Just a heads up to anyone thinking of fishing Burghfield Gold Lake.
They do mention crayfish briefly on the website, and that they are dealing with them, but I thought people should know the extent.
We fished the lake about 4/5 years ago (2019?) and there were no signs nor mention of crayfish.
This time round, November 2024, the number of crayfish was staggering. I have fished other lakes with crays, both in UK and Europe, but I've never seen anything like this.
The margins were actually pink, and when you looked closely, it was tiny baby cray larvae. Tens, if not, hundreds of thousands of them.
As you walked around the path, you would crunch under foot. It was dead crayfish! BIG dead crayfish. Up to about 20cm long.
If you looked into the margins you would be guaranteed to see at least 3-4 big crayfish crawling or just mooching.
At night, they were crawling out of the lake. I read online that this could be due to overpopulation and/or a lack of oxygen in the water.
My mate found two in his bivvy and was constantly having to kick them away! Like something from a horror movie!
There are a few crayfish traps in the lake - maybe 5 - but this won't even touch the sides.
Admittedly (and amazingly), the crays did not cause any problems with the fishing, but we did wonder if there was something else going on as the fish all seemed very unhappy at the time too. An oxygen crash perhaps.
Anyway, I'm not trying to slag the place off, but just be informative. It was definitely a surprise to us.
They do mention crayfish briefly on the website, and that they are dealing with them, but I thought people should know the extent.
We fished the lake about 4/5 years ago (2019?) and there were no signs nor mention of crayfish.
This time round, November 2024, the number of crayfish was staggering. I have fished other lakes with crays, both in UK and Europe, but I've never seen anything like this.
The margins were actually pink, and when you looked closely, it was tiny baby cray larvae. Tens, if not, hundreds of thousands of them.
As you walked around the path, you would crunch under foot. It was dead crayfish! BIG dead crayfish. Up to about 20cm long.
If you looked into the margins you would be guaranteed to see at least 3-4 big crayfish crawling or just mooching.
At night, they were crawling out of the lake. I read online that this could be due to overpopulation and/or a lack of oxygen in the water.
My mate found two in his bivvy and was constantly having to kick them away! Like something from a horror movie!
There are a few crayfish traps in the lake - maybe 5 - but this won't even touch the sides.
Admittedly (and amazingly), the crays did not cause any problems with the fishing, but we did wonder if there was something else going on as the fish all seemed very unhappy at the time too. An oxygen crash perhaps.
Anyway, I'm not trying to slag the place off, but just be informative. It was definitely a surprise to us.
You can definitely improve ecological conditions in any water body if you trap enough. I've proved it, scientifically. I bought 1000 American minnow traps and 1000 large mesh traps. After some changes to the traps they were deployed in a large river. The AMTs were designed to trap babies while the larger traps caught adults and juveniles. The most I caught in one day was 4200 adults over about a mile of river. We really made inroads in the population and the benthic macro invert pop surveys proved the conditions were much improved against a control stretch. It was hard, messy work but it proved to the EA that their advice about trapping making things worse was very wrong. If we hadn't come out of Europe they would have had massive fines to pay in 2027 under WFD because of the crayfish.
In reply to Post #1
That sounds like my worse nightmare..
Never heard of them crawling out the water. Could be as you say a dissolved Oxygen problem especially if the fish were acting strange aswell. What did the Fishery have to say? 
That sounds like my worse nightmare..
Never heard of them crawling out the water. Could be as you say a dissolved Oxygen problem especially if the fish were acting strange aswell. What did the Fishery have to say?
In reply to Post #3
I left a voicemail so no idea if they'll action or not,
I left a voicemail so no idea if they'll action or not,
In reply to Post #1
They've definitely got worse, we did a trip this spring which was around 2 years after the last trip. Had to switch to plastic baits in a couple of swims as losing them each night. Not quite up to Cotswold levels but definitely something to think about when fishing there now.
Also felt like the lake in general was a bit unloved, lots of litter around and paths/swims not well kept. Shame as great venue for a social.
They've definitely got worse, we did a trip this spring which was around 2 years after the last trip. Had to switch to plastic baits in a couple of swims as losing them each night. Not quite up to Cotswold levels but definitely something to think about when fishing there now.
Also felt like the lake in general was a bit unloved, lots of litter around and paths/swims not well kept. Shame as great venue for a social.
Yeah, we felt the same way unfortunately.
In reply to Post #6
The whole complex is plagued with them and getting worse every year.
The whole complex is plagued with them and getting worse every year.