Past news from 2007
Monday 19th November 2007
Not much to report regarding the fishing as we have now closed completely for day fishing and only a few weekend customers have been here while we have been away ourselves. I have ordered 800lb of new fish to stock next Jan/Feb and these will be split 50% small common & crucian carp, 50% mixed silvers roach/rudd/bream. This is a big order for a fishery of our size and should make a major improvement to the catch rates for next season. We have added some new fishery rules designed to stop over feeding with groundbait and boilies and these are listed on our fishing page
The grass seeded in September has grown a treat and this has created a lovely open space leading down to the stream as well as improving access to the rear of the lake.
We are currently refurbishing the cafe and intend to open this additionally as a tea room for lunches and afternoon tea at weekends. Other projects for next season include a games room with pool table to be setup in the existing space between cottages 9 & 10 and there will be a play area for younger children on the lawn outside.
Tuesday 25th September 2007
Unfortunately September has been a hard month with a good deal of difficult fishing. We are seeing periods of feeding activity but followed by longer periods of inactivity. Fish are still being caught and on the whole they seem in excellent condition. We may be suffering a hangover from the earlier extreme weather and flooding and this does seem to be the most likely explanation despite the fact that we did have some excellent fishing in July and early August. I fully expect the fishing to return to good again soon when more time and less angling pressure allows the natural balance of the lake to be restored.
We are currently carrying out work to clear the stream of obstructions and this will protect us against any future flooding. While the digger was on site we were also able to complete the landscaping by the old cottage pool. This was to increase the depth by the remaining original peg and return it to use, and also to complete the levelling of the ground behind the Bridge Sawmill cottage so that the path leads directly round to double peg. We have seeded new grass and so this area should be green again soon. Double peg has been raised so that it now remains above the new high water levels we have experienced this year. See below for some pictures of this work and the customer gallery for some of the latest fish to be caught.
 
   
  Digger working to clear a section of the stream at the rear of lake Newly landscaped area at rear of the lake where the silt had been dumped in 2006 A large section if cottage pool was partially filled in in 2006. This has now been completed and levelled  
   
  Original platform in cottage pool is back in use. Depth here is now 4ft in the centre View across the remaining section of Cottage Pool with the filled in and newly landscaped  area to the left of picture Double peg has been rebuilt above the higher water level  
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Friday 10th August 2007
Summer is here at last and our customers have all been enjoying the sun and fishing. The lake is back to normal now and customers have all been catching strongly. There are some quiet times through the day and often rudd and carp can be seen on the surface with the carp enjoying the sunshine but not really feeding in the open; Find some cover and shade and there are fish feeding. Fishing late in the day and after dusk still gives you the best chance of catching the big carp. One customer landed 40lb of silver fish in an enjoyable days fishing with a pole. As ever we see people using wide variety of baits; some that have been used successfully this week include worm, bread, green mussel and also strawberry hooking pellets, a variety of boilies used with halibut pellets in PVA bags. The biggest fish caught this week was our 18lb common carp on a salmon and caviar boilie. A few weeks ago we saw our biggest tench now at 7lb and there are pictures in the customer gallery.

Wednesday 11th July 2007
The fishing towards the end of June was really excellent. One customer caught around 160lb of fish in one day from 12 'till 5pm and then from 6 'till 8pm. He took pictures of all the big fish he caught and I've included some of these in the customer gallery plus he wrote us a list:- carp 1 x 20lb, 2 x 12lb, 3 x 10lb, 3 x 7lb, 4 x 6lb, 6 x 5lb, 2 x 3lb plus two tench at 3 and 4lb. Then the FLOOD came. Like most of England we had torrential rain on Sunday night / Monday morning the 25th June. The stream eventually broke it's banks at about 8am and diverted itself into our lake. The flood water was a horrible muddy colour and left our lake looking terrible. We installed a pump and started to pump out in an effort to get the water back to normal levels. In the aftermath the water quality was poor and there was little oxygen for the fish, the Environment Agency came to test the water and confirm this. Our aerators were under water and needed to be re-floated onto the surface. Once this had been done the oxygen levels soon recovered and the fish all survived the ordeal. Some must have been swept away by the initial deluge but I don't think we lost any of the bigger fish this way. After 10 days of pumping the level was back to normal and a few days later the colour started to return to normal as well. Right now all is well except the water level is a little higher than normal. None of our holiday cottages were flooded and we stayed open throughout the clear-up period; customers continued to fishing and catch. Unfortunately the excellent catch rates for big carp from just before the flood haven't returned yet and so it has been difficult in that respect. Some people have done really well, even before the colour of the water returned to normal one customer caught an estimated 60lb of silver fish and small carp in a day. So it looks like we've been lucky to escape so lightly from such a major flood, the worst anyone in the village can remember.


