Our first open day at Cannon Hill wasn’t without a little drama. First the dissolved oxygen levels in the lake crashed overnight and when we arrived to set up we found nearly all the fish gasping on the surface. The only flash of argentum in this nebula was that we saw some pretty large shoals of good sized roach.
A brief call to the EA and its duty scientist appeared, dunked a probe in the lake, and confirmed that the dissolved oxygen level was low but not low enough for emergency intervention. We could continue with the taster sessions.
We laid out our stand and soon had the first youngsters signed up for their coaching sessions with Steve, Keith and the rest of Catch21’s fishing development team.
And then it rained…
and rained some more…
And as long as lightning wasn’t flashing around the lake we continued to fish.
The rain definitely improved the conditions for the fish and as the DO level rose they sunk to the bottom of the lake to sulk and only started feeding in the last half hour. We weren’t completely blanked by the lake but it was close and three small roach were our only reward for 50-60 hours of fishing. So different to our previous sessions at the lake when it has been nearly a fish per cast.
Anyway everyone seemed to leave happy and fair few were planning to join the club. So all in all, a successful day.
And a big thank you to Jo, Jim & John for their help in making the open day happen.