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Cambridgeshire Koi Club visits the EMKC

On the 26th of July, the members of the Cambridgeshire Koi Club boarded their mini bus and jumped in their cars and headed north to the ponds, gardens and amazing hospitality  of the East Midlands Koi Club (EMKC).

The EMKC member base covers a very large area, so the day was broken into two sections, the first was a couple of ponds in the Rugby area on our way up the M6 and the second was 3 ponds in the Burton area as well as a drop into Richdon Koi and then a meal before heading homeward.

The first stop of the day was that of Greg and Nadine Sutton and their 3000 gallon pond. Walking through the front door to a warm welcome from the EMKC members that had descended to meet us and the smell of bacon and sausages on the hob made getting up before the birds well worth it!

Greg and Nadine’s pond was built in 2005 (all built by Greg) and features block built filtration, 2 windows and reverse Osmosis, the pond is a credit to them both and proves that when you’re happy to get dirty you can achieve great things. The garden is obviously well cared for and has some very nice Acers helping to create a nice tranquil atmosphere for the rather large dog that greeted us all with a woof.

This pond is home to some 11 koi, mainly Go-Sanke due to Gregs passion for appreciation, but does also include a chagoi, an ogon and a rather large Shiro Utsuri as seen in the pictures below.

After Greg and Nadine’s we headed off for the short drive across town to the home and ponds of Paul and Liz. The main pond is some 5000 gallons of block built construction and fibreglass lining with a large window perfectly placed to be visible from the kitchen, perfect for out lovely British weather! The pond also features a large block built filter that holds some 300 ltrs of K1, a bead filter for final polishing and 6kw of electric heater!!

We must thank Paul for taking the time to grab his net and bowl some of his stunning collection; it made the rather typical weather bearable.

Paul also has a smaller growing on pond, but when you think of small don’t think low, this pond is a good 7ft deep and it’s all out of ground, as you can see from the picture, some of our members made good use of the steps provided.

After Paul and Liz’s ponds, it was time to head up the M6 and on to Burton, the first stop was to be that of Darren and Emma’s 8000 gallon pond that uses large block built filtration which includes a 15ft settlement bay, 300 ltrs of K1 and 24 sheets of Japanese Matting before being pumped to 2 x 100,000 btu heat exchangers and then on to the pond.

Currently Darren (ginge) has some 16 koi in the pond that range in size up to an impressive 78cm Kigoi which Darren states is one of his favourites in the pond.

It must be said that whilst the pond was nice and the fish fantastic, the best part of visiting Darren and Emma’s was the wonderful selection of cheese cakes and assorted other foods, Darren, we’ll see you again just for that. But next time, turn the UV on mate 

A short rive up the road saw us arrive at the pond and garden of Michael Byrne, Michael actually has 2 ponds in this garden, the ‘proper’ koi pond close to the house and a more natural wildlife pool at the back.

The first thing that grabbed everyone upon seeing this 7000 koi pond is the amazing clarity of the water being produced by the block built filters (once again utilising K1 and Japanese Matting) on the bottom drain line and the sieve and bio-max bead combo on the skimmer line. It really did look as though it had just been filled with fresh water, but according to the club members, it always looks like this!

The pond currently holds 16 koi and one Sturgeon but it was to be the Doitsu Ochiba that was the main talking point amongst our members, a lovely pond and garden, and water that created many jealous comments.

The next stop saw us arrive at Richdon Koi for a tour of the facilities, a look round the fish house and a trip up the path to the 50k growing on pond, there was much discussion between the members regarding fish, whilst others made purchases or gained advice for existing ponds or new builds in the planning. Having only seen the 50k pond in photos previously, seeing it sat there laid out in front of you is something a bit special, what’s more, when you actually have a fish in there and growing on, catching a glimpse of it really made the visit for a few of us.

A big thank you to Richard and Donna for taking time out of their day to spend time with our party, it was and is appreciated and we look forward to seeing you again soon.

The last stop of the day was the 7500 gallon pond of Martin (Mushio) and Ronnie,  with 2 windows it made seeing the koi a dry pursuit (one nicely enclosed by the awning – it was raining after all)  in an otherwise wet situation. Martin, ably assisted by Dave Pope netted some of his amazing fish for us all to see at close quarters, Damien (a rather special Hi Showa) generated a lot of conversation and looked just as good as always.

The pond is filtered by way of an Aerated bottom drain feeding a 15ft settlement chamber which then passes the water through to  300 litres of K1 and finally through 30 sheets of Japanese Matting before returning to the pond. This style of filtration was seen on all the ponds we visited, and other than Darren’s special green effect solution, the water in these ponds looked terrific.

But Darren wasn’t to be the only ‘ginge’ we saw today, oh no, there was still his name sake to come out of Martins pond, and with sun glasses at the ready the Benigoi was bowled. The main conversation koi however seemed to be ‘Fanny’, this is Martin’s 85cm chagoi who looks simply massive even next to the other large fish.

The next and final stop of the day was ‘The Sump’, this is a very short walk / drive from Martins house and is an obvious choice for his local. Here we sat down to a meal kindly provided by the EMKC, had a few beers and enjoyed the conversation that was flowing round the table. We all bought a few tickets for the club raffle with prizes kindly donated by Richdon Koi and seemingly our club members did quite well with a few seen carrying 5kg buckets of food back to the minibus.

In conclusion, this visit was a tremendous success, we saw some fantastic fish, some equally amazing ponds and enjoyed the wonderful hospitality of the EMKC. I would strongly suggest to any club still in the process of organising their visits for 2010 to get in contact with the EMKC and get them booked in as it will be a great day out for all your members.

A massive thank you to all that turned out on behalf of the EMKC, and we look forward to welcoming you to Cambridgeshire in September.

Iain Kirkbright – PRO – Cambridgeshire Koi Club