Hearing strong rumours of a large fish kill at Horseshoe Lake and the lake is closed from Monday....

Anyone official care to confirm or deny?

If it is a big fish-kill it could be potentially the end of the Carp Society...they have shut everything else down.... ....and if Horseshoe is fcucked they have not got the members and leadership any more to finance a major restock....... ...or to pay any outstanding loan on the "Centre of Excellence"....

Posted on the CS website this evening...

PRIORITY NOTICE - CLOSURES AT HORSESHOE AND FARRIERS

HORSESHOE LAKE CLOSED

As from this morning, Horseshoe Lake is closed until further notice.

We have taken this action as a precaution. Some of you have had concerns over casualties. Until today, these had been no more than we expect to see at this time of year, nor indeed more than other fisheries have experienced.

Last week we had water samples taken by an independent scientist, the results of which are expected back next week, but initial reports are that the oxygen levels are well up. As an additional measure we have also called in the EA fishery scientist to help us determine if there are any concerns regarding fish losses over the weekend.

We had planned a closure to carry out some essential weed maitenance and we are also doing a number of things to improve on-site security, which will be carried out this week. However this occurrence will now take priority.

We appreciate this decision may cause inconvenience to anglers but our first priority as we are sure you will all agree is to the fishery and more importantly the fish.

We thank you for your patience and will continue to update you via the website and Facebook.

FARRIERS CLOSURE UPDATE


Farriers remains closed.


Last week water samples were taken by an independent scientist. The results show an algal bloom, which will need to be treated with a natural herebicide to halt its growth. this is ordered and the work will be carried out as soon as we receive it.

Although the oxygen levels were well up we were advised to install two aerators which are now in place, and will protect the fish in the event of an algae crash. The fish are not showing any signs of distress, not have their been any casualities as a result of occurrence. We are checking the lake twice a day and will keep you updated.

Farriers Permit holds need to note that Horseshoe is now closed.

I hear Paul Boichat is now admitting 'officially' to the loss of 70 carp...interesting that those officials on the ground - including two paid ones - are making no public statements but feeding figures to Paul Boichat who works for BT and is rarely at the lake......

Best guess from all accounts is the mortalities are considerably higher...

Why oh why did they re-stock a water - that was already heavily stocked with carp - of a different strain and background when there should have been sufficient Horseshoe carp being bred to stock from within?

I can't believe Horseshoe was stocked, the mind boggles it really does! There was already a mind blowing number of fish in the lake. If and it's a really big IF, there were more carp required why take the massive risk when there are already the mechanics in place to be self sufficient?


Lets just hope the damage is not severe.

Just lifted this from one of there facebook pages.....

"UPDATE
by Miles Carter on Wednesday, 17 August 2011 at 15:56

Carp Society update

As you are all aware, we closed Horseshoe Lake this week for essential maintenance work. We had planned on putting a new 260metre length of security fencing on the Summer Bay Road Bank area, this is now almost complete and before too long we will have 2 new sets of security gates as well. We had also planned to set about the weed, and whilst Gary and Dawn have been busy with that, we are behind on it because events on our other 2 lakes (Farriers and Langholme) have taken precedent. These two lakes have both got quite alarming outbreaks of Blue Green algae and it’s been all hands to the pump not only to ensure the fish are safe, but also that the anglers are safe. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Blue Green Algae, not only is it potentially dangerous for the fish if it were to ‘crash and deoxygenate the water, but it can be lethal to humans in its current state. Work has been going on round the clock on all our lakes to resolve our current crop of problems. Moving back on to Horseshoe now, and I have to say it’s so so disappointing to hear the complete shite being bandied about. I don’t read the forums but I understand some knobhead has been saying we have lost five hundred fish recently, this is probably the same person who previously said we burnt hundreds of fish in the winter. It’s no secret that we have lost a few fish since the spring, it may or may not be a secret that most lakes around the country have lost a few fish this year, but for some reason we seem to be the lake that people are spreading the most crap about. The truth of the matter is we have lost more fish than we would expect to lose, I can’t give you an exact figure but hand on heart what I can tell you is that there are a hell of a lot more fish in Horseshoe at this moment than there were this time last year. Because of all the censored on the forums and our own concerns for the fish welfare we have had an independent fishery scientist down here and we have also had the Environment Agency down. Both parties have inspected the lake and inspected a couple of dead fish and both are of the same opinion that there is absolutely nothing to even suggest that there is disease of any kind. They are both of the opinion that the fish that have passed away are simply victims of a combination of warm water temperature, water levels, inadequate spawning and old age. I will obviously keep you all posted on any changes or progress. I would like to thank everyone who has expressed their support for us, it really is invaluable in what has been a testing time for us all. As for those that have chosen, not only to stick the knives in but to give them a good old twist as well, when you’re fishing on your new lake and matey boy rocks up in the swim next door with his ghetto blaster and 24 pack of super strong lager, and the menacing smell of drugs sweeps horribly down to you just before his marker float or even better, his bait boat turns up in your swim, just remember the censored you’ve written about us and start believing in kharma."


