Story of the Lake

We immediately fell in love with the lake back in spring 2019, the lake had been untouched for 30 years and used privately by the previous owners.

We completed our purchase early summer; we knew that there was a lot of hard work ahead to turn this into a great carp fishing venue but could already see the potential.

We decided to see through our first summer and winter to really understand the lake and surrounding environment.

We established that we needed more depth in the summer and higher banks in the winter. The decision was made in 2020 to drain the lake in preparation for de-silting and remodelling.

With the drain down came lots of tree work in preparation for the arrival of heavy plant, for every tree felled a new one has since been replanted.

Once the machinery was on site we got underway removing silt, scraping back until we got down to the solid blue clay.

Sometimes things didn’t go quite to plan, even after months of drying the lakebed there were still a few wet spots.

We constructed a new vidange to allow future drain downs and better control lake levels.

As part of future proofing the lake we added a three-tier natural filtration system for the water to pass through before entering the lake.

The system consists of deep pools for the silt to settle, shallow rocky banks for the water to spill over and hundreds of Typha (bulrush) and Phragmites australis (common reed) for filtration.

Silt removal and remodelling went on from August into late November 2020, we were up against the clock before the winter wet season and water levels returning.

Our vision to create island swims meant the formation of a bridge, easier said than done when you are slipping around in wet clay.

At the start of December, we opened the tubes to allow water to re-enter the lake via the filter system.

After letting the lake settle for a few weeks we were ready to introduce our first set of fish, it was cold wet and dark but a great moment to celebrate! This was repeated for the next 2 winters with a further 3 separate stockings.

The lake was completely off grid, we decided whilst the island would remain this way it would be necessary to have fresh running water and an electricity supply to the main facilities cabin.

The existing cabins were replaced, and swims built, our vision was finally coming together and the lake was really starting to feel like a fishing venue.

After the remodelling work the lake was a blank canvas, we have carefully selected aquatic plants to help the filtration of water and to create a natural environment.

The planting was not limited to underwater with 1,000+ plants and shrubs being introduced to the banks and surrounding land (and this continues each year….).

Along with carp we also added a good head of predators to keep the carp fry in check. Mainly perch, pike along with a handful of zander.

The Lake

Fishing

Facilities & the Area

Booking Information