Moorlands Fishery

STOCK LEVELS
By the time I get to writing these pages the stock has already put on weight and my scribblings are out of date. However, I will try to be as accurate as I can.

In November 2024 we carried out a total drain down and by “total” I mean no water at all so we didn’t miss any fish. We removed the small carp and all of the rudd and I can accurately promise that there are no nuisance fish at all. This was essential to reduce the biomass and give the bigger carp the room to grow even bigger. A rough calculation, based on weighing 650kg of rudd and 200+ small carp, suggests that we removed fifteen thousand small fish. That released enormous amounts of live food for the carp and, by July 2025, some of them had already put on 8lbs.
During the drain down we quickly weighed each of the big fish and our record showed at least 17 over fifty pounds including two over 60lbs and at least a similar number of high forties which are likely to have already broken the fifty pound barrier.
The most pleasing thing was to see the wonderful condition of them all plus the fact that the top end included mirrors, commons and a fully scaled mirror.
Our one concern was that we may have reduced the overall biomass too far because the catch rates in 2025 were lower than we expected. The only way to address this shortfall was to increase the numbers of carp so on 27th November 2025 we added 50 extra fish with an average weight of mid twenties.
The biomass is now under control and will allow continued fantastic growth rates but with a better balance which will produce more captures. It is very exciting to look forward to the spring of 2026 to see how well these fish have done. We expect to be seeing the forties moving into the magical fifties range, and, even more exciting, some more of the fifties adding to the list of sixties. Of course we will also see thirties becoming forties so the potential for the next few years is immense

Here are our previous lake records from just a few years ago, purely as an indication of the potential for the future.

Cut Tail - 76lbs 15oz (mirror)

Half Lin - 74lbs 15oz (mirror)

Locky - 64lbs 8oz (common)

Lake records from the past few years as an indication of the potential for the future.

Cut Tail - 76lbs 15oz (mirror)
Half Lin - 74lbs 15oz (mirror)
Locky - 64lbs 8oz (common)