Following the seemingly poor catch rates from bear Lake during the season of 2008, the Association asked the Environment Agency to undertake Stock Assessment survey within the Lake.

On the 4th Dec 2008 the Agency undertook two netting operations using drag and seine netting techniques within the small lake. This proved successful with a grand total of 542 lb of fish captured.

The Agency believes that when netting conditions are ideal the operation can be extremely effective with an efficiency of approximately 80%. Species such as carp however are exceptionally good at finding gaps in a seine net and exploiting them. Allowing for this inefficiency it becomes apparent that the weight of fish within the lake becomes considerably higher.

The Environment Agency recommendation for a self sustaining mixed fishery is 4-500 lb of fish per acre, for a commercial fishery this can increase to as much as 1000 lb per acre.  With Bear Lake being around half an acre and covering a surface area of 2440 Sq m clearly this is a well stocked fishery.

The scale data received, appears to suggest that the roach are suffering from competition and as a result are displaying slow growth rates. It’s possible that the roach are struggling to compete for angler’s baits within the lake with the resident carp. The rudd are fairing somewhat better with average growth rates. This may be due to there characteristic nature of the species and its preference for feeding up, in the surface layers where they can intercept anglers baits before other species.

Based on the current stock densities the Environment Agency's guidelines would suggest that no further stockings of the water should take place. However it is possible for Bear Lake, like many other commercial waters of this type to sustain a higher stocking density. For this to be achievable and sustainable, appropriate fishery management measures should be followed to ensure the correct balance within a fishery as high populations of fish and poor water quality can lead to fish becoming stressed, resulting in health issues, stunted growth and fish mortalities.

The Agency has provided the Association a list of recommendations to help improve the quality of the fishery and seek an overall improvement in catch rates for the 2009 season and onwards. These are currently under discussion by the committee, but clearly this survey shows that the fish are outwitting the anglers at the moment.

Finally we would like to thank the Agency for thier support and efforts on what was a cold winters day to be playing about in the water.