After that very hot spell last week our water temperatures have risen sharply and are still very high. The water temperature was 23.5 °C today (Thursday, 21-Jul-2022) at 0900, which is clearly going to be very stressful to our trout, which can be seen at the surface and in large groups.
Despite this high temperature, we have had surprisingly few fish losses; we did remove around 30 dead fish at the start of the warm spell in June, but have not since had to remove many. All sorts could be happening here, but, hopefully this means that fish are finding a way to tolerate these poor conditions.
The water chemistry and dissolved oxygen seem OK for this time of year; nitrate, nitrite and phosphate are all undetectable due to the strong plant growth and ammonia is at trace levels (0.03 mg/L, pH8.3); dissolved oxygen is at 87.0 % saturation and 7.41 mg/L, although this may fluctuation throughout the day.
All things considered, this is good news so far! Maintenance is continuing, with Roger and the team keeping the grounds looking fantastic and clearing the crayfish traps. Tench and some carp are very visible around the lake in the shallows.
Please remember that the suspension of C+R is continuing until the end of August, so please take any trout home if you do come to fish, or maybe try fishing for some of those tench on a cooler day? Coarse fish must be treated carefully and returned.
