The Results...Are In!
Over 98% of our members took the poll to tell us how they feel about the Club, and where they would like to see improvement.
Thank you to all of you who took the time to help shape the future of the Club with your valuable insights. The results are as follows;
You & your angling
59% of you fish alone most of the time, where 12% of you prefer to fish with more than 1 other person. This information will be used to ensure that we have enough larger swims available for those who wish to share.
Importantly though, a third of you would like more fish to target - and this is something we now have a mandate to deliver.
The lagoon
We are happy that most of you feel the lagoon is a clean and tidy place to be, but recognise that a couple of you pointed out that there is sometimes a bit of litter. We would ask you to assist us with this and clear the area you are fishing of litter before you start your session. We will continue to undertake litter picks as often as we can.
If there is one thing that you all agreed on though, it was that our members are predominantly friendly & helpful people - hats off to you guys! Keep up the good work.
Fish
The big one...what about stocking! Well, first...lets confirm what you probably already knew.
In the Summer months most of you target the Tench and Carp. In the Winter, most of you target the Pike.
What you might not of expected is that in the Summer, the same number of you target the Tench (32%) as fish for all of the other species combined! Carp, as a species, comes in with 'only' 21%, but we recognise that more of you might target them if they were more prevalent - this is evident by the fact that 41% of you would like to see more Carp in the lagoon.
Other fish on the wanted list are Tench, Ghost Carp & Crucians.
What happens next?
Action! As already mentioned, work parties are planned in to take care of peg repairs, litter picks will happen on a more regular basis and the Club committee have drafted a 4 phase stocking plan designed to steadily improve fish numbers and cater for all of our valued Members.
Phase 1 - we are currently negotiating a deal to provide a small number of mid-sized Carp for immediate stocking to instantly improve the sport this Spring & Summer *watch this space*
Phase 2 - we have placed an order for a number of 'target' Carp in the 15lb-19lb range. These will be delivered in the Winter this year. It is expected that these fish will be over 20lbs within a season or so - depending on how much you feed them!
Phase 3 - Where stocking larger fish into the lagoon is not a problem, introducing smaller fish that are easy meals for the Pike is an issue that our stocking program will need to overcome. The novel solution we have come up with it to utilise the old feeder arm and transform it into our very own Snake Lake commercial style water with a generous stocking of Tench, Crucian Carp and Silvers. Work begins on this project this Spring.