WHILE the snow and ice is a distant memory for much of Oxfordshire, fishery owners have been counting the cost for longer than most.

Linear Fisheries, at Stanton Harcourt, had to close its 11 lakes to anglers for more than six weeks over the busy Christmas period, and only re-opened on Wednesday last week.

At Orchid Lakes, in Dorchester-on-Thames, near Wallingford, the site was unfishable between mid-November and January 6 with ice up to eight inches thick.

So harsh was the December freeze that only now have the complexes, which are both renowned for monster carp among catch-and-release fishermen, thawed.

Linear head ballif, Roy Parsons, said: “It caused chaos for us. We lost a lot of business over the Christmas week, which is normally very busy for us as people have time off work until early January.

“We’ve had weather like this before, but not over the Christmas period, it’s usually into February when the lakes freeze.”

Marsh Pratley, the owner of Orchid Lakes fishery in Dorchester-on-Thames, said he always budgeted for freezing conditions but said takings were about 15 per cent down this year.

A number of popular fishing lakes across the country have suffered the added blow of fish deaths due to the weather, as the blanket of ice and snow decreases oxygen levels in the water and stops gases from rotting leaves escaping.

No fish have been lost at Linear or Orchid Lakes, but Mr Pratley said the current warm conditions could spell danger if the fish’s metabolisms speed up only for another freeze to set in before the end of winter.

Mr Parsons said he could not put a figure on the amount of business lost during the big freeze, but dozens of anglers, who pay between £9 and £31 for 24 hours’ fishing, can be accommodated on site.

He said: “We’ve started to get a few people appearing now but we won’t be in full swing until the end of February.

“Before the snow came, we were able to do a lot of tree clearing and general maintenance on the lakes, which we aren’t able to do when people are fishing, but we’d still rather have had the place open and anglers here.”