LAKE 7.

The Lake

About 9 acres, and home to about 60 known fish. Depths are mostly pretty even between about 10 and 14 feet. There are plenty of features to fish to, but in the main they’re fairly subtle variations in the terrain including raised humps, old silted up drainage channels and raised gravel areas. The lake supports a huge larder of natural carp food.

The Fish

There are around 20 different known 30s caught to 50.5lbs with very few carp under 25lbs in this lake. The fish are mostly, simply stunning examples of what keeps a lot of us carp fishing still. Classic commons of all shapes and hues, scaly old dark mirrors and a few sparsely scaled, very dark old leathery mirrors that I have pictures of back to the mid 1980s as doubles. The average weight per fish was 31 lbs in 2019. Fred, the largest common in the lake, has been caught once in 2014, 2015, 2016 and at 42 lbs in 2019.. The “Big Linear” has now reached 45 lbs. "The Boss", a half linear has reached 50.5lbs in 2020. The large grey mirror continues to avoid capture for the 15th year. There are Tench to 10-8 and a few large Bream to 15-2.

The Fishing

Despite the stocking level, the lake can be a tricky proposition to fish, apparently switching on and off for no obvious reason. I think this has to do with the availability of natural food, and the reticence of these wise old fish to take too many risks with anglers’ baits. Some fish disappear for years at a time.