I had fished this many years up until about 2004, I grew up close and spent most weekends there as the owner kindly gave us a season tickets in return for mowing lawns and cleaning up a bit.
Mallard -
Some big carp in here, defo 40+ can be had. There are some big gravel bars and island's on the lake and from a tree (be careful) you can often see them and see the fish moving round them in the summer. The fish here are VERY wary and i have never managed to get one over 15lb off the surface here.
There are also Islands on the lake, and deep spots around these island's can be found so make sure you plumb it well. ITs a stunning lake, don't get caught up fishing on the road side near the river, over the back there is one or 2 very good swims. You might even be able to see where i made it a lot easier to climd one of the trees!!
Swan -
I had a 28lb pike out of here in 1998, it was a monster i was 16 and i was on my own, i didn't know what the hell to do to be honest i was gob smacked! Again there are some big fish in here but it can be VERY hard as its huge.
I used to go down there in an evening and catch bags of bream of 6lb plus, there are carp in here but i never did get round to going after them. I have friends who have and who have caught, they claim they seem to stick together and once your on the fish its likely you will pick up more than one.
This lake for me was all about the pike fishing - i used to go and get 5 fish in a day. Lots of strong hardly caught fish in here!
The forgotten lake - The Kingfisher. As you enter its to the right through the woods - follow to river if u cannot find it.
I went recently and looked at it, its very over grown but i put a few dog Biscuits out and i could hear them taking them in the reeds. The lake used to be stocked with a large number of 6lb to 12lb fish, most of those would be heading towards there 20's now and there was a few that size in there when we where younger. We used to catch them on sweetcorn mostly but we started to use boilies and pop ups swell. Sometimes we would get no fish in a day some times we would net 12 or more. Bread off the surface works well and i have had some of my best days just lapping that lake with a rod and loaf of bread. Lots of small fish in here including some stunning roach and rubb going to 2lb. We also had a 19lb pike out of here.
On a side note - Don't ignore the river, we had some good bream and chub to 5lb along the river the follows the lake. To be honest it looks a bit shallow last time i looked.
Other lakes also have fish in, i remember the Grebe was very good for smaller pike. but i never really fish it. Also there was a rumour of some carp in the lake next to the Grebe, but it was very good for decent sized tench.
Hope this helps some people, from what I'm aware its still owned by James Cook.
good luck
