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I went and helped out wih the release of the bass finglerings. I had a bit of a fish before hand and boated 6 bass with the biggest going 44cm fork. Met up with the stocking group and was made welcomed by Fitzy, Dale and the others. The disappointing part of the day was that there were only 3 boats to release all of these bass. A quick calculation works out to be about 80 - 100 trips back and forth per boat. I honestly expected a lot more people to attend and help out. It took 3 hours to release these fingerlings. The thing that this experience bought home to me is that about 99% of anglers who fish these stocked dams take it for granted that the fish are there to catch. Granted we pay our SIP fees and the money goes towards buying the fingerlings but without this small (and I emphasise the word small) group of dedicated people, we would not have these magnificent fisheries to fish. I fish Somerset regularly both socially and in tournaments and I wanted to help out in a small way to express my appreciation.
For all of you who read this post and fish any stocked impoundments, I urge you to consider helping out with any fish release. The release of this amount of fingerlings is not about dumping a lot of fish from the shore. In order to assist with the survival each bucket load (about 250 fingerlings) is spread out around the dam.
Please keep this in mind next time you hear about a fingerling release and rock up in your boat and help out.
The day really highlighted the great work the stocking groups do for us (the anglers) with no recompense for their effort other than self satisfaction. A big thank you to Fitzy, Dale and the rest of the stocking group.
