All Activity

Have you got any snails in your pond @yonny? I looked at them once and keep getting ads pop up

I would defo have a rod on any source of aeration tbf.

Yeah im the same i really dont like dumping leads on lake bed but have to stick to rules and this only applies to specimen lake and i no longer fish it much, preferring to fish the smaller pool with lighter gear for carp up to max 20lb but i will be doing a couple of sessions on spec lake

Thanks Golden Paws. No fountains for me then ! . 😁

One from the weekend after the heatwave.

A lake I fish has several lake bed aerators and it does produce a current almost similar to a river and the fish do feed just downstream of them. They also have 2 large water fountains that run for about 4 hours in the summer mornings and I tend to avoid those areas, it must be like sticking your head in the Marshall stack at a Motorhead concert- -trust me, I've been to one!

Hello Everyone . A water I fish has aerators installed on the lake bed , and my question is should I fish near these aerators as the water close to them may be well oxgenated ?.

Oh poo . Also you impatiently waited all of June ? , to go fishing and then we have a heatwave ! . 😢

I had a 3 x 3m parasol installed in Feb for this. I have various air supply systems working. Still not enough it seems😩

Hello Yonny . I was sad to read about your favourite Koi . I seem to remember in hot countries they errect " sails " to provide shade from the sun , and spray water ( in mist form ? ) over the area they want to cool down . Would this be a practicable / too expensive possible solution ?.

I don't think the pellet would contribute in a lake environment. Ultimately the carp need food. The problem is that digestion takes a lot of oxygen. It's a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situation. Temps have just been too high and UK fish struggle to deal with it.

Possibly. Since we arrived that fish had always been a little lethargic compared to the others, certainly one of the older ones. In general the younger/smaller koi seem to be dealing with the temps much, much better.

I mentioned on another thread that over the weekend I did an unsucessful 48 hour session and saw the bailiffs going out in the boat to net dead fish. Unfortunately the lake in question (commercial) had a policy of chucking in a sack of pellets 3 times a week, mainly because another fishery down the road has some larger fish and they were trying to boost the size of their fish.They didn't do it when I was there this time, probably due to the heat but I do wonder if it contributed to them dying.

Really sad to hear that mate. Sound like you did everything you could have Could it just be old age, with a fish that size?

Well it was a difficult weekend to say the least. I got the new/additional airlines in on Thursday night before going fishing on Friday night. Both of the fish that were struggling (a 68cm yamabuki (bright yellow/gold common) and a 60cm doitsu kohaku (white/orange mirror)) seemed to improve initially. The fishing was just savage in that heat on Friday so by 9am Saturday morning I was back home to check on the koi. The smaller of the two, the kohaku, was feeding and swimming around like nothing ever happened - a full recovery it seemed, but I couldn't spot the big yamabuki. At 10am, having still not spotted the yamabuki, I started work cleaning the filters. I still had my polarised sunnies on after fishing and I was taking a closer look at the fish from the filter house when I spotted one on its side on the bottom. I knew straight away which one it was and so it proved when I fished it out with the net. One of the best in there and certainly one of the most valuable... the yamabuki.... dead. Digging the grave in 35 degrees was not fun as you can imagine but that paled into insignificance compared to the pain of losing one of my favourite and most valuable koi. I'm a member of several koi pages on social media and it seems all over the country people are losing fish despite following all the right procedures. My water parameters are fine and I have tonnes of oxygen going in. There's not much more I can do. I'm hoping this drop in temps does us all a big favour but I know that we're heading back up to 30 degrees after next weekend. I've increased the frequency of my water changes in an attempt to bring water temps down so that should help a little. So basically it turns out winter is a doddle compared to summer when it comes to keeping koi. I knew that high temps introduce risk for koi but I genuinely thought I was prepared for it. Let's just hope that that's the end of the serious problems.

Just got back from a 48 hour session that was booked months ago and it was pretty grim with sweltering temperatures and little sign of feeding fish. Both mornings the bailiffs were out in the boat scooping up dead fish. I saw one fish swimming upside down and it tried to right itself but an hour later it washed into my margins dead. The one's I saw with my binoculars seemed to be around the 5lb mark and so hopefully the big girls will be OK.

Not really mate, Remember fishing a lake on M25, near Wraysbury, back in the day, lots of old fish , and not known at the time. Sorry I didn't check catch reports from 2024 ,

Brilliant news. Hope you have a good one or two

Oz ponds is very useful. He says to base the bog filter on about 20% of pond volume He was bang on 2 weeks for clear water. Very low maintenance, although im forever tweaking my makeshift skimmer, as the liner isn't big enough to go under my tub

Yeah I've got around 1000 quids worth pumping away in mine. That's the problem with such a big pond.... needs more of everything! Once the balance is right you'll not need chemicals. I bought some blanket weed treatment but not needed to use it. In fact I've not added any chemicals at all. I added a couple of bacteria bombs just to kick-start the filters in spring, but on the whole mine is well established with great water quality. Just need more oxygen to cope with the temps. Stupid thing is I'll spend all this money and by next week the new gear wont be necessary!

Ive made a start digging out the new one

Sorry to hear that @yonny, fingers crossed I recently purchased air pump from Swell UK & happy to report its brilliant. £25 https://www.swelluk.com/swell-pond-air-pump Im forever tinkering with my pond. Plants, bin bog filter and DIY skimmer and everything is gin clear. That was until I thought I'd give them some essential cell, which has put a yellow tinge to the water🫣 The more research I do, im finding the koi pond market to be a massive con. Basically, you buy the fish and food, then you need various types of filters which need loads of maintenance and then you need to add chemicals to alter certain parameters. £££'s scam! My system is replicating nature, with plants and stones acting as the media & providing a natural food source for everthing in the pond.. After all, the fish in nature dont need all the expensive equipment and chemicals!!!

Very worrying. I'm supposed to be out fishing tomorrow night so hopefully they're looking better by then. Another decision I have is whether to take the bivvy or not given that it looks like rain on Saturday morning.