Hey all,
Just thought i'd add my comments as me and two others fished pegs 6,7,8 directly.
We had a good weeks fishing as it turns out, particularly my mate who was on swim 6 who pulled out 11 fish in the week including a 42lb and 46lb mirror. I was on swim 7 and had a monster 52lb mirror and a couple of smaller 20s. Peg 8 was dead for most of the week but saw a 32lb and a 28 on the last day.
John the baliff (who is indeed an all round top bloke) did say though, that the cabin swims had been dead for ages and it seems we were lucky with our timing just as the fish started to move into and feed in the area. They were all holding up on the far bank and in the bay so a bait boat was pretty essential for accurate placement.
The swims down the other side of the lake were less productive with the odd carp coming out and 4 sturgeon.
Vallee is a nice lake and, based on our experience, has some good fish in it. However, before you all get too excited there is a big BUT:
Firstly, i should point out that at least another 10 dead fish were pulled out while we were there (mostly 20s but i think there was one 40 amongst them). I think Mark may have stocked a load of new 20s recently which may have upset the apple cart. Its a little concerning though if something more sinister has been introduced to the water. I can say that the fish we caught were all in excellent condition though.
Secondly, i can only echo some of the comments that have been made about the owner, Mark. Without wanting to get in the realms of slander (!) i must say that my personal opinion is that his prime concern is for the money he can make from the lake. It may seem a bit odd saying that given that the website and, on initial impresion, Mark himself do seem to have fish welfare as their priority.
It's a shame really as the lake is very nice and John the baliff is as down-to-earth a guy as you could meet. We got on with John exceptionally well and, were it not for Mark, i'd have no trouble in recommending Vallee lakes to anyone (the fish death issue asside...)
I'd still recommend Vallee. My one main piece of advice would be to take Euros with you for everything you need to pay for. Buy all your bait etc up-front with Euros and avoid leaving your card for potential mis-use!
