A gravel pit is an open-pit mine for the extraction of gravel. Gravel pits often lie in river valleys where the water table is high, so they may naturally fill with water to form ponds or lakes. Old, abandoned gravel pits are normally used either as nature reserves, or as amenity areas for water sports, landfills and walking. In addition, many gravel pits in the United Kingdom have been stocked with freshwater fish such as the common carp to create coarse fishing locations. Gravel and sand are mined for concrete, construction aggregate and other industrial mineral uses.
The River Blackwater is a tributary of the Loddon in England and sub-tributary of the Thames. It rises at two springs in Rowhill Nature Reserve between Aldershot, Hampshire and Farnham, Surrey. It curves a course north then west to join the Loddon in Swallowfield civil parish, central Berkshire. Part of the river splits Hampshire from Surrey; a smaller part does so as to Hampshire and Berkshire.
Richard Stuart Walker was an English angler.
Blackwater is a town in the northeastern corner of Hampshire, England, lying in the county's Hart District. Considered to be part of the Farnborough/Aldershot Built-up Area and nearly contiguous to Camberley, Surrey, it is centred 31 miles (50 km) WSW from London.
John Dennis Wilson was a British angler who had been involved with angling television production for over twenty years featuring on Channel 4 Television and more recently on the digital TV channel, Discovery Real Time. Wilson was voted 'The Greatest Angler of all Time' in a 2004 poll by readers of the Angling Times Newspaper.
In the United Kingdom and Ireland, coarse fishing refers to angling for freshwater fish which are traditionally considered undesirable as a food or game fish. Freshwater game fish are all salmonids—most particularly salmon, trout and char—so generally coarse fish, also known as rough fish, are freshwater fish that are not salmonids. There is disagreement over whether grayling should be classified as a game fish or a coarse fish.
Quarry Lakes Regional Recreation Area is a regional park located in Fremont, California that is part of the East Bay Regional Parks system. Before being converted into a park, the site was used as a gravel quarry. When water purchased by the public for groundwater recharge of the Niles Cone flooded the gravel pits, the gravel harvesters began to daily pump the seeping water down Alameda Creek into San Francisco Bay. The Alameda County Water District acquired the quarry after the pumping was declared to be an illegal waste in 1976.
Redmire Pool is near Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire, England. At only 3 acres (1.2 ha) in size it is considered by angling experts to be the home of carp fishing. The earliest sign of its potential was unveiled on 3 October 1951 when a British record carp of 31.25 lb (14.17 kg) was caught by Bob Richards. The water was made famous by Richard Walker who caught a British record carp, weighing 44 lb (20 kg), overnight on 13 September 1952. The fish, a common carp, was transferred to the London Zoo aquarium. She was initially given the name Ravioli by Walker and named Clarissa by the staff of London Zoo.
Carp is a common name for various species of freshwater fish that are sought after by some recreational fishermen. Carp are native to Europe and Asia, and belong to the family Cyprinidae. They have been introduced, with mixed results, to various other locations around the world.
Benson was "Britain's biggest and best-loved" common carp. Benson's popularity was such that she was caught 63 times in 13 years, although the accessibility that made her popular was also the cause of controversy among angling's elite. She has also been referred to as "the people's fish" and was voted by readers of Angler's Mail as Britain's Favourite Carp in 2005.
Heather the Leather was a 50-year-old scaleless carp, described as "Britain's most famous fish". Heather was an old and large carp, weighing 52 pounds (24 kg) and despite incorrect allegations in the press of being caught over 1000 times, she was likely caught by fishermen approximately 75 times. A full list of the captures was recorded by Yateley anglers on the that-aint-no-bream website. She was deemed by many carp anglers, both in the UK and across Europe, as the ultimate fish to catch given her age, history and catch difficulty.
The crucian carp is a medium-sized member of the common carp family Cyprinidae. It occurs widely in northern European regions.
This is an impartial and comprehensive record list of 292 British record freshwater fish, past and present, involving 57 different species/sub-species of fish caught using the traditional angling method of rod and line. Records to include the angler, species, weight, date, venue, also referenced with a recognizable publication. The list is intended to include all categories of fish caught by anglers, that enter freshwater including and some migratory sea fish. The time since last record fish was caught is 162 days.
This list is of the heaviest European freshwater fish caught using the traditional angling method of rod and line.
Tilgate Lake is the biggest of three lakes at Tilgate Park, and remains a popular water activity centre and tourist attraction in Crawley, West Sussex.Tilgate Lake has a wide variety of outdoor activities open to the general public, such as archery, canoeing, fishing, kayaking, mountain biking, raft building, rowing, running, sailing, standup paddleboarding, Open water swimming, team building, navigational challenges, tree climbing and zip trekking.
Wraysbury No 1 Gravel Pit is a 58.0-hectare (143-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Wraysbury in Berkshire. It is part of South West London Waterbodies Ramsar site, and Special Protection Area. The lake has a surface area of 39.6 hectares(97.85 acres). The site has an area of 58.0-hectare (143-acre) and the lake 39.6-hectare (98-acre). The pit was excavated in the 1920s and 1930s with gravel being removed from the site. Over the years plants and wildlife have colonised the area and it is now mature.
Paices Wood Country Parkland is a country park on the edge of the village of Aldermaston in Berkshire, England. The parkland is under the management of the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.
Fen Drayton Lakes is a complex of lakes, lagoons, ponds and a river, situated close to Fen Drayton, Holywell and Swavesey in Cambridgeshire, England. The complex was formerly a gravel extraction site until 1992 when gravel production ceased and the pits were allowed to flood to provide a nature reserve and bird sanctuary.
Donaldson Dam is a dam next to the township Bekkersdal along the Wonderfonteinspruit. It comprises 2 reservoirs - the Top lake and the Bottom lake. Its water has been heavily polluted by acid mine runoff on the upper Wonderfonteinspruit and sewage from nearby Bekkersdal.
Wish Stream is a small, steep English river, which is a tributary of the River Blackwater. Mostly it demarcates Berkshire and Surrey. It rises on heath land to the north of Camberley, and descends in a south-westerly direction, passing through the grounds of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Two large lakes have been made before it leaves the grounds, to pass through a culvert under a retail park and bridges under major roads to discharge into the Blackwater.
