Britsh Waterways - dissapointed.....

I found out a while back that my local reservoir, Elton in Bury is being drained and emptied, so essential maintenance can be carried out the the dam wall, by the owners British Waterways.

I understand the 56 acre water is to be electro fished next week, the entire fish stock removed while the work is carried out. It will then be re-filled and restocked........... but not till next year and NOT with the original fish.

As far as I can find out they are planning to stock an equivalent weight of fish, of what I have no idea! I have my thoughts and I prey I am wrong!

Current stock is roach, bream, perch and pike and a few stray tench and a handful of carp that found their way in. It was once noted for it's roach and bream fishing but has suffered with cormorants, so what now in there is a decent stamp with most bream 5 to 7lb, pike from all sizes to 20+ etc. With the best will in the world, I doubt they will restock fish of that size or quality, so the obvious problem is, will the re-stock be cormorant proof?

I've emailed BW and the controlling club to find out exactly what's happening and got no reply.

What I have found out second hand is they currently have no new home for most of the stock.

I can't believe the likes of BW has no ability to hold these fish somewhere and return them after the work is complete in several weeks time.

Perhaps due to sentimental reasons (having learnt to fish there), I find the whole thing abit mickey mouse by BW, or am I being unrealistic?

Any one have any contacts there, who might be able to shed some light on what's what?

I might be wrong but I was under the impression that any fish removal requires a section 30, and the Section 30 mentions where the fish came from and where they are going to, so the EA should be able to tell you.

It seems most worrying that BW can drain their waters and possibly change the stocking(i.e. species,which i understand may or may not occur),but BW's track record is poor on this one and i wouldnt hold your breath.

I always understood that electro fishing was confined to small shallow waters and on the assumption that the 56 acre water in question is not a couple of feet deep across its entire area, I wonder how it can be electro fished!

by draining it until its a puddle in the middle................

About 6 feet is the maximum for electrofishing. Might be 8 if the anode is long enough, or so I was told.

It doesn't work on the Jubilee Channel and that's 4 metres deep.

It's probably down by about 50 to 60 % in size now and failing each day.

It's only 25 foot deep when full and it's down to just under half that now and it will be a smallish puddle by the time it's zapped.

I doubt they've yet applied for the Sec 30 as they have nowhere to put most of the stock at the minute. Not sure how quick the sec 30 can take to be approved?

The same fish are not going back in, that seems almost certain as one water that's taking part of the stock has a reasonable head of the same species and it's controlled by another local club.

---------- Post added at 23:26 ---------- Previous post was at 23:15 ----------

Oh, what is interesting is what's in there from the past 200 years!

It's a bit of a tackle grave yard, so I'm stocking up on scrap lead. Saw some pole sections from the 80's on the dam wall, loads of landing net poles, spinners, rod sections, bank sticks, target boards (remember the days) an abu reel and two motor cars from 15 to 20 years ago are now visible. One of which is upside down and was owned by a lad who drove home drunk from the old night club at the back, mis-judged the road past the farm where it meets the dam wall and never saw the morning!

I also heard from someone in the know that a few fire arms were likely to be found!!

Paul that's devastating news!
Given BW record on waters they own, it wouldn't surprise me if they don't stuff it full of pasties as they've done elsewhere in the country.

---------- Post added at 01:02 ---------- Previous post was at 00:36 ----------

Paul just done some research on Elton and its one of only 17 grade A Sites of Biological Importance in the borough. Grade A is one down from a SSSI site which would automatically stop BW from stuffing it full of pasties. That said there might be some leverage there with BMBC and/or Natural England to stop such an event happening.

A tip off to NE, as at some point in the future it will become a SSSI site, won't go a miss. NE are dead set against the proliferation of carp in any waterbody.

Thats a bonus and certainly a point worth remembering Phil.

Paul,
Any chance you can take any photos of what you find in there and send me some of them. Would make an interesting story. Also will allow me to hassle BW to find out what's set to be stocked...
Cheers, Greg (greg.whitehead@bauermedia.co.uk)

Thanks Phil. I'll look into that.

Greg, I take it you mean the fish stock rather than the ford escorts and pole sections?

I am waiting to find out the date for the fish removal. The only problem is the've closed the dam wall on Monday, so access to the where they are going to remove the fish from is now closed to the public, but the opposite side which is draining is still accessible.

I've emailed NE.

I also heard tonight, indirectly but from someone involved in the contracting of the work that they are basically keeping things low-key in terms of announcing exactly what's going on and the reason mentioned was to avoid conservationists making a fuss!

Saw some underwater features tonight that were a bit a of surprise. Several areas that had channels or were deeper for just 20 yards of so.

Most importantly, in all the years of fishing a certain area, I didn't know that one of the two pegs was 2 to 3 foot deeper than the one next to it! My mate always fished the deeper one and for years, until he went off carping, did better than me, more often than not, yet we fished identical. He had several extra feet.... say 11 foot whereas I has 8 or 9!! Would never have thought it...

Also never seen so many tyres, how do the get 80 yards into a a water? Found another reel and some very old pop cans and another kilo of lead!