barford lakes norfolk - day ticket waters - Venues

Norfolk

Contact Details

Tel :01603 759624
E-Mail-sarah@barfordlakes.co.uk
WEB- www.barfordlakes.co.uk

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Barford Lakes

One of the most popular privately-owned stillwater coarse fisheries in East Anglia

About 7 miles West of Norwich, Barford lakes offer a range of fishing to suit all anglers be it pleasure, match and intermediate carp anglers.
There are two pleasure day-ticket lakes, a training lake (which is only charged at £2.50 for beginners) and a 30 peg match water on the main site, as well as 4 other match lakes nearby.
Easy accessible pegs with immediate car access can be pre-booked for wheelchair users

Facilities include ladies, gents and disabled toilets and a fully stocked tackle shop offering great deals on a range of fishing equipment, accessories and baits, including hook bait and ground bait.
Baits can even be pre-ordered by phone or email.
Hot drinks, refreshments, snacks and confectionery are also availalbe plus EA Rod Licences and there is even a rod hire service.
Angling advice is free of charge!

The Pleasure Lake :

This is heavily stocked with Mirror, Common and Ghost Carp into the high teens, bream to over 8lbs and tench to 6lbs,a decent head of roach to 1lb 15oz, rudd to over 1lb, Golden Orfe to over 2lbs, Crucian Carp to 1lb, chub to 4lbs and barbel to 3lbs 8oz.
There are a total of 35 permanent pegs, 30 of which are double wooden pegs ideal for two anglers such as father and son and six pegs are wheelchair accessible.
The depths range between 8 & 13 feet with the deepest water to be found off Peg 10 in the right hand corner of the lake.
From the causeway bank depths of eight to 10 feet can be found only a rod length out.
Ideal for fishing the pole or waggler, with sweetcorn, luncheon meat, tinned cat meat, maggots, paste and breadflake being the most popular baits.
As Barford Lakes does not allow floating baits because too many fish have their mouths ripped, breadflake should always be fished pinched so it is either a few inches below the surface or on the bottom.
When trying the deeper parts of the lake fishing a sliding float set at about 10 feet is usually good whilst an alternative is to use a small maggot feeder fished further out - a method which is usually good for the bream and barbel.
Although the fish tend to be fairly nomadic, they can usually be found in the shallower water on warm to hot summer afternoons and evenings when they also move into the shallower margins.

The Match Lake :

Although the average size of the fish in the Match Lake is around 5lb-7lb, some of the carp run to 12lbs.
The aim has been to provide a first-rate match venue which is attractive to fish and where anglers need to catch a lot of fish to win a competition rather than rely on a few large fish.
The predominant species are Mirror,Common Carp and Golden Orfe, but with a decent head of crucians to 1lb, roach to 1lb 8oz, rudd around the 8oz to 12oz mark and skimmer bream,plus a few tench to 4lbs.
Mainly a pole water,with average depths of 8 to 10 feet.
There are a total of 32 match pegs on the water.
One of the most productive baits tends to be luncheon meat which is particularly effective when fished around the edge where there is a ledge which runs a short way out.
Anglers are advised to fish as close to the marginal reeds as they can where the water is usually between two and three feet deep.
Other popular baits are sweetcorn, catmeat and maggots which regularly produce good catches.
Pegs 9 and 10 and 25 and 26 have been adapted for wheelchair users.

Top Lake :

Although there are only 15 pegs, this water is mostly a duplication of Match Lake to ensure that competition anglers who fish events which are pegged over both waters stand an equal chance of catching.
The Top Lake is also used to take any overspill from Pleasure Lake on busy days when the Top Lake is not being used for competitions.
It also has its own car park, which can be reached down the track to the left before the house at the end of the entrance drive.
There are also eight pegs on Top Lake which are wheelchair accessible.
As with the Match Lake, the Top Lake is a predominantly carp water with the majority of the fish in the 4lb to 5lb range but some running to 12lbs.
There is also a good head of roach, skimmer bream, chub, rudd, crucians and some tench.
The pole is the most common techique with sweetcorn, luncheon meat, catmeat and maggots being the most popular baits.

Colton Lake :

Five minutes drive from the main Barford Lakes. Colton is a rectangular shaped 40 peg water reserved purely for competitions, the lake is about 40 metres wide by 300 metres long. The pegs are spaced about 15 metres apart. Another pole and carp water with the average size running between 6lbs and 8lbs, with a good number of well into double figures. The water has a fairly unfirm bottom. From Pegs 10-11 at the top end there is about eight feet of water going down to nine to 10 feet before shallowing up again at the entrance end to about eight feet. The deepest parts are off Pegs 28 to 34 where about 12 feet of water can be found.

Abbey Waters :

A triangular shaped 30-peg lake full of rudd, tench, roach and carp with the majority of the carp being in the 4lbs to 5lbs with some reaching 12lb and the tench to 5lbs.
To be found on private farmland on the B1077 near the town of Attleborough, about 25 minutes drive south from the main Barford site, Abbey Waters Match Lake is again a former farm irrigation lake and averages about nine feet deep throughout.
An ideal mixed fishery for club matches, maggot and sweetcorn proved the best baits for 2001, although as the water only recently became part of the Barford fishery a great deal is still unknown about it.
A large percentage of the clubs which have booked the venue for matches have made repeat bookings, and Abbey Waters is now fully booked most weekends until next season, which speaks for itself.
One reason must be that Abbey is a fairly consistent water with catches of more than 100lbs showing in the peak summer months.

Railway Lake :

The 62-peg Railway Lake is only 10 minutes from the main site at Barford.
Designed for winter fishing, Railway Lake is stocked with roach, rudd, quality bream, tench, chub and some small carp to 2½lbs, Tench to 5lb and there are also some good size Bream to 8lb.There is also the odd double figure carp present from the original stock.

At about five acres, this is the largest lake Barford Fishery has developed.
The width of the lake around the island varies from 10 to 20 metres and most pegs have a feature to fish to.
All pegs are wheelchair accessible.

Willow Lake :

Situated on the Railway Lakes complex in Thuxton (nr Garvestone), Willow is a banana shaped lake and is the newest match water which lies parallel with peg numbers 1-16 of Railway Lake.
There are 35 platformed pegs, an average depth of 10' and it is well stocked, mainly with Carp ranging between 2-10lb.
A portakabin has been installed for use at this venue and with two rooms allows clubs fishing both Railway and Willow to draw from there, and is located on the right as you go over the bridge when entering the complex.

Training Lake :

This is the starter lake at the main Barford Lakes venue.
It is a small lake with 6 pegs on one side and one wide double swim at one end. Primarily used as a training venue for demonstrating basic angling techniques to new anglers, this lake is also available to fish on a general day ticket, but anglers learning to fish can buy a ticket for just this lake for a nominal fee of £2.50.
The Training Lake is particularly popular as anglers are "almost" guaranteed to catch fish on this small, well stocked lake and groups of children can be easily watched given the lack of bankside vegetation.
The lake has good access for the less able with a specially designed peg and has regularly been used by groups of special needs children for their monthly out of school trips.
Is well stocked with small Carp, Brown Goldfish, Roach and Rudd.
There should be no fish over 3lb in this lake although the odd biggie has got in from the pleasure lake.
There are six wooden pegs on one side and a very wide double swim at one end which can seat two anglers and an instructor.
Fishing is only permitted from stagings provided.