Many anglers over the years have questioned the reason for the various buoys in Barkers Lake on the Brian Crowhurst Ringstead Island Fishery.

The various clusters of buoys along the length of the centre of the lake were initially added in the early 2000’s as a visual marker to what lie beneath them.
On advice from the Environment Agency, the club had sunk clusters of cages within a 4 leaf clover shape. These were installed to act as a refuge for smaller fish from mainly cormorant but also other predation.

Over the near on 20 years that these cages were in place, they had suffered from being clogged up by silt & weed thus making them less-effective. Some had also collapsed in on themselves creating nothing but a big snag for those fishing a little too close to the buoys than they should be!

As some anglers were also losing fish after they had kited around the ropes of the attached buoys, the risk of tethering a fish and damaging it or at worse the fish dying, it was decided that the buoys and the attached cages were to be removed.
Of course, this is no mean feat and if dragged from the bank using machinery etc, there was a great risk of leaving potential pieces behind thus creating more unmarked snags.

Thankfully, thanks to the work of club bailiff Ricky Stokes and all other volunteer bailiffs, we were able to use the services of divers, Simon Cooper & Leigh Bishop to make sure that everything was removed as it should be.

At present a number of these buoy clusters have been removed and we are hoping to be able to remove any remaining before the end of the year. As per usual, we are reliant on the generous time of volunteers.

See below for an underwater video showing one of the more intact sets of cages in position prior to removal. The clover leave shape is still quite defined although the covering had collapsed into the cages and they seemed fairly baron.
Not surprisingly, but sadly there were also a huge amount of rigs attached to the ropes tethering the buoys. You can see these within the images below. These have all been disposed of now as well to prevent any further risk to fish and any other wildlife.

We also have a number of pictures of what was pulled out once removed as per below.

Special thanks again to Ricki, our dedicated bailiffs, Simon & Leigh for their time and effort with helping us get these removed.

We do ask though that now there is less of a visual marker within the water that all anglers respect the space of water in front of them and are mindful of casting further than halfway across the lake where anglers from the opposite bank could be fishing. This is of course common courtesy but our bailiffs will endorse any members causing a nuisance of themselves to other anglers.