A warm spring-like early March day saw the Level 3 Subsidiary Diploma Fish Management students take a drive over to a stunning west Kent fishery alongside lecturer Viv Shears. The target for the day in Tunbridge was to carry out a fish survey to inspect the fish stocks for the new owner and also to obtain a sample of fish for a health check.
After a little but of juggling the boat and 100m seine net over a narrow foot bridge, the team managed to get the first net of the day set. A slow steady pull of the net, which initially looked empty, suddenly turned into a bulging net of carp and various silver fish. All the carp were caged and then the roach, perch and bream were moved to another holding cage until a second sweep had been set around the narrower channels and snags at the top of the lake. Unfortunately this only produced another handful of fish but the first sweep had filled the cages pretty well.
A total catch count was made and 10 carp and 20 small roach were carefully graded for the health check sample. These fish were then bagged in oxygen and taken to a fish health consultant for the health check.
In all some 165 carp between 2 and 11lbs were caught on the day along with lots of nice roach, some skimmer bream plus a number of perch.
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