The small lake here at Roseau is beautifully tree lined with very deep margins making the fishing exceptional. Although customers were satisfied with the fishing conditions at Roseau last year we felt there was a big problem with the banks and how accessible they were to anglers. The banks are very steep making them hard to fish from, land and return fish safely to the water, especially in wet conditions. Both myself and Bas felt strongly that something needed to be done about this.
Peg 2 before the work started
With very limited tools, including a small hand saw, spade and a lump hammer we set about planning ideas for implementing some kind of reconisable pegs around the lake. After successfully building pegs around sister venue Molyneux I knew the ‘natural look’ by using weathered logs is the way to go. We salvaged some decent sized logs from the Dyke at the back of the Small lake to use for the fronts of the pegs as well as a couple of half sized sleepers. These were coupled with 2-3inch diameter stakes cut from trees we lopped down on site. With all the materials sourced costing nothing more than a bit of effort we loaded the trailer and took them round to the small lake.
Our first swim on the ‘to do’ list was the old swim 2, basically a steep grassy bank hardly recognisable as a peg. We started off levelling an area to construct a platform to fish from, we had to set the platform a couple of feet back from the waters edge as the ground just wasn’t strong enough to hold the sturdy peg we required. Once the clay was level we set two logs in the front of the peg which were then staked in place, we did the same with the sides then gravelled the surface. The swim already looked the part but we weren’t quite happy that it would be perfect when the water level drops in the height of summer.
Peg 2 after the work
We decided we needed to put some steps in alongside the peg right down to water level making it no effort to net and return fish even when the water level drops. We sized up the steps and cut some logs to suit, after some levelling and replanting reeds we soon had the frame of the steps we required. To prevent the hardcore sinking in the clay we used a membrane in the bottom step, this was filled and compact with hardcore, it was finished off with a thin layer of gravel. We were happy with the result, a comfortable peg easy to fish off with no mud and perfectly fish friendly.
Peg 3 after the work
Next on the list was the peg immediately to the left, peg 3. Similar to peg 2 is was originally a steep dangerous muddy bank with no easy access to the water. This peg was going to require slightly more work as it was steeper and we wanted to dig the peg into the bank at water level with a small step down to it. We reversed the trailer up to peg 3 and began digging, with the spoil we removed we was able to fill some of the bigger pot holes in the track around the lake. Once the clay was sculpted into shape we simply dropped the thicker logs at the front of the peg right on the waters edge then using 6ft stakes we secured it in place. The same was done at the back of the peg ,then as with peg 2, a thin layer of gravel was applied to finish it off. Again a very good job completed making fishing as comfortable as it gets.
Jack & Bas (Fishery Managers)
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