Fishing

Survey 2012

Background

The last survey of the fishery was carried out in 1993. At that time there were 2 separate surveys

for day ticket anglers & specimen permit holders. 53 completed forms were returned from day

ticket anglers & 177 returned from specimen permit holders.

The single 2012 survey ran from August 4th until October 19th. Around 250 forms were printed

out for distribution. 144 of these forms were mailed out to current Coarse or Carp permit holders.

The rest of the survey forms were made available from the fishing lodge or were given out direct-

ly to anglers on the bankside by Rangers & volunteers. Anglers were encouraged to make the

most of the opportunity to “Have their say”. In all around 200 forms were distributed out but ulti-

mately only 33 forms have been returned to us in this survey round.

These results will be incorporated into a 5 year fishery management plan.

Results

The responses to the questions were collated & worked out as a percentage. The results are in

appendix 1 (Fishing Survey Results).

This page was e-mailed out to all responders who asked for a copy to be sent to their e-mail ad-

dress on their returned form, (16 in all).

Any comments that were written in the surveys comment boxes will be dealt with below.

Question 1: Where do you live?

Most anglers that fish at Kingsbury live in the B77, (22%) & B78, (15%) areas of Tamworth fol-

lowed by the CV9, (12%) & B76, (9%) areas of Warwickshire.

Question 2: How often do you fish at Kingsbury?

64% of the anglers say they fish at the park weekly, 21% fish monthly & 6% fish here daily. All of

the anglers had visited the park to fish before.

Question 3: How did you find out about the fishery?

Anglers found out about the fishery by word of mouth recommendation, (82%) far more than any

other way. The next most popular way was though the visitor centre or the fishery website, (both

6%). Several anglers commented that they fished here before the creation of the country park.

Question 4: Where does Kingsbury rate among your choice of fishery?

In part “a” we asked where Kingsbury ranked in their choice of fishery. 49% of anglers said that

Kingsbury ranked 1st among their choice of fishery & 18% said it was their second choice. How-

ever a further 18% said that Kingsbury was not in their “top 5” choices of fishery. Results are

shown in Chart 1.

Chart 1

1st49%

2nd18%

3rd9%

4th3%

5th0%

Not in top 518%

Not answered

3%

KWP as choice of fishery

In part “b” of the question we asked where else they most often fished. They listed local rivers,

(Trent, Sence, Tame, Avon, Blythe & Severn). Local canal sections, (Fazeley, Birmingham, Gren-

don, Moira & Minworth) & other local fisheries, (Sutton Park, Coombe Abbey, Cuttle Mill, Bonehill

Mill, Borrowpit, Catton, Packington, Fisherwick, Earlswood Lakes, Buzzards Valley, Cob House

Farm & Snitterfield).

Question 5: Do you have a Kingsbury fishing permit?

58% of the anglers are Coarse permit holders, 27% are day ticket anglers. Only 15% of the an-

glers who answered the survey were Carp permit holders. This small percentage of responses

from this group of anglers may skew the results of this survey towards the opinions of the Coarse

anglers.

Question 6: What is your opinion of our coarse fishery?

This question asked anglers to rate aspects of the coarse fishery from excellent to poor. The re-

sults are shown in Chart 2:

Chart 2

We score well for car parking & peg access, tidiness, the park staff & setting. Value for money is

perceived as good to fair. The anglers are less satisfied with the condition of fishing pegs & the

quality of the fish stocks. Comments mainly centred on weed growth, (especially in Swann & Ca-

nal pool) pegs being overgrown & poorly maintained & unfishable with the inability to cast due to

encroaching overhead trees, concern over stocking levels & concerns over Cormorant damage &

a perceived lack of their control.

There was a question asking what they thought the most important thing for us to improve on the

coarse fishery was? Most wanted more weed control & said we were letting Swann Pool go to ru-

in. Many said peg clearance & improvement. Others commented about the Powerboat members

coming outside the marker buoys, us needing more fish stocks, more Pike waters, less Cormo-

rants & one angler thought everything was just fine as is!

02468

101214161820

Opinion of Coarse fishery

Excellent

Good

Fair

Poor

No opinion

Not answered

Question 7: Are you a member of an Angling Club?

