Fishery Management Report

Hurston Work Parties 2015

We have had our first two work parties of the season at Hurston and a lot has been achieved but there is still more to do. At the first work party of the year we had an excellent turnout of 15 members and got stuck into two tasks in particular. One group concentrated on moving and laying woodchip to improve the paths and also to improve some low lying areas of bank which tend to have standing water, in particular during the winter months.

Copyright Petworth & Bognor Angling Club
Copyright Petworth & Bognor Angling Club
It’s hard work loading and transporting the woodchip by barrow, but the paths are begining to take shape

The other team got the weed rakes out, in particular on the tench pond and the middle pond. We have our new weed razor which has been designed by ‘Kitch’ this is very effective but is hard work and a dozen pull through is probably about enough for anyone in a session. We will need to keep raking the weed ourselves this year as we are not able to have the weed boat this year because of the KHV situation.

Copyright Petworth & Bognor Angling Club
Copyright Petworth & Bognor Angling Club
One of our younger and some of the more senior members all took a turn with the weed rakes

The session concluded with a bacon sandwich or burger from Steve Simmonds trusty BBQ.

Copyright Petworth & Bognor Angling Club
Copyright Petworth & Bognor Angling Club
A full carpark is always a great sight at a work party and a bacon sandwich always goes down well when the work is finished.

At our second work party we introduced two new members to the water in the shape on a couple of mannequins that we have purchased as part of our cormorant deterrent plans. At the moment these have been sited at the head of the tench and match ponds but we intend to move them around to different locations which will hopefully keep the cormorants on their toes and off our water! At the moment we have given them fluorescent jackets but if any one has any old fishing trousers or even better fluorescent legging they would like to donate (it would be good to give them some leg coverage as well). They are quite large so a fairly long leg and decent sized waist is required – it is easier to adapt something that is too big rather than too small. If you can help on that front please e-mail us HEREand we can sort out how we can transfer the clothing.

Copyright Petworth & Bognor Angling Club
Copyright Petworth & Bognor Angling Club
Please look after our two new members, both now have jackets but would appreciate some leggings

We concentrated on the paths for this session and were lucky to get some help from our neighbour across the road with his 4 wheel drive Kubota which was really useful for transporting material down to the match pond rather than having to barrow it down.

Copyright Petworth & Bognor Angling Club
Copyright Petworth & Bognor Angling Club
It’s so much easier to produce this with a bit of mechanical help
Copyright Petworth & Bognor Angling Club
Copyright Petworth & Bognor Angling Club
Although there is still a bit of barrowing and of course spreading to do

Unfortunately I was not able to fit the BBQ in the car with our two new members but I hope that normal service will be resumed for 26th April when we will have the last of this current series of work parties.
I also took the opportunity to take pictures of some of the bird and bat boxes that have been sited at Hurston, which was very opportune as a member had recently asked whether we could put some up on his survey form. I don’t think that we can quite claim to do as you request (in this instance), it is more a case of great minds think alike as these would have been installed at about the time our member was filling in his form!

Copyright Petworth & Bognor Angling Club
Copyright Petworth & Bognor Angling Club
A couple of the boxes that have recently been installed at Hurston