It's been a while since I posted on here but I am pleased to see that Paul has opened the forum up a bit and, whilst we are nearly full for 2012, it can't hurt to keep you all abreast of how Moorlands has developed over the years.
Proper winter wonderland out here now. This is our third heavy frost in a row and the temperature dropped to minus 8 last night so the trees are hanging, white with frost and look wonderful. The lake would have been totally frozen over if I hadn't [it was actually Jan's idea but I'm happy to take the credit] turned on the aerator and I am very impressed with the amount of clear water that it has maintained. It is now on a timer and will switch on and run every night until the weather starts to improve. On that note, the forecast is for a warm "blip" on Thursday but then sliding back into cold conditions immediately afterwards.
Roll on March.
On a personal note it is exactly 10 years ago today that we completed the purchase and moved in to Etang du Roivre and my only regret is that we didn't do it ten years before that.

Keith do you still feed your fish in these very cold conditions?

I feed with crushed maize soaked for 2 days and pellets each week but Im beginning to think I am wasting my time and money when the lakes are partially frozen.....

Hi Paul
I do still feed and I also used crushed maize but, like you I'm not sure whether I'm wasting my time. Let me explain a bit more:-
This year we worked our nuts off to empty the lake, take out most of the catfish, move the small carp to the stock pond and leave the lake dry for 4 weeks to kill off any fry that we missed. We then put just the large carp and the wide-mouth bass back in the lake as it refilled. Since then I have been finding feeding fish virtually every day and have put out maize, mixed particles, pellets or boilies each time that I have found them feeding. I have put the loose feed close to but not on top of the area in which I found the fish. Following that I have again continued to walk the lake but I have never yet found the carp back on the loose feed. I have found them feeding again but always away from where I have put the feed. They obviously prefer the snails and bloodworm to anything that I can offer LOL.

Wasting your time!!!!!.....Sort it out Paul!!!

kind regards Jeff

Your post doesnt make sense Jeff!

Delete please Paul, as it was the wrong Paul and even the wrong forum......Sorry;)

kind regards Jeff

Well whatever that was about at least it kept our topic live LOL.
I thought it may be interesting to put a bit more meat on the bone of where we are now as a fishery. It was ten years ago yesterday that my wife and I moved into our current address and in that time all of our efforts have continmued to focus on growing Moorlands from the original "unknown runs water" to a big fish venue. During autumn 2011 we constructed our own stock pond and have now been able to remove the small carp [under 20lb] for growing on and we have removed most of the catfish, leaving only those above 60lb.
The average weight of our carp is now [as I type] 37lb 9oz and this is taken from the total stock take taken during the vidange in November 2011.
I have also added the list of carp banked in the 2011 season. This is not the stock of the lake and obviously includes some multiple captures of the same fish.

TOTAL NUMBERS OF CARP BANKED DURING THE 32 WEEKS OF THE 2011 SEASON WERE:-

298 twenties
686 thirties
213 forties
37 fifties

Thats a pretty impressive list of big fish, Keith....what strain are they?

Hi Paul
The majority are Royale's mate but there are a few Dink's and a few Italians. The big fish are now all from the original stock when we bought the place just sorted ......... 6 times so far mate LOL.

Keith I am having my worst year ever for cormorants are they coming as far down as your place?