Our fish & the new T1 Strain.

For those of you interested to know more about the fish we have stocked.

Leading up to the first stockings in 2012/13 we had several gene pools or 'strains' of fish which were all grown on by ourselves, mostly from about 1-2oz apart from 'Phil's fish' which were almost 2lb before they were stocked out.

Most of these fish were Sherwoods Carp Farm fish, which, many believe to be the source of the original stocking of Dinton Pastures White Swan Lake. This is the home of what has become known as the 'Dinton Strain' which has a good track record of developing into 'forties'. Around 200 of the fish are true strain straight from the farm and a further 100 were progeny of Sherwoods originals stocked into a private fishery in Dorset. These may have naturally crossed with some 'Simmos' which were also believed to have been stocked there and some certainly have higher shoulders. We also had a few 'Springs' fish ; all mirrors which are descendants of the original Broad Oak fish, which also readily made 40s. Finally we had a small number of what we call 'Phil's fish'.  Again all mirrors these were individually hand selected and grown  by Phil Court from a managed cross between Sherwoods originals and some true 'Leney's'.

This combination of fish made up the initial stockings of both T1 and Island Lake.

As those fish were all grown on together prior to stocking and their 'blood lines' allowed to mix naturally at spawning time the fish we now grow are a random genetic mix of all those fish and so could be considered a new strain. These fish are represented by the 2016 and 2018 T1 stockings and most of the scale pattern traits of the 'originals' can still be seen, perhaps with the exception of the ' Leathers'.

The latest T1 stockings of four fish in February 2021 and six fish in February 2025 represent continued development of this 'strain' as they are several generations down the line from the 2016 /2018 fish and so genetically further removed from the original mix. All these T1 fish can be viewed on the Theale 1 Gallery page HERE.

Thirty nine of these fish were also stocked into T2 in February 2024 and some can be seen on the Theale 2 Gallery page HERE

Twenty one fish were also moved from Island Lake to T2 in February 2024 and these have been replaced with more of these younger, faster growing fish with 10 stocked in 2024 and a further 10 in February 2025.