The facebook page is designed to be a none reply one!

kind regards Jeff

I thought some of the new stock fish have died according to Paul Boichat, a Director...this isnt old age, is it?....and you can tell nothing from dead fish unless they show obvious signs of disease such as bulging eyes in cases of SVC...if its SCMS the dead fish look normal but they may have excess mucus secretions which most would take for normal....

"a combination of warm water temperature, water levels" does not their own website say they lost carp this spring?

They are very happy to take day ticket money off 'matey boy', though are they not - and also feature known drug takers at their winter shows...so why insult him/them? ...

Reads like smoke and mirrors.....they should just hold their hands up and admit that they balsed it up when they decided to stock Horseshoe from outside of the site....

Paul we are both long enough in the tooth to understand that anything published either on the carp society web site or by the carp society anywhere should be read with a great deal "of suspicion".

It is extremely rare to hear anything from Horseshoe angling club that differs from the corrpetate line, unless of course you manage to catch a baliff/member off guard.

Ive seen offical denials, to a few fish, to under 40 to as many as 125 on horseshoe alone. A few expected mortalities over a frozen winter period to all out carrniage.I reckon you can take anything offical with a pinch of salt.

Anglers have gone into print saying that the stench of death is overwhelming!.

The worrying thing for me, is the officers willingness to "atempt" to hoodwink the angling public and more so those that really know.!!!!

Stinks of "absolute power corrupts absolulty"

kind regards Jeff

The problem is Jeff, the £40,000 plus they are paying out in salaries can only come from revenue from Horseshoe and the Winter Trade Show......so loss of day ticket/permit money is a big blow...so you are not going to get the truth....

They cant rely on 3,000 plus members paying £30 a year any more as we could in my day as they have shut down the regions, shut the publications down etc.

You put all your eggs in one or two baskets and you run the risk....

Interesting that the powers that be keep referring to an independant scientist they have hired, but they don't name him...and they dont name the EA fisheries inspector who has just reported as stated on their website either....mmmmm

Here is the latest official statement which seems to contradict some of that reported by Paul Boichat.

I see the usual arrogance about not responding to their own members on Forums etc....

There are still big issues:

a. If the lake contained 850 fish before the stocking, why stock it?

b. What happened to the Horseshoe carp breeding programme? Did they sell the fish off?

c. Are they stocking again next year as planned and running the risk?

PRESS STATEMENT

It has long been estimated that Horseshoe has in excess of 1000 big fish, ie doubles or more. We estimate around one hundred of 30+. In the last eleven years we have never lost more than about 20 fish in any one year.

The first restocking last year was part of a five year plan recognising that many of the fish in the lake are over thirty years old. When we introduced the 180 small doubles we were told we may experience a slight increase in the number of mortalities as the new fish acclimatised.

We did not lose any fish through the extremely hard winter we have just had. The first notable sign of an increase in the level of deaths was over the weekend of 13/14 August and so we closed the lake on Monday 15 as a precautionary measure. Including the very recent deaths, we estimate that we have lost between 50 and 60 fish since the Spring.

Following our request for an EA inspection, their officer observed that there are absolutely no fish showing any signs of distress, nor on inspection of the dead fish was there any sign of obvious disease. This is puzzling to both the EA and the fishery scientist who independently inspected the fishery. Even though the EA saw no reason to health check the fish, they have now agreed after seeing our concern. The post mortems will be carried out next Thursday which is the earliest they can arrange and they tell us that the results will be with us within 10 to 14 days.

Asked for his overall opinion on why we may have lost fish, he surmised that a combination of a very poor spawning season, extremely low water levels and high overall temperatures, all of which are stressful conditions, have, and are, causing problems throughout the region.

The 50-60 fish we have lost have been in the mid doubles to lower twenties. This means that the head of fish in Horseshoe is still well over the long held estimate of 1000, which includes around 100 of those being over the 30lb bracket.

People have asked us why we are not responding to forum speculation. It is not our policy to partake in forums, using instead our website to communicate to all interested anglers.

We will continue to seek expert advice and as a precaution the lake will remain closed whilst we go through this very difficult period. Our priority is the lake and its fishing as it always has been.

We would encourage all anglers is to stay in touch with us directly. Please bear in mind nobody could be more concerned than we are over this recent development. As to opening date, it entirely depends on any further advice given by the EA and on our own monitoring of the situation. We will continue to post updates as information becomes available.