Prestigious venue shut to anglers following series of unexplained big fish mortalities.


One of the country’s best-known carp lakes has been closed to anglers following a string of unexplained fish deaths.

Horseshoe Lake in the Cotswolds, the famous home of the Carp Society, has lost an estimated 60 big carp since the spring, with at least one fish dying at the water per day throughout August.

So far the specimens lost have range in size between mid-doubles and low twenties, with none of the venue’s large head of 30lb plus fish having been affected.

However, despite Environment Agency officers having examined both dead and live carp at the 62acre gravel pit, the cause of the deaths remains a complete mystery, raising concerns over how long the losses will continue.

“The first notable sign of an increase in the level of fish deaths was over the weekend of August 13 so so we closed the lake on Monday 15 as a precautionary measure,” said a spokes person for the Carp Society. “Including the very recent deaths, we estimate we’ve lost between 50 and 60 fish since the Spring.  In the last eleven years we’ve never lost more than about 20 fish in any one-year.

“Following our request for an inspection by the Environment Agency, their officers observed that there are absolutely no fish showing any signs of distress, and on inspection of the dead fish there were no signs of obvious disease either. This is puzzling to both the EA and the fishery scientist who independently inspected the fishery. Luckily the EA are still unconcerned about disease, but they have repeated that it could be that we will never know the reason why we've had this blip.”

So far the EA’s best guess as to the cause of the deaths is a combination of a bad spawning season, low water levels and summer temperatures – although oxygen levels at the water are reading as normal.  

On request from the Carp Society the next step to determining the cause of the problem will be a series of post mortems carried out by the EA due to start on September 1. Results of these will then be known within 10 to 14 days.