Established in 1973 Priory Fisheries is managed and run by Father and Son team Stephen and Ben Gratwicke and is now the longest established coarse fish farm in the country and certainly one of the biggest.
Priory Fisheries in the Snow
Another day begins on the Farm
We occasionally spawn Golden Tench to add a bit of colour to your fishery!
Established in 1973 by Stephen Gratwicke Priory Fisheries is the longest established and largest self-contained coarse fish farm in the country. Initially rearing trout, production at Priory switched exclusively to carp in the late 1970s, since expanding to include successful rearing of tench, bream, crucians and golden rudd.
Using some of the most advanced husbandry and hatchery techniques imported from aquaculture experts in Hungary, Stephen has optimised production to reach between 500 and 750,000 mixed coarse fish per year. Stephen's son Ben, a student and subsequently a lecturer in fisheries studies at Sparsholt College, Hampshire is a partner in the family business, helping manage the site. Ben still has groups of students on the farm for teach ins and work experience and having been on the original English Carp Heritage Organization committee for 2 years and still kept up to date with the goings on within the group he is devoted to supplying true farm reared English fish.
The site at Priory takes in around 40 ponds, all individually aerated and fed with natural spring water to ensure an oxygen rich, disease and stress free environment to allow large scale production whilst maintaining the health of the stock. A large hatchery and an extensive holding and grading facility allow Priory to selectively spawn from hand picked brood stock and supply the biggest customers efficiently.
Priory's second site is Kingsford Fish Farm, three miles from the main site and managed full time by Dick Frost and Son Michael. Purpose built in 2000 it is predominantly used for the ongrowing of our second and third year fish. With six acres of water split between 10 ponds this is an integral part of the Priory Fisheries operation, enabling us to produce 20-2500 C2 carp, 1000 C3 carp and 15,000 second and third year bream.
We have sold and continue to sell fish to many of the major fishing clubs in the country as well as privately owned fisheries large and small. Each year we supply thousands of pounds of stock fish into the trade either directly or through other fish suppliers. Our large production output allows us to sell hundreds of thousands of fingerling carp, crucians and bream to other on growing sites and fish supplier's growers within the UK.
Priory Fisheries is a farm, we do not ‘deal' in fish. All of our fish are farm bred and have come from one of the two sites. This enables us to supply fish of your chosen species and size, and maintain the highest standards of service and fish quality. Although demand can often outstrip our potential supply we continue only to sell fish that have been spawned and reared on site, refusing to source fish from elsewhere.
We carry five species at Priory Fisheries. We feel these five cover all your angling needs for the stocking of either a match, general or specimen style fishery.
From the broodstock selection to the rearing of the juvenile fingerlings right through to the saleable sized fish and delivery we pride ourselves in being at the top of our field.
All of our fish are measured from the tip of their nose to the end of their tail when sold by the inch and in pounds when by weight.
In our links section we have selected a few companies and fisheries that we deal with on a regular basis.
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