Big pike by Geoffrey Bucknall

[Ouse Wanderer]

Your'e right of course Hovis, dumb of me. I was thinking of the kind of small waters generally stocked with, usually, rainbows and browns but I have heard of the likes of Chew and Llandegfedd honest!

[Liphook]

There's also the fact that many a fishery manager appreciates the role of a few select predators, particularly larger female pike when introduced in the absence of males. 'Morts' are a common factor in stocked trout fisheries of all sizes.

Ps in saying that I am not condoning the sometimes vile trophy hunt that can be created around the sometimes repeated captures of 'known' fish in smaller put and take trout lakes. That's a horrible circus for any and every species in my book. I'm merely advocating the role of pike in 'balanced' fisheries management.

[JPC]

Do I understand you rightly JPC? The idea of the manager of a trout fishery stocking pike into the water is intriguing. Does anybody know more about this?

Hi Ouse Wanderer, before Geoff took on the Sundridge Lakes lease the water was known as Spicers Lake and regarded as a carp water of some note. The likes of Tom Mintram, Roger Smith, Ron Barnet and Jack Hilton all fished there, it was the water Tom and Jack met at. When Geoff took over the lease he wanted to turn it into a fly only trout water and stocked it heavily with trout, unfortunately for Geoff it wasn’t the financial success he had hoped for.
If you read Geoff’s book Big Pike much of it is based around a gravel pit a mile or so away and on the same river course as Sundridge Lakes, Geoff being a keen pike angler as well as a very skilled fly angler knew if he turned his lake into a general coarse fishery then pike would be an important factor in the lakes balance.
Geoff through his fly/trout contacts was offered some pike when Bewl Water was netted, Halls AS (later Leisure Sport later still Cemex) took most of the large Bewl pike and put them in their Larkfield Waters, Geoff took all the smaller pike and stocked them in Sundridge Lake. This turned out to be a good move as most of the big pike dropped in weight and quickly disappeared whereas Geoff’s much smaller pike grew on to become twenty pounders (well known Kent anglers Steve Edwards and Ken Rowley both caught twenties from Sundridge Lake). Sundridge also contained huge shoals of roach and bream along with the original Fred Spicer carp, plus quite a few chub. When Geoff’s lease came up for renewal he had concluded it wasn’t really financially viable and decided not to renew.
I didn’t know Geoff that well but knew his son Simon very well as he worked for me for quite a few years.
Sundridge Lakes are now a very expensive carp syndicate, the main lake produced a 39lb pike a couple of years ago and the back lake contains a few very large catfish.

[Ouse Wanderer]

Thanks for that JPC, most interesting. I'm no fly-fisherman but I do remember, many years ago, reading and enjoying G.B.'s "Fly Fishing Tactics On Rivers". He seemed to have the kind of exploring attitude to waters that put me in mind of David carl Forbes.