Weighing Station
After waiting for a couple of weeks the pulleys finally arrived and I was able to set up the fish weighing area on the main double swim today. It works just as I had hoped and makes weighing large fish a simple process without risk.
The stainless steel threaded inserts also arrived and I was able to get them positioned around the main double and the small pontoon on the far bank. These take a M5 not a M6 as I say in the recent email to spring clients. I will have spares and everything here anyway.
I have also managed to lime all the lakes at the fish farm which has been a far more manual procedure. Three tonnes are now spread in the main bowl of Joes Lake the 9 acre monster maker lake. The top lake which now contains 250 of the best linears and fully’s you could imagine and a further 250 of my cross bread Leney/Fensmere fish. And finally today the Rocky C1 pond.
Apart from a potential issue with cormorants walking onto the top lake and smashing me. I have a few cameras on site and have moved a camera which is able to stream to my phone and I can SHOUT through. Today I got an alert and sure enough the &@$kers were there. A quick shout asking them to leave and they all farked right off 🤣🤣
The pumps working
After having to use a bucket yesterday I spent the morning getting the pumps working again. Thankfully one of them worked well and I was able to finish putting the 3 tonnes of calcium carbonate into Fensmere to help enhance silt health and buffer PH changes through the year.
It’s a wrap
The final one of the videos today after getting the final load into the lake. This video shows skipper Sally expertly navigating the small Raptor around the pond 🤣🤣🤣
How to destroy an already rooted back
Hard yakka spreading the lime without the use of the pumps I was going to use to make life easier 🤬🤬
The carnage continues
Well I just knew it was going to be one of those days after hand balling 1200kgs of lime straight off the bat and then the two petrol 3” pumps that I have wouldn’t work. Where there is a will there is a way and I decided to keep at it with the help of my long suffering wife Sally we got 1000kgs in the lake spread using a bucket and dousing the like with water from the lake one bucket at a time. My feeling is by doing it this way I can get a more even spread rather than just shovelling it directly into the water. Bloody hard graft, but it’s done the trick.
Moving 3 tonnes of Calcium Carbonate down the lake part 1
You know it’s going to be one of those days when the first 1.2 tonnes load slips off the pallet and is all on the floor🤦♂️
Casting and fish landing jetty on the right bank
Just a quick update of today’s work. I managed to start and finish the casting and fish landing jetty on the far right bank today. I have taken it to a depth that will allow fish to be landed from it without having to get waders on. It covers a great area that can also be covered from the right side of the main double, but the advantage would be better line lay from this side and much closer contact more intimate fishing.
Another day another dollar 🙃
Another day another job after I struck the shuttering on the capping beam on the big double and prepared the area for the gravel mats. This afternoon I managed to rough out the right bank’s single swim and continued the clearing of the Bankside vegetation ready for planting out. This swim along the right margins will be a more intimate swim with close range casting opportunities straight in front and up to the right and left. For those anglers fishing with a mate that snores this could be a little gem to get away from it at the double 😉
Main Double Swim Decking Finished
Another big double bubble Sunday shift on Fensmere. The main double swims deck is now complete and to be honest I am stoked with it. Over engineered to last, but aesthetically it looks good and is super functional. Just small retaining wall to put up to hold the higher dam wall area behind to do now and then whacker the base ready for the gravel mats and it’s a wrap 👌👌a huge shout out again to Peter who came to help finish the deck today, I even ropes him into a little bit of concreting along with Sally to finish the capping beam 😉
Main double nearly finished
Just a quick update today to show the progress on the main double swim at Fensmere. With the help of good mate Peter Knight we made short work of getting the main jetty completed today. Just a couple of hours work in the morning and the main works will be finished. A little over engineered, but I am super happy with the result and I know it will out last my lifetime and live on at Fensmere into the future for whoever takes over here when Sally and I call it a day.
The last two RSJ’s are in place and things are ready to be finished
The last two RSJ’s are in place and things are ready to be finished. The oak pearlings will be fitted this weekend and the decking completed on the main double swim at Fensmere.
Another MAHUSIVE day getting capping beam concreted and 8m RSJ placed for deck.
Wow that was another brutal day of graft, but big progress was made. The main double swim is really taking shape. The 8m long cantilevering RSJ was lifted into place by the machine and located on the columns poured yesterday and concreted into the capping beam which consolidates the old monk system which was looking a little worse for wear. Two sections were poured and I will place expansion joints between each section to help stop any cracking.
It’s going to be a late one mind as I still want to put a brush finish and bull nose finish on each section. Bloody rain is also forecast for midnight, so I will also have to cover it all.
Main double swim progress video
In the mud and inclement weather progress is being made 👌
Main double swim being constructed
Not the usual swim building materials. Using RSJ’s and concrete columns to construct swims at Fensmere. More updates to come after the freezing conditions subside and allow the concrete to be poured.
Stumps are gone 💪💪
To say I am chuffed to bits is an understatement after finally getting the huge snags that have always run through the middle of Fensmere cut out. In typical French fashion when the lake was created back in the 50’s the trees weee cut, but, the huge oak stumps left in the lake. When buying the property they couldn’t be seen and it was only after getting the sounder out and with prodding sticks that I realised we have a row of huge oak tree stumps literally dissecting the lake right through the middle.
Interestingly having fished the lake for the past 4 years the stumps had never actually caused a lost fish. I knew fishing across them required me dropping the lead and apart from two occasions where I need to get in the boat to lift the line free of one of the snags they didn’t really cause any issues. Little did I actually know (bear in mind Sally and I along with friends paddle board and swim in the lake all summer and have done since we got here) how savage the bloody things were and how many of them there were.
The initial plan was to use the 16t CAT to pull them out. Oak underwater just matures and doesn’t rot, so, the wood was like iron and it was suctioned into the bottom of the lake.
I had to make the decision to get down and dirty and chainsaw them all out as close to the silt as possible. These were big old bits of wood, multiple cuts vertically and then horizontally cut them into small enough pieces to load the boat and get them out of there.
The end result is that Fensmere is now a far better fishery for anglers and for me the most important part safer for my fish. With such a head of huge carp their welfare is of utmost importance. Unlike some overstocked lakes Fensmere has between 69-70 fish (the netting the other week didn’t get them all) so a loss of a fish creates a bigger impact than a lake stocked with 120 - 150 fish which would be more normal for a lake this size.
Buzzing tonight as the lake looks mega without the monolithic stumps s
