The Smaller of the two ponds at Creekmoor – Carp deaths.

In the first week of February 2025, a dead carp and two others in a lethargic state were found in the smaller of the two Creekmoor ponds. The Club tested the water on the 6 and 8 February and found that the essential characteristics of the water body were satisfactory. The water was closely monitored over the following ten days and some more carp were found either dying or dead. Typically, unwell carp were found, either in shallow water, or just beneath the surface under low branches and were slow and unresponsive.  The Club contacted the BCP Council to explain the situation and contacted the Environment Agency. Agency staff took water samples for a further analysis and no abnormality was identified.

As the water body was not polluted and no other fish species were being impacted in the same way, the interim conclusion reached was that whatever was happening to the carp in the lake was carp specific. The Environment Agency commissioned a biopsy on a carp euthanised specifically for the purpose, having failed to find anything obvious in dead carp seen and photographed previously in detail at the water. The results of the post-mortem found that the carp was In relatively good external condition but there were adhesions in the body cavity which are often seen when a fish has an infection.  The biopsy, however, was inconclusive.

From the end of the first week of April no further dead carp have been found. Over the previous two months approximately twenty-five fish have died. However, with the sunny, warmer weather a significant number of carp, in the region of 30+ have been seen basking and behaving normally. Recently spawning has taken place.

The weather in January was not kind to fisheries, with cold dry days and clear skies. It is surmised that this did not help the carps’ immune systems, which were vulnerable, probably, to a virus and to which weaker specimens succumbed.  The Club will continue to monitor the water, but having closed it temporarily, with no further dead fish it is again open to fishing.