Details of your catches:

16 cat
61 cat

Your best tactics/bait/rigs:

Ronnie rig

Were the facilities what you expected?

Yes

Were you happy with them?

Yes

Would you recommend the venue to a friend?

No

Would you recommend the services to a friend?

100%, Bridget and Heather did their utmost even whilst on there holiday, (sorry Bridget).

General Comments:

I'll start with the positives:
Sophie is a lovely person, showers nice and hot. Angling lines support at venue.

Negatives:
Transparency from lake owners to angling lines, there is a big difference between (muddy under foot) which is the message we got 2 days before trip to actually flooded when we turned up. EVERY venue should have a Facebook page to keep anglers up to date on venues unless they have something to hide! Far far too many cats in there not one carp topped all week so I do question the amount of carp in there.
6 people on 7 acres where there isn't any defined pegs? Really.
As previously mentioned in other reviews the amount of rats is unbelievable.
*Angling Lines comment* thank you for your feedback. The water levels fluctuate a lot on this venue throughout the year however, you are correct that this particular week the level caught us off guard which is why it was reduced to a maximum of 4 anglers on your week. We are however really sorry to hear how tough the fishing was, it is extremely unusual for anglers to not catch any carp (and the lake stock has not changed). Update February 2025 - To help manage rodents this year, plastic food storage boxes and closed rubbish bins will be provided. An ultra sound device will also be installed in the kitchen to repel rats and mice.

Details of your catches:

14 Carp - 9 x 40s, 4 different 48lbers, 2 x 50s biggest 52lb and a 51lb, 3 x 30s biggest 39lb.
108lb Cat and 105lb Cat, 57lb Cat, 53lb Cat, a few smaller ones and loads lost.
30lb Grass carp.
All carp were caught furthest away from toilet the side closest to the toilet was slow!

Your best tactics/bait/rigs:

Sticky baits Krill and Manillia, Krill pellets all different sizes, Krill Glug

Were the facilities what you expected?

Yes very good facilities good showers x 2. Maybe could do with 1 more toilet as there is only 1. Massive chest freezer for bait and 3 fridges

Were you happy with them?

Yes very happy with the facilities, maybe in the future would be a good idea to put a cabin over the other side with a toilet as its quite far to walk if you haven't got a bike.

Would you recommend the venue to a friend?

1000% I would recommend to anyone. Not as much weed as everyone has commented. Yes weed in the front of the spit and in the margins but nowhere near what people are making out. Only had to go out in the boat for the big cats.
Just when you go do your research, and take a bait boat with a deeper so you can find gravel spots and clear spots. As there is weed in places but no much.
100% yes I would recommend to a friend but only one side fished well for carp. The side closes to the toilets is like catfish side and the side furthest from the toilet is carp side very strange.

Would you recommend the services to a friend?

100% yes I would recommend Anglinglines to a friend. They are very helpful and quick at answering emails. Very good 5*** service. Thank you :)

General Comments:

The only 1 down side to the venue is the amount of rats around the lake. They need to really do something about this as its awful. 100s of rats also the lake has got to many catfish in. Would be good if they can remove some and bream! Caught quite a few bream this week. Overall very happy but there are just a couple of things that could improve.

Details of your catches:

57.5 mirror
37.5 common
27.4 common.
37 cat
3 cat
Loss 5 fish because for weed

Your best tactics/bait/rigs:

Ronnie

Were the facilities what you expected?

Yes

Were you happy with them?

Yes

Would you recommend the venue to a friend?

No
Weed was bad in a lot of place and found it difficult to find spots for a group of 6 and the grass banks were not suitable for the older person.

Would you recommend the services to a friend?

Yes

General Comments:

Details of your catches:

2 anglers;
Biggest 3 catfish 82, 77.08, 75. Loads (far too many!!) between 45 & 50 lbs.
Grass carp x1 @ 40.02
Mirror carp x 1 @ 33.14
Common carp x 1 @ 29.12
Numerous bream around 6lb mark, and two pike around 5lbs each.

Your best tactics/bait/rigs:

Struggled to find anything the catfish wouldn’t eat! The 82 was on tiger nut, as were most of the bream. The 70’s were on PB wafters. Scent from hell wafters were like crack for the catfish!!
The grass carp came from a fake corn topped essential Salami Cream hard hooker, and other carp were on PB wafters. Didn’t catch enough carp to make much of a judgment on best baits…but avoid fishmeal based if carp are your goal.

Were the facilities what you expected?

As expected- decent sized freezer (may struggle if 5 anglers bring plenty of bait however), and three fridges, a microwave and toaster.

Nice little rowing boat (essential to land some of the catfish), but sadly no electric outboard.
Nice hot shower with good pressure-
Only 1 English socket in the kitchen, so additional ones would be really helpful - or a UK extension

Were you happy with them?

They were more than adequate for a weeks fishing- electric motor for the boat would certainly help.

Would you recommend the venue to a friend?

In all honesty, I would only recommend the lake to a catfish angler. The lake is full of them, and getting through to the carp proved extremely difficult. Too difficult. I appreciate that’s fishing, and captures aren’t guaranteed, but unless something is done about the numbers of catfish then the carp fishing will likely continue to suffer.

Would you recommend the services to a friend?

Definitely recommend Angling Lines, Jo has been really helpful and had done her best to answer any questions, keep updated with shuttle times etc. Unfortunately for her, when she checked about the weed on our behalf, she was given duff information!

General Comments:

A very pretty lake, with little road noise; a really chilled out setting with really easy motorway access from Calais. Just the one toll about 5 mins from the lake costing around 21 euros each way.

There are no ‘swims’ as such so you can set up wherever you fancy it, although the terrain would limit you. Water levels clearly rise (had been ten foot higher at the start of the year when the lake had to be shut), so nice sleeper lined, level swims clearly not an option here. The water had dropped several feet the week before we arrived, making the banks pretty treacherous in places. I would 100% recommend bringing rubber matting to stop you slipping ar5e over t1t!!! We both had a few incident where we ended up in the water while playing catfish in the night!
Our biggest disappointment (apart from the lack of carp caught), was the amount of weed in the lake. I had checked before arriving, and was assured the weed wasn’t an issue, and there was just some in the margin and shallow bars. The reality is however, that there are many very large weed beds made up of a very sharp weed that cost as numerous fish over the week: as soon as fish kited into a bed, the rod would make a horrible grating sensation and the line would part. We reeled in so many rigs during the week it was crazy, so obviously not the only ones to be affected. Even after getting out in the boat with a large weed rake and dragging for six straight hours, we hardly made a dent on it, and needed to get out in the boat to land many of the catfish that you simply couldn’t stop! If we’d know the lake contained this type of weed, in the amount it does, then we would have come prepared with heavy duty snag leaders. A real frustration when we’d specifically asked this question.

A big thinning out of catfish is essential. We got to the point of just flopping back 45+ pounders without a photo as there were so many being caught. There was a large empty plastic pond liner with aerator, where we were asked to put small catfish or pike in, but it wasn’t feasible to carry them round the lake to drop them off- these are needed all round the lake if the goal is to thin the catfish population.

I’m sure we’d read there was an electric outboard for the boat, but this is not the case. I would have brought one if I’d known

Really liked the access, with the ability to drive around the entire lake to drop off gear.

Setting up in some areas proved challenging however as many of the banks are steep and slippery , so it was impossible to set up bivvy up. You could drop back to the road, (but would be some way from your rods), but then you’d cut off access for vehicles. Not an issue for us, as it was just two anglers, but could be squeeze if 5 anglers arrived, (especially with the weed), and would suggest a max of 4 when weed is present.