Chaps, may i introduce you to a water based in N.Lincs (Up North and to the East) that i have had my eye on for a while now, this particular water started it's life of as a former ore mining pit (exploration work) that was eventually left to