writing i did back in the summer, whilst sat on a bench next to the pond pictured, which until ten years ago didnt exist and was just a mass of overgrown jungle.

19702272_758483851028485_4016010818525396658_n by Mark D Emery, on Flickr

Sitting here on Dashers seat at Goose Green, I find myself surrounded by all manner of wildlife, a small vole occasionally darts across the path in front me on it's never ending search for food, where are those anglers and their supply of sweetcorn kernels when you need one?

The wild flowers are out in profusion and masses of Bumble and Honey Bees can be seen feeding on the Vetch & Trefoil that lines the paths around the area where i sit, there are butterflies everywhere, Marbled Whites, Meadow Browns, Speckled Woods, Comma, the occasional Holly Blue and the marvellous Red Admiral, all flitting away in the sunshine and settling often on the flowers to drink their nectar.

A movement out the corner of my eye reveals a Nuthatch searching the Oak in front of me, up and down the trunk it goes in its search for insects, a Carp jumping in the pond and landing with a splash soon frightens the bird off, although it doesn't phase the Moorhen and her chicks who just carry on as normal, the sky is alive with birds, a Buzzard circles overhead, lower down Swallows swoop and glide effortlessly over the surface of the pond getting a drink, before a flap of the wings sends them gracefully back up high, a profusion of small birds such as Blue & Great Tits, Dunnock, Starlings and Chaffinch busy themselves darting backwards and forwards over the ponds and through the trees, a Chiffchaf makes it's unique call in the near distance.

The pond is alive with Carp cruising around and shoals of small fish can be seen just sub surface, meanwhile thousands of fry erupt as a Crow flies overhead casting it's shadow on the water, over on the far bank a couple of anglers busy themselves in the glorious sunshine catching Roach, Rudd, Skimmers & Crucians and the odd Carp which gives one of them the run around for a few minutes.

It's not just about the angling, it's about being there and experiencing nature at it's finest that makes so many happy memories.

 

[Kepis]

All very interesting, I am still shocked that you are able to empty a pond at this time of year, as around hear the water table rises and would never let me empty any of the ponds, anything I pump out during the day is replaced over night and you would be none the wiser. I have an old well outside the house and that maintains a consistent level through out the year as well. I pumped that out a few years ago to find out how deep it was (and to discover if there was a spring feeding it, there was not) and it also refilled back to its level within a few days.

All the ponds are sitting on blue clay, when we have done heavy machine digging in past winters the pond stays high & dry and only fills when we divert the stream back through the facility rather than around it. We have a well here too, we used a surveyors tape with a weight on it, we got to 30ft and still didnt find the bottom

 

[Snake]

That's a deep hole, ours is only about 12-15ft.
When we have dug test holes around the farm we don't hit blue clay until about 6-8ft and then it keeps on going for as deep as the digger will reach

 

[bobnewboy]

Sounds like a great place Kepis. The one constant surprise from taking up angling for me has been the variety of wildlife I now see when out fishing. Even here in SW London / Surrey I never expected to see kingfishers and the like quite so often.

Is your place a day ticket venue or membership/syndicate only? It sounds like a great place to spend a day quietly fishing......

 

[Kepis]

Sounds like a great place Kepis. The one constant surprise from taking up angling for me has been the variety of wildlife I now see when out fishing. Even here in SW London / Surrey I never expected to see kingfishers and the like quite so often.

Is your place a day ticket venue or membership/syndicate only? It sounds like a great place to spend a day quietly fishing......

Cheers mate, its amazing what you can see when you sit nice and quiet, my old mate who sadly is no longer with us, would take his gear up the lakes, tie a weight on the end of the line and cast out, no hook, no bait and then sit there quietly reading a book and watching the wildlife, as he had a rod out nobody questioned him.

The lakes are members only, but membership is open to anyone who wants to buy one, also opens up over seven miles of rivers and some other ponds too. www.pulboroughas.com

 

[bobnewboy]

Thanks for the info, the memberships seem to be very reasonably priced in my opinion. However, until our house is sold and we have moved I have to remain a day ticket angler .