STOCK IT IF YOU CAN

Poolsbrook Fishery was one of the most successful projects undertaken by the Ireland Colliery Sports and Social and all came about after a discussion I had with John Banner, the then Colliery Chief engineer and Barry Brooks Managers Secretary.

The idea was that we excavate a stretch of the river side bank of the local Poolsbrook stream as this would make a reservoir of water to wash the Colliery coal and not use expensive domestic water. The N.C.B., as it was then, took up the idea and the water reserve was made. Then, as there was water we asked if fish could be put in it and this was agreed as long as we stocked it. We were given the lease at a cost of £l.00 per year.

 
It came to our attention that a pond was being filled in at Bolsover Colliery and it held a good head of fish which we could have if we could catch them. Contact was made with Trent Water Fisheries and they agreed to help. On this particular Saturday a work party set out to collect the fish. We had a boat, water tanker, generator, nets and electric probe. This was going to be easy, we thought. After an exhausting haul of all this tackle we arrived at the pond only to find it was a mass of surface weeds and would be impossible to net and hard to electrify.

Jack Wilson and Tommy Spooner had other ideas and with much heaving and pushing we launched the boat, generator and probe. I agreed to go to net any fish that they brought to the surface. Jack did a sterling job on the oars. He pulled us around and around the pond. Tommy kept sticking the electric probe into the water, the generator kept conking out and no fish came to the surface. After two hours of this fruitless effort we gave up. It seems that because there was so much weed in the water the fish were pushed to the bottom instead of coming to the surface when stunned.

We spent all day and caught nothing and a little boy with a small rod fishing at the same time had a net full and refused to give them to us and put them back in the pond.

Second attempt.

The pond was then gradually filled in with pit waste and we were then informed that only a stretch of water 6ft Wide and 20yards long was left and it was full of fish. A work party was soon organized and even the Colliery Under manager Eric Revil decided to help us.

We arrived at the pond and as we had been told, the pond left was indeed full of fish. Using our landing nets we dredged the ink black water to bring out Tench to 5lbs, Roach to 2lb, Chub to 5lb and Rudd to 1lb. Eric did not have a net so he carried the fish we caught in a bucket to the transporter water tank. When his bucket handle broke he held his jumper at the bottom and carried fish in it.

As I said the pond was full of black slimy mud and carrying fish in this manner was not a very good idea and at the end of the day he looked as if he had been swimming in tar and smelt like a sewer. Needless to say his expensive jumper was ruined, no-one would travel back to our pond with him but we all had a satisfactory day and the fish were the first real stock put in the Poolsbrook Fishery.

Editor's note: When Ireland Colliery closed in 1988, "Poolsbrook Fishery" was taken over by Chesterfield Borough Council and developed into Poolsbrook Country Park, one of the premier leisure facilities in Nort East Derbyshire. The park features a large caravan and motorhome park, a huge wildlife country park, a cafe and and three fishing lakes. The main lake is still known to this day as "Jack's pond".