Arguably the most famous day ticket water in the country, this 18 acre gravel pit has proved itself as one of the top day ticket lakes on the Linear site since the early 90’s and is well known throughout the carp fishing fraternity. Over the years we have lost count of the many anglers who, on their first visit to this very scenic water, have gone home thrilled in the knowledge that they had caught a personal best carp, tench, catfish, pike, roach or even bream.
A majority of the carp that the water now holds are in excess of twenty pounds in weight with at least 40 weighing in excess of 30lbs. Many of these bigger fish have been caught at over 36lb and at the right time of the year at least seven of them have been recorded in excess of 40 pounds. In fact during recent years, four different fish were caught in excess of 47lb. The complex record for a common is 48lb 04oz and for a mirror it is 48.12 pounds.
Linear has an on-going stocking policy with the water and in recent years it has seen us stock over 400 good size carp. The continuing plan is to introduce selected fish from their stock waters on a regular basis
The tench fishing is first class and fish to over 12lb along with bream of over 15lb have been recorded. Catfish regularly feature in catches and continue to be targeted by dedicated catfish anglers, the biggest recorded in recent seasons is a staggering 90lb, a new lake record. We are reliably informed that there are now five fish over 70lb in the water, one which weighs over 80lb and the other 90lb. Pike to over 20lbs have been caught and in the past the water has produced them to over 28lbs.
HARDWICK LAKE &
SMITHS POOL
Joined together by a narrow channel these two waters provide some first class fishing and contain some very pretty carp which were selected intentionally for the waters.
Linear estimate the carp stock to be just over 1,000 fish with a high number of these in excess of twenty pounds in weight. There are at least 20 over thirty pounds and over the last four years fish to over 40lb have been recorded.
The lake record for a common carp is 39.14, for a mirror it is 43.10 and for a ghost carp it is 25lb. In addition to the carp, the waters also hold some tremendous fish of other species. In past years there have been pike caught to over 31lb, bream over 15lb, tench to 11lb plus, and roach to 3lb 15oz.
During the last couple of years, we have had reports of two catfish being caught from the water, these fish shouldn't be there and probably moved as small fish back in 2007 during the summer floods. We have a temporary licence with the EA but they must be removed from the water when caught. If anyone lands a cat from the water, please retain it in their net a contact one of the fishery team.
