South Hants Koi Club's Grow and Show!

We enjoyed a brilliant day out yesterday at the South Hants Koi Club’s grow and show results event.

You may remember that the club took a good number of our tosai last year to use in their grow and show event. They took the tosai last May, and the members who entered the competition have been growing the fish on in their ponds for the last year. Yesterday, South Hants club members Geoff and Mary Gallimore hosted the results event. Their garden was filled with around a dozen or so vats, and the people who had the grow and show koi brought them to the event and each pair of fish went into their own vats. The fish were judged by the club’s very own Pete Watson, and he decided on a Grand Champion, Best Pattern, Best Body and there was also a Jumbo champion award too – which went to the largest fish.

The club kindly invited Amanda and I along to enjoy the event, and we drove down to the south coast yesterday to attend. And, a few things struck us straight away.

First, the high percentage of koi that were brought back for this judging and results day.

And, also the great development achieved by most of the fish. For us, it was also a great opportunity to see first-hand how fish we bred had got on in other people’s ponds.

The club clearly has many experienced members to be able to have so many fish return for the results event, and committed members who made the event happen so successfully – from the initial picking of the koi to use for the club's entrance day, the club’s grow and show entry event last year – where the entrants picked the fish they would take home to grow on. And, then yesterday – the event set up, and the picture booklet; each member got to make their own decision about which koi they thought had done the best, and that koi was awarded the Members Champion award.

The booklet was fantastic – showing pictures and measurements of each koi as they looked last year. And the members could walk around the vats and see how each member had got on with their fish, referring to the pictures and measurements from last year with ease.

There were around 8 or so koi that really stood out. And almost all of the koi had developed really well. Out of the 20 fish, there was not even one shimmy in sight. The vast majority had simply grown and developed in a really good way – with stable patterns, consistent reds and some really good bodies being developed. Only one or two had developed some secondary hi. And just one had developed a severely lop sided body shape, and one had lost around 20% of its red.

It was a privilege to be part of the event, and see so many people getting enjoyment from fish that we had bred. It’s been a clear highlight for our project so far.

The club have pictures of the fish, and I'll share those when they get sent over.