West and Fens: Springside blames rain on fish kill

Springside Lake is fighting back after a fish kill blamed on the recent heavy rain.

Fishery bosses Mick Cornell and Rob Pepper closed the popular day ticket water off the Snettisham Bypass after numbers of bream died.

They believe the losses were down to an algal bloom which was killed off suddenly as heavy rain cooled the lake, sapping oxygen from the water.

Carp, tench and other species have survived unscathed.

Springside has bounced back once or twice before. It's not the biggest water in the area, but there aren't many that can touch it catch-wise this time of year.

Cornell and Pepper have been keeping a close eye on a lake which has become a labour of love alongside the day-to-day demands of running a busy tackle shop at Hunstanton.

Cornell said he had been surprised at the numbers of larger carp seen over the last few days as the heatwave arrived.

Even more surprised was the chap who reeled in the Frankenfish – a bream/roach/carp hybrid lurking in a day ticket lake in Cambridge.

Will they 'do a zander', and spread north through the flatlands? Will they be hauling them out at Ten Mile Bank in a few seasons' time?

Doubtful to say the least. But it did bring back a fond memory of this seriously weird fish several of us caught, which looked not unlike 'Frankie', last summer.

This little thing was a game little chap, with great flowing fins.

Maybe he was descended from a goldfish someone won at the fair years ago, who'd been released into the wild and gone native.

The only thing which spoiled his or her long-flowing fins was a sizeable wart on its head.

But beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

And I tweeted the picture above, and no-one knew what he or she was. The picture's a typical landing net rushed job.