Oakview Lake Restocked with Carp

Oakview Lake receives a boost to its carp stock. That's great news for all who are looking forward to a carp fishing holiday at this venue.

More carp have been added to the fish stocks at Oakview Lake. This is great news for all those who are looking forward to their next carp fishing holiday at the venue.

Why the Lake was Restocked

The delivery consisted of 15 carp in the mid-twenty pound weight range. The reason for restocking is to replace smaller fish, which were netted out earlier in the year. The introduction of these carp will increase the competition for food without lowering the average size of the fish in the lake.

Where the Carp Came From

As usual at Oakview Lake, all of the new carp came from the Bigot stock lakes, which are full of pristine carp. Michel Bigot and his son Laurent had to break the ice in order to release the carp, but this wasn’t a concern because the carp experience less stress in cool water.

Lake Netting Makes Room for Restocking

Back in the heat of July anglers started to catch some small carp on normal carp fishing baits. As luck would have it Oakview Lake had one week free of holiday anglers immediately afterwards, so the fish farmers were called in to net the lake.

250kg of small fish were removed during the netting. Incredibly, some of these fish had grown to nearly 2lb in weight. However most of the fish netted were much smaller, measuring about three inches.

A mid-summer lake netting can be stressful for the carp and should really only be considered when there are no better options available. For this reason the team took extreme care throughout the process, which took most of the day.

When the netting was completed, Michel Bigot said that the day had been a success. This meant that up to 95% of the small carp had been removed from the lake. All of the big carp were given a quick health check and returned to the lake.

Thanks to a swift response to an urgent call for help, the netting team was able to solve the problem before it became serious. This allowed carp fishing to continue uninterrupted at for the remainder of the season. The result of both the netting and the restocking means that Oakview Lake should be in good shape for next season’s carp fishing holidays.