I visited my wife at her photo studio yesterday at the Coventry canal basin warehouse and took a few minutes to look for signs of fish. Things were looking promising with shoals of roach easily passing the 1.5 pounds mark basking in the sunshine and grazing on the odd bit of bread crust from the moored canal boats.
After a few minutes I spotted a dead roach on the surface around the 9 oz mark - there were no signs of damage or disease - then across the cut I spotted another and another. I walked the length of the basin an counted about a dozen fish - mostly roach - dead on the surface! Then amongst the surface debris a unidentifiably fish of around 4 - 5 pounds in the same state as the others. This one had signs on damage as it was missing most of it's head but one thing struck me about all the fish - they were bent over double - is this a sign that the fish were in distress when they died? Maybe poisoning? There were no signs on diesel in the canal - I was wondering if any one had heard of a contamination problem recently?
Dead fish in the canal are common enough but so many in the one sighting is meaningful for certain. Should it be reported to British waterways? Only if it continues I think.
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough, dead fish sightings of large roach was what alerted me to the presence of the populations of big roach in the Cov canal in the first place.
Shoals of roach 'easily passing the 1.5 pounds mark' is interesting! I keep telling people this but I'm sure they don't believe me!
I still don't believe you Jeff.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the basin itself is worth a go for Roach Kev'.