Mark's Magic Lake

That sounds a wonderful place Mark, the sort of places dreams are made of, just like you say. How much nicer it would have been if nobody had ever fished it and you were still trying to catch the monsters that must surely lurk in such a lovely place.

Unfortunately there are'nt many places in this country that ever live up to those dreams but you seem to have fun looking and long may you continue to do so.

Such places that are accessable and not turned into commercial fisheries are few and far between these days.
I really envy you finding a place like that Mark.

Lovely article Mark.

It made me think of one of the magic places from my youth. It too was a lake in the grounds of a country house. I only ever fished it once with a club and nearly everyone caught. Nothing huge, but the rudd were so golden, the tench such a lovely shade of olive and all the fish were in such good condition that we wondered if they had ever been caught before. The lake had a fringe of rushes around the edge and beds of lovely lily pads that just screamed fish! Truly like something out of Crabtree.

The house had been bought by a sect of monks called the White Fathers of Africa (strange but true - try a Google if you don't believe me!)and we saw a few of them wandering around the grounds dressed in habits!

We all wanted to fish the lake again, but could never get permission - apparently there had been a few cases of poaching since our club's visit and we were blacklisted.

The final twist in the story is that the White Fathers of Africa sold the house to Oliver Read who owned it up until 5 years or so before his death. The last I heard of the place was that it had been converted into exclusive flats.

Nice article Mark, and even though I fish some beautiful rivers, canals and the odd small lake I've yet to come across that special place! Except in my dreams, there is a place, a small stream that?s completely imaginary, that I often dream about and one day I'll find the real thing.

I knew one such place like this in my teens. It was near Worksop in Notts. I was allowed to fish there on just a few occasions.

It was fringed with lilies, rushes, rhodedendrums and beech trees. It contained rudd, perch and tench.

Not big fish, the tench were almost black in colour, but those rudd, the colours were truly striking.

You article took me back to my youth Mark.

I often look at the Ordinance Survey Street Maps and on there are marked many little estate lakes, some very close to the main road. Many of them are uncared for, perhaps supporting some ducks for a duck shoot.

What does it take to clear these out, create an access road and a bit of parking? Not much and many clubs can do it, it just takes a little time and not too much investment. After that, it's regular, but controlled maintenance.

And like you say Mark, it's not all about catching net busters. It's about the pleasure of being there.

cracking article.
i was driving to work one morning and had a kind of intuition that there was a pond at the bottom of a lane that i had driven past every morning and night for 8 years, i drove down and low and behold there it was a small pond circled by trees, (i think it was the trees that gave its presence away from the road - although intuition sounds more romantic !).
i asked the one solitary angler who was fishing who owned the rights, and after a significant ammount of spade work and telephone calls found out the current waiting list for membership was 8 years !!!

it seems you were a little luckier than me !!!