Corm0rant Prevention

The club's still waters have seen an increasing number of cormorants invading,and steps had to be taken to protect the financial investment made in trout stocking each year.

The use of gas gun bird scarers and scarecrows has been partially successful, as has the move to stocking much bigger fish. Stocking big fish is expensive and even these are sometimes scarred from attacks by cormorants.

What was needed was some form of protection. With this in mind we turned to the idea of making fish refuges.

The club has contructed a number of these fish refuges. Information from Defra indicated that cormorants quite like the floating type of refuge as the birds can stand on them to dry off while waiting to dive for more food. With this in mind the club Chairman at the time designed a mesh cage that could be submerged. The refuges were then covered with a dark plastic cover to keep down weed growth in the refuge. Each refuge measures 3m x 3m x 1m. They were then sited in the pools and made visible by means of buoys.