Apr 2025

Old Oaks - Doing what it does best!, 20th Apr

A enjoyable visit to Old Oaks - to see the changes and improvements made and also to see Mehdi's new stock pond for the growing on of some spectacularly scaled carp. As you know Mehdi doesnt do things by halves and in a few more years we will see the results of his endeavors. I'm sure he will be doing his own update soon.

This visit also saw me meeting a great group of anglers. I was chatting with Roy, in swim 1 and we were discussing just how many factors come in to play that decide how successful or not a weeks fishing can be. Timing, weather, water temps, bait, good tactics and angling skill, all have a say. Sometimes a lake just 'switches on' . The previous week saw around 6 carp out but that switch definitely clicked on for this group, they had already caught well and it was still only Wednesday. Check out their feedback as 34 carp were banked including both the Fox common at 67lb and the Long common at 76lb 04 oz. Awesome.

Jan 2025

ROAD TO 2025 AT OLD OAKS, 29th Jan

This winter has been exceptionally wet and cold, resulting in the highest lake level we’ve ever seen. We’re managing to maintain the right level using a drainage pipe and a pump, (over 6200 m3 out so far). All five fishing swims are still fishable, we may rise up the level of each swim to prevent floods.

We recently installed a new privacy screen along the far-side fence and trimmed / removed trees along the far bank. We’ve set up new traps for the poisson chat and have already removed over three tons! In the coming weeks, we will introduce some black bass to help control the baby balls, which should improve the fishing comfort and provide more food for the carp.

The fish remain active this winter, even with water temperatures dropping to 3°C! Anglers visiting for 48 or 72 hours have regularly caught big fish, with a good average. Despite the negative temperatures, they've reeled in mostly forties, fifties, and even a seventy! The biggest catch of the winter so far is the Fox Common at 70 lbs!

Jan 2025

2024 season round up, 21st Jan

In early spring, we did big tidy up around the lake. We cleared out a lot of bushes and branches on each swim, and remove most of the underwater snags from the far bank. 

The biggest news of the season was the new lake record, the first 80lber of the lake! Nick, from Lee Riley's party, had the honor of catching the famous long common, which weighed in at an incredible 82lb 3oz, congratulations on your new PB Nick!! Several lucky anglers also had the pleasure of meeting this big girl too. Also, the fox common has been caught several times, and is now reaching up to the 70lb mark. The lake record mirror has been broken too, with a beautiful scaly mirror weighing 66lb 5oz. The weekly weight average is really good, always over 40lb and up to 50lb+ !

We keep trapping the poisson chat weekly to keep the population down.

Many new PB’s were broken in 2024, roll on 2025!