George Cragg Development

As some of you may be aware, George Cragg although very popular, has for a long time had a severe problem with excessive reeds and silting up.

We announced last year that we intended to renovate the pond and increase the depth considerably. Also part of the plan, was to provide new disabled swims making it easier for our disabled anglers to fish. This has given us a unique opportunity to develop a water from scratch .

After initial delays due in part to the number of licenses involved in the project, work started in October. The fish stocks were netted out and placed in a holding tank. These were then it was decided, moved to Flintstones where they are doing well and already being caught. As well as carp and crucians, there were also three big eels which all should do very nicely in the deeper waters of Flintstones.

Not everything went to plan, one of the trees collapsed and had to be removed. This did allow us to increase the size of the pond by about 1/3 and there was some bank collapsing meaning that the pond in parts had to be dug to about 30feet until stable strata was found. With backfill, this then left a maximum depth of around 12-13 feet.

The rough landscaping and swim construction has already begun and with the recent rain-there is some water in the pond. It is expected that the pond will be not open for some time yet. Swim construction, planting and landscaping still have to be completed and the whole has to have time to settle before new fish stocks can start to be introduced. After consultation and looking at the comments that came from the recent web questionnaire it has been decided that the pond, when ready shall be stocked with quality tench, crucians and perch. 

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