36% of the anglers are in an Angling Club, of which only 9% had considered booking a contest

with us. 24% had never considered a contest with us. Reasons why they had not booked with us

ranged from that they thought Swann Pool was the only option, there is too much weed on

Swann, their club has it’s own contest waters & it is too far to travel here. 58% of the anglers are

not in clubs.

Question 8: What is your opinion of the Carp fishery?

This question asked the anglers to rate the Carp fishery. As the bulk of returned forms were main-

ly from Coarse anglers around 50% of the forms were returned with this question un-answered.

The results gained are in Chart 3:

Chart 3:

With a small dataset it is harder to glean meaningful information as the data can be easily

skewed. However this chart suggests that the anglers are concerned about the fish stocks, peg

condition & car parking.

The question asking what they would most like to see us improve about the Carp fishery was

mostly answered about improving stock levels both in Canal & Pine Pools, peg improvement, put-

ting more Carp into Swann Pool, (there shouldn’t be any in there!) & getting rid of the close sea-

son on Canal Pool.

Question 9: Have you fished on one of our night fishing events?

Another question more aimed at our Carp anglers, only 9% of which had booked on to one of the

events. 70% had not. 6% said they would book on again.

We asked the anglers to give a reason why if they had never booked on an event. They said that

nights should be included with the permit, (although they do get a discounted rate), they were too

old or disabled to fish at night, they were scared of Rats coming out or they just weren’t keen on

night fishing & night was for sleeping!

Question 10: Do the opening hours of the fishery meet your needs:?

We asked if our opening hours suited their angling needs & further asked at what time of day they

wished to fish. Early, late or both? 52% of anglers said the hours suited them, 39% not. The pre-

ferred fishing times were plotted in Chart 4.

02468

1012141618

Opinion of Carp fishery

Excellent

Good

Fair

Poor

No opinion

Not answered

Chart 4:

Question 11: Would you be interested in fishing a more densely stocked semi “Commercial” type

pool?

49% said they wouldn’t want this type of pool whereas 42% said they would like a more densely

stocked pool to fish. The comments about this question were emotive. Many said that it would be

detrimental to the fishery, the naturalness of Kingsbury is what makes it special & it shouldn’t

change from that, many said that we need to increase silverfish stocks anyway, others said we

would just be feeding the Cormorants. Those in favour said it would help beginners keep an inter-

est in the sport & that 2000lb an acre stocking density would see us sell far more day tickets &

contests.

Question 12: Why have you chosen to fish at Kingsbury?

We asked why they had chosen to fish at Kingsbury based on various criteria such as value for

money, variety of complex, cleanliness etc. & asked them to tick all that applied. The results are

shown in Chart 5:

Chart 5:

The top reasons for choosing Kingsbury were it’s closeness, (29%) the size & variety of the com-

plex, (20%) and success in catching (17%). We scored 15% in value for money & some of the

comments say at present the prices are very reasonable if you are an O.A.P. but they aren’t

sure they would be able to stand a further price increase. A few others commented on the litter

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Reasons for choosing Kingsbury

Size & variety of complex

Close by

Disabled access

Reasonable prices

Clean & tidy

Successful catches

Other

Early 36%

Late 6%

Both46%

Not answered

12%

Preferred fishing time

situation saying the park staff do their best to keep on top of it but some of the anglers don’t help.

Others said that any angler found to be littering should be banned. Some commented that they

wished to see the fishery back as it was 20 years ago & genuinely seemed to have goodwill to-

wards the fishery & it’s future improvement. Some reiterated their concern over the condition of

Swann pool & the weed situation & hoped we wouldn’t let it “go to the dogs”

Question 13: Is it clear where & how you can purchase your Day Ticket or Permit?

The anglers say that it is clear where & how to purchase their day tickets, (73%) and Permits,

(82%). They commented that there are no signs & nothing on our website telling you that tickets

are not sold on the bank . Someone else commented that the ticket should include the parking

charge too.

Question 14: Which are your favourite pools to fish at Kingsbury?

The top 3 responses to this question were Bodymoor Heath Water, (26%) Mill Pool, (22%) &

Causeway Pool, (12%). These results may be skewed because of the lack of response from Carp

anglers to the survey.

Recommendations:

The recurring themes in this survey revolve around control of aquatic weed, fish predation by

Cormorants, peg condition, trees limiting overhead casting, fish stocking levels/stock manage-

ment & litter issues.

