17th July 2008
Last week was a good week for carp with a variety of mirror and common carp being caught ranging from 5lb 1oz to 11lb 2oz plus our biggest this year a common at just over 19lb caught in the margins on luncheon meat, with a 14 hook on 10lb line. It wasn't just carp being caught we saw some lovely mixed nets of silver fish plus tench. I've been sent photos of many of these fish and they've all been added to the customer gallery. The fishing this week has remained good for roach, rudd, bream and tench (biggest 5½lb), but no crucians and not many carp. A variety of baits are working well: green paste on no 14 hook while cup feeding small pellets, also worm with groundbait in mesh feeder and bread on the hook while feeding a mixture of hemp and small pellets. Maggots still work but too often attract small and greedy perch which will happily down a hook loaded with three maggots. The recent carp have been caught on small tiger nut boilies. I've just installed net dip tanks by the tackle store and there's a new fishery rule to soak and rinse all nets on arrival and after visiting any other waters. We haven't had a disease or parasite problem but obviously want to protect our fish the best we can and follow best practice.


New net dip tanks in front of tackle store

24th June 2008
I've been updating the pictures on the main web pages and so the photographs of the lake and site that you see are have all been taken over the past week or so. The fishing is still good for silvers, tench, crucian & small carp. As usual larger carp can all be seen on the top but are not easy to catch. I've added some very recent fish photos to the customer gallery and so you can see a selection of what's being caught right now. Below are some pics of carp and rudd on the top and a few or our recent customers in action, you can click these to enlarge. A variety of baits are being used successfully including pellets, sweetcorn, worm, & maggots. I know that a 9lb common landed two days ago was caught on simply luncheon meat. The water level is remaining constant at maximum depth now that our past problems of not enough or even too much water have been solved.

 

3rd June 2008
We've been seeing a fair bit of the sun recently and summer definitely here with regards to the lake, grounds and the fishing. All the trees are in full leaf the lake and grounds look stunning. Customers have consistently been successful in catching silver fish of all species. A variety of baits all now seem to work which is a change from the maggot only days we experienced earlier in the year. Sweet corn has been a favourite and successful bait over the past few weeks and customers have caught both silver fish and sometimes unexpected and therefore difficult to handle carp. Tench have been showing up again and a good number have been caught recently. We have been sent a number of catch photos and I've added these to our Customer Gallery. We typically receive many photos of carp but very few of silver fish and this doesn't accurately reflect the type of fishing enjoyed by many of our customers. If you've filled your net with silvers whist staying here and do have some photos I would love to add them to the gallery so please send then in.
Over the last few days the most productive time for carp is approaching and after dusk. As usual our sun bathing carp seem to prefer relaxing to feeding. After an uneventful day one customer was rewarded during the evening by six decent carp in just a few hours the biggest of which was a 16lb common.

7th April 2008
We had a white Easter but this didn't put off our hardy angling customers. The fishing was good for silver fish (considering the cold conditions) but did need small tackle and bait to get the fish to take. Size 18 or 20 hooks with pinkies worked best for two pole fishing anglers on pegs 13 and 14 (one of which is pictured below). The fish caught inevitably did include a lot of small roach, rudd and skimers but also some very nice roach indeed at about the 2lb mark. Also some small common carp and crucians. One customer looking for bigger carp did succeed in catching one at 5lb and another at 10lb and also confessed to loosing 2 decent fish. I know that some people have tried to catch tench using worm but unfortunately were not successful so I'm not aware of a any tench being caught as yet. Since Easter we have seen fairly consistently good fishing for silver fish. A customer last week reported approximately 25lb in his net each day at the end of a short mornings session. He also enjoyed fighting with small common carp 1 1/2 to 2 lb on light tackle but didn't enjoy so much getting smashed buy a hooligan fish, I presume a big carp choosing to feed on maggots. I've seen a lot of big carp on the top in the sunshine but they remain elusive. Our Games room with pool table is now open and has been a popular addition. Our children's play area (ages 3 to 10) is under construction and will be completed by the end of April (now complete)

 
 
13th March 2008
It's been a long while since my last update so my apologies to those of you trying to find out what's been happening. We've spent the winter making many changes and improvements and it's all coming together nicely ready for Easter. Most important are the new fish stocked. On the 8th December we stocked 350lb of Common carp at about 1 to 2lb, 50lb of crucian carp at about 1.5lb. On 23rd February we stocked 400lb of mixed roach and bream of all sizes. I went for an opportunity for some locally caught fish, they were unsorted and this meant I got them into the lake literally only a few hours after they were first netted. They were all in excellent condition and I genuinely didn't find a single mortality afterwards. So far so good and the those braving the cold and wind have been rewarded with a good catches for silver fish and smaller carp. No bigger carp have been captured yet but we've only had a few customers who've been aiming for them anyway, so it's too early to draw any conclusions. The reason for so few people fishing is that we closed for day fishing through the winter and we will not be re-opening for day fishing to the general public. We have decided instead to make the lake private for residents only.

Improvements around site include newly laid flagstone path for cottages 1 to 6. The path was designed so that there is almost level access into Bramble cottage providing excellent wheelchair access without the need for a ramp. Bramble also benefits from wider doorways throughout and a large corner power shower with seat and hand-rails. Our disabled access peg has been re-built (see photo below). Our cafe has been refurbished and re-launched as a Breakfast and Tearoom and we now open later serving breakfasts from 8am to 10:30 (ish) and then providing a lunch menu and homemade cakes and afternoon teas. A Full English breakfast is now only £5 for 2 bacon, 2 sausage, mushrooms, beans, tomato, fried bread, toast, tea or coffee. We still stock a range of non-live fishing baits and terminal tackle as well as basic groceries and provisions. Ash cottage now has a large corner power shower in place of a bath. A games room is under construction, situated between cottages 9 & 10, and will be ready for Easter with a 6ft x 3ft slate bed pool table. We have started work on our new children's play area, this project is still W.I.P. and is due to be completed by May at the latest.

I'll be adding a news update after Easter when there will be plenty of people fishing - Ivan

New disabled access peg
Past News from 2007
Past News from 2006