The lake offers every type of carp fishing from open water; baited patches through to stalking in the margins with float tackle against the reed stems.

Click on each mouse by the lake for info on a swim

During October 2002, November 2004, December 2005 and now again in December 2007 we have emptied the lake in order to control the biomass. We also removed 150 male, feral commons in order to reduce the violence during spawning and allow the large females to spawn without it involving every fish in the lake and without the resulting damage. This has, after each drain down, produced massive weight gains and we expect even better for 2008. With our detailed records following the 2007 vidange, during which we removed 60,000 unwanted small fish of various species, we can accurately forecast the likely spring results for 2008 and we are confident that these will show at least 122 different carp over 30 lb with 35 of them over 40 lb. On top of these we have exactly 50 catfish to well over 100 lb so we expect 2008 to be our best year ever.

We will continue to add occasional large carp as they become available but the biomass will continue to be regularly monitored in order to keep the stock levels to a pitch that allows the fish to maintain perfect condition and attain good growth rates.

It is our opinion that this action will result in much less of the previous “violent” spawning activity and thereby less chance of your holiday being ruined because the entire lake’s population are busy having sex. We also believe that it will allow the big females to hold on to some of their eggs which can then be re-absorbed into their bodies so enhancing their normal body weight?

The bed of the lake is composed of clay and clean, non-smelling silt. The hard sandy clay shoulders stretch out for twenty to thirty yards and the water depth ranges from three feet immediately in front of each swim to six or seven feet in the middle.

The reason that the silt is not the normal black, smelly kind is that the lake is teeming with blood worms, cadis fly larvae and literally thousands of swan mussels which are filter feeders and the reason for “clean Silt”.