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Wednesday 7th June 2007
The fishing has been generally very good over the last few weeks and all species seem to be feeding strongly. I am assuming that spawning has all but finished and the water has warmed up. I was recently clearing reeds encroaching on some of the pegs, it was a sunny day and the top foot of water was pleasant, however when reaching deeper down the water still felt cold. A lovely 18lb common carp was captured on 29th May using boilie and I was able to take a photo (see below). This week we have seen people catching strongly using a variety of baits and methods. One customer has been catching about 20lb of mixed silver fish and small carp each day using red maggot or caster for bigger roach with a mesh feeder with groundbait and caster. Another recently enjoyed an afternoon catching rudd off the top using floating casters. Carp have been taking pellets and also bread squeezed onto the line just above the hook, all fishing on the bottom. The small mirror carp stocked in April have been providing plenty of fun as have the bigger bream stocked at the end of last year. I've been sent or have copied recent holiday snaps and have updated the Customer Gallery and you can also see a selection of what's been caught below.

If you're thinking of a fishing holiday or short break this year we still have good availability towards the end of July and in August.
 
   
   
Monday 14th May 2007
All of April was warm and dry with virtually no rain, our water level has remained high, the water has warmed and the fishing has improved vastly since Easter when unfortunately it was very difficult indeed. At the end of April we stocked 200lb of small mirror carp all at around the 1/2lb mark and these are intended to help boost catch rates for silver fish in the short and medium term but also to grow on. Plenty of big fish have been hooked over the past few weeks but not many carp have actually been captured. The last few weeks has been good for bream and tench and we have seen a good deal of the larger bream we stocked in December with some 4lb fish being caught and also a 6lb tench. Good roach, rudd, crucians and perch have all been caught and customers have all commented on the quality being excellent. Quantities caught has improved steadily with two holiday customers catching 40lb between them of mixed silver fish and smaller carp during a session last week. We know this isn't amazing by the standards of some waters but our lake remains as natural as possible and is therefore challenging and rewarding.
Thursday 22nd March 2007
The weather has turned cold and we've had two days of sleet and snow. Yesterday morning was glorious and so here are
some photos of the lake (you can click to enlarge then go back in your browser). Nobody fishing I'm afraid so no other news.
   
  View to main island from lawn close to the Disabled Peg View to the cafe and cottages 1 to 6 from Roadside Peg 6 on Roadside underwater due to water level being the highest we've known  
   
  Double Peg underwater due to water level being the highest we've known View to Island Corner from Fallen Tree View from Roadside to Island Corner. No slack left on the aerator mooring ropes  

Sunday 18th March 2007
We have been closed for fishing during most of winter this year, this has been to rest the fish and to minimise erosion to the banks and paths. We stocked 400lb or mixed roach and bream just before Christmas, the majority of these were beautiful specimens with plenty of big roach at 2lb and bream from 2lb and a few at about 5lb which is a good deal bigger than any of the bream we had. Some recent angling customers have caught very nice roach of the right size and so I am assuming they are the some of the same fish we stocked. Our first carp this year were commons at 10lb and 14lb.

There have been no major changes to the lake this winter except that our water level has risen to the highest we have ever seen and our double peg platform is currently flooded under a few inches of water so I got that one a bit wrong! That means our deepest section is currently at about 7ft. We know the water level will drop as we enter spring and summer but it does look like our water retention problem has been greatly reduced by filling in the small 'cottage pool' section last year which used to bring the lake very close to the lower lying stream.

We are open for day fishing again from tomorrow with adult prices increased slightly to £5.50 for all day (7am until 8pm or dusk) or £3.50 for evenings from 3pm. We have kept junior prices the same to help stretch pocket money! Our cafe/shop is still closed but will be open from 31st March for week ends at first.
 
Past News from 2006