Vale Farm Fishery

beautifully kept lakes are owned and run by Nick Dunford who shares a common passion for fish and fishing. Along with his head keeper Andrew they take pride in keeping the lake surroundings tidy and well manicured. The joy of these lakes are that you can fish within twenty feet of another angler and not know he’s there. The lakes are stocked with a good head of excellently conditioned common and mirror carp with plenty of doubles, including a Ghostie in the middle lake up to 29 lbs. The left hand lake at one time was trout lake and is considerably clearer than the other two lending itself well to top water stalking. It also seems to be less fished than the other two, but you can regularly see shoals of good sized common carp cruising close to the surface.The middle lake has an island that many fishermen tend to lay just off, but be warned that many of the bigger fish are swimming around the margins and can be right under your feet as some of the banks are undercut. The right hand lake is a bit more secluded for those looking for solitude but still has plenty of large doubles up to 23 lbs. This lake also has a good head of tench and bream as well a plethora of rudd should you be looking to go for quantity rather than size. Recently and as sign of the times a number of fly fishermen have been concentrating on carp and other coarse fish on the fly which has proved challenging but successful. Being right in Chalkstream country the lakes can often experience incredible hatches of olives, beatis and mayfly that the carp and rudd will feed on making this fishery somewhat unique and ideal for those thinking of fly fishing for coarse fish.