HBS Fisheries

This week we completed the fish surveys on the River Inny for the 2024 season, plenty of Salmon, Trout, Bullhead and Stone loach coming out.

Back on the Somerset Levels yesterday removing fish from rhynes to allow for flood defence works to continue, this section was completely covered in duck w**d on arrival so we had to go and get the boom skimmer unit to remove this so we could electrofish it, removing a small Pike and Tench and a few freshwater mussels before backfilling starts.

Back in Cornwall this week carrying out fish surveys on the River Inney, been a bit hot in waders to say the least! but a lovely stretch on river producing Trout, Salmon and grayling plus other species, all caught using the new Electrafish bank mounted electrofishing setup with a 50m cable kit.

Happy 50th Birthday Rich, hope you have enjoyed your day and evening’s celebrating with family and friends. Thank you for everything you do for us, you work so hard so you deserve to be treated today. 🎉🍻

Back on the River Inny yesterday at Davidstow, carrying out fish surveys, lots of Trout, Salmon, Greyling, Bullhead, Stone loach, Eels, and brook lamprey being caught.

Working on a drain down at Morewelham Reservoir today for SWW only a few small fish found in the 3ft of silt! now the desilting process can take place.

Back on the Somerset Levels this week removing fish from rhynes to allow for flood defence works to start.

Working on the Somerset levels today dewatering small sections of rhyne which are going to be backfilled to allow for new flood defences to be built.

Yesterday we did a fish removal on the River Lemon at Holbeam Dam near Newton Abbott, we had to clear a stretch of river ready for flood defence improvement work, caught Trout, Eels, Bullhead and Stone Loach. All fish were returned safely downstream.

More fish surveys on the River Inny at Treguddick today, plenty of Trout, Salmon, Eels, Bullheads, Stone loach, Minnow and Brook Lamprey caught using a Electrafish EFB2 and 50m cable kit.

Today has seen the start of the fish surveys on the River Inny in Cornwall, due to the high conductivity of the water a generator powered electrofishing system with a 50m cable kit has to be used, a lot of trout, bullhead, Eels, minnows and a couple Grayling caught today.

Finishing off the fish surveys on Horner Water for the National Trust today, what a stunning stretch of river, 114 fish caught on a 100m section consisting of Trout, Eels, Bullhead and Minnow.

Just getting to grips with the new Ransomes Spider IDL02 remote control bank mower, this 4 wheel drive and 4 wheel steer machine is ideal for cutting around lakes etc, available for hire with an operator, contact Richard for more information.

More Fish surveys on Horner water today near Minehead for the National Trust, its been a busy week!

Working on the flood defences at Curload today for Kier Construction, de-fishing a culvert under the River Tone, over 300 Roach, Dace, Gudgeon, Chubb and Eels relocated to allow work to start.

Mike Barrow with the 'Dazzler' at 33lb 8oz caught today from 'The Point' this is a new top weight for the fish and a new lake record. Well done Mike! Top angling.

Nice view from the office today!

I have started to renew some of the carp care kits and the plan is to change all off them in the next few months, The new kits consist of a Gardner Asylum mat/cradle, inside that is also a retainer and in a separate bag is a Rod Hutchinson Sceptre 42" landing net please take care with them and put them away as you found them. Thanks Richard.

Just to let the members know I have installed two aerators in the shallows today in case we have any periods of low oxygen levels, they don't have any mooring ropes to get tangled in just two armoured cables running back to the bank so please take care when fishing near them. Thanks Richard

Jenny Sanderson did a 24hr session recently which resulted in four fish including a PB for her from the fishery at 27lb 9oz. Well done Jenny great fishing.

A busy week this week as we have started the summer fish survey work, the first surveys are on the River Aller at Minehead for the National Trust, plenty of Trout, Bullhead, Eels and even Brook Lamprey being caught which is nice to see.

Hi all just to let you know the fish have now started to spawn with the recent hot weather

Lots of herbicide application recently between the rain showers, not just on fisheries, today a long walk around a 19 hole golf course with seven lakes to spray around the margins and apply dyofix to reduce aquatic w**d growth.

Spring is in the air and its that time of year for getting the barley straw sausages ready for our lake and other local fisheries, over 40 made today ready to be put into lakes.

Thanks to Rob Wortley from Electrafish for delivering the new equipment today, we now have three different electrofishing systems to suit all applications, boat mounted, backpack and bankside, this new generator based bankside kit has dual anode outputs so we can run two 50m anode cables from it ideal for the summer survey work. Many Thanks Rob for great service once again and I look forward to using it!

After a busy week netting lakes and delivering fish, we have been cleaning and disinfecting all the equipment, Em nearly managed to get 10,000 steps in today cleaning nets! lol

Andrew Quinn did a 24hr session yesterday, although the night didn't even produce a knock he did manage four fish out today, the biggest being a half linear at 27lb 12oz (different half Lin to the one he caught in October pictured below) and another mirror at 26lb 8oz and two smaller fish. Well done Andy.

Happy New Year everyone, sorry its been a while, very few anglers on the bank recently but those who have, manged to get some fish out upto high twenties so they are still feeding. Pictured below is a Boom & Skimmer unit we recently purchased, this trailer is fitted with 160m Megator booming and a Megator sump skimmer setup run using a Honda pump. This unit is aimed at pollutions situations were the booming is used to holding back the pollutant such as oil or sewage and then use the skimmer to pump off the pollutant from the surface of the water, but these setups have also been used to remove duckw**d from lakes which could be very useful as water temperatures rise and duckw**d seem to be more of an issue.

Making the most of some dry weather today putting down fresh woodchip around the fishery after weeks of wet weather!

Andy Quinn with one of the 'Half Lins' at 28lb 6oz this morning, he also had a 26lb Mirror yesterday. Well done mate!