These issues will be explored further, & how we plan to resolve them will be documented in the

Kingsbury Water Park Management Plan. In addition we will be producing a 5 year action plan for

the fishery to include stock management, marketing & promotion, maintenance & best practice, &

monitoring/review as an appendix to the plan & this will be published on the parks website.

Results compiled by Assistant Ranger, Dan Martin.

Appendix 1:

Fishing Survey We aim to continuously improve the quality, range & choice at the fishery

for the benefit of you & your sport at Kingsbury.

The results of the Fishing Survey are now complete. Please find the

1 Where do you live? Top four postcode areas: 22% B77, 15% B78, 12% CV9, 9% B76

2 How often do you fish at Kingsbury? Daily Weekly Monthly Quarterly Annually 1st visit

4 (a) Where does Kingsbury rate among your choice of fisheries?

1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Not in top 5

(b) Where else do you most often fish? 1st choice fishery

2nd choice fishery 3rd choice fishery

5 Do you have a Kingsbury fishing permit? No permit Carp permit Coarse permit

3 How did you find out about the fishery? Web page Word of mouth Angling press Leaflet Visitor centre Tackle shop

Didn’t know permits were available

6 What is your opinion of our coarse fishery? Excellent Good Fair Poor No opinion Comments

Car parking

Fishing peg condition

Quality of fish stock

Value for money

The park setting

Toilets/cleanliness

What is the most important thing for us to improve on the fishery?

Peg & disabled access

Park staff

7 (a) Are you a member of an angling club? Yes No

(b) Has your club ever considered a contest at Kingsbury? Yes No Don’t know

6% 64% 21% 3% 6% 0%

6% 82% 0% 0% 6% 3%

49% 18% 9% 3% 0% 18% 3% Not answered

27% 15% 58% 0%

12% 61% 12% 9% 3%

9% 46% 24% 9% 3%

9% 27% 24% 37% 0%

3% 27% 49% 18% 0%

15% 30% 34% 15% 3%

33% 55% 6% 0% 0%

33% 43% 9% 3% 9%

33% 40% 3% 6% 15%

3% Not answered

9% Not answered

3% Not answered

3% Not answered

3% Not answered

6% Not answered

3% Not answered

3% Not answered

36% 58%

6% 24% 9%

3% Not answered

61% Not answered

Thank you very much for your help in taking the

time to complete this survey.

14 Which are your favourite pools to fish at Kingsbury?

1st 2nd 3rd

8 What is your opinion of our Carp fishery? Excellent Good Fair Poor No opinion Comments

Car parking

Fishing peg condition

Quality of fish stock

Value for money

The park setting

Toilets/cleanliness

What is the most important thing for us to improve on the fishery?

Peg & disabled access

Park staff

13 Is it clear where & how you can purchase your

9 (a) Have you fished on one of our night fishing events?

(b) Would you book again?

10 (a) Do the opening hours of the fishery meet your needs?

No

(b) Do you prefer to fish Early Late Both

Yes

11 We have always operated with “natural” stocking levels. Would you be interested in fishing a more

densely stocked semi “commercial” type pool?

Yes No

Yes No Comments

(c) If you have never booked, please give reason?

12 Why have you chosen to fish at Kingsbury? Tick all that apply

Comments

(a) Size & variety of complex

(d) Reasonable prices

(b) Close by/easy to get to

(c) Disabled access

(e) Clean & tidy/no litter

(g) Other

(f) Successful catches

(a) Day ticket (b) Permit Yes

Tick all that apply

No Yes No

12% 12% 9% 18%

0% 18% 15% 0% 18%

0% 15% 3% 18% 15%

0% 9% 15% 12% 15%

3% 15% 12% 3% 18%

18% 15% 0% 0% 15%

18% 12% 3% 0% 18%

15% 18% 0% 3% 15%

43% Not answered

49% Not answered

49% Not answered

49% Not answered

49% Not answered

52% Not answered

49% Not answered

49% Not answered

6%

9% 70%

6% 15%

21% Not answered

79% Not answered

9% Not answered 52% 39%

36% 6% 46% 12% Not answered

9% Not answered 42% 49%

20%

29%

3%

15%

10%

17%

6%

73% 6% 82% 9% 9% Not answered 21% Not answered

26% Bodymoor Heath Water 22% Mill Pool 12% Causeway Pool

Top 3 responses: