Born of frustration

[sam vimes]

This is the view only a few hundred yards from my front door.



If I carry on a few hundred yards, or take a different route of a few hundred yards I see this lake.


That's just the two nearest lakes, there are at least four more within another few hundred yards. I rarely even take a walk down there as there's not a single one of them that can be fished. Within a further two miles or so, even excluding the ones still being worked, there are at least ten more decent sized pits that can't be fished.

 

[tigger]

Do they contain fish?

 

[sam vimes]

Do they contain fish?

Unless the herons and cormorants just like hanging around water, and the grebes dive just for fun, yes.

 

[bullet]

Why can't they be fished, private?

 

[sam vimes]

Why can't they be fished, private?

I've no idea what the ownership situation is. However, there is public access right through the complex. However, each of the lakes is fully fenced. The closest you can get to water is about twenty yards.

 

[Aknib]

However, each of the lakes is fully fenced. The closest you can get to water is about twenty yards.

I wonder if that is just a safety compliance measure deemed necessary by the landowner, due to the public access?

Is it worth doing a bit of detective work to identify who owns them and contact them?

 

[sam vimes]

I wonder if that is just a safety compliance measure deemed necessary by the landowner, due to the public access?

Is it worth doing a bit of detective work to identify who owns them and contact them?

Some will still be under the control of the gravel extraction companies, which undoubtedly accounts for the fences despite public access. The actual landowners differ depending on the exact location. I even know the landowner of two of the oldest lakes on the complex. Sadly, they are totally unwilling to allow any angling, even folks they know. Some of the lakes are designated as nature reserves. I've talked to the gravel company PR types in the past (they often have public consultations), total indifference towards angling. Two of the lakes within a few miles currently allow angling. One more is intended to have angling access at some point in the future. This is why it's frustrating and I rarely venture down there.

 

[tigger]

They look like pretty recently dugg waters so I can't see there being much in them, unless they've been stocked.

 

[sam vimes]

They look like pretty recently dugg waters so I can't see there being much in them, unless they've been stocked.

You'd be surprised. They aren't recently dug, though they do seem to get random bits of landscaping/planting carried out until very recently. I've lived here seventeen years and the lakes pictured have been there all that time. The oldest lakes in the area have been completed for over thirty years. The two pictured are more recent, but still at least ten years done. As far as know (I've talked to a bloke that is involved in stocking and reclamation work), every gravel pit in the area has to be stocked as part of the planning approval. It invariably isn't much of a stocking, but it does happen. He also told me that every lake he's ever known to be stocked has almost always had fish in it prior to that official stocking.

 

[tigger]

I really don't think anyone would bother you just now if you decided to give them a little go.
Personally I don't even feel like going fishing at all.

 

[dalesman]

Chris I do believe the pits were dug for the building of the A1 back in the sixties. Theres a couple of pits on the other side of the river adjacent to A1 one with old working building still on site and another on a farm which has been stocked with carp, the farmer will not allow anglers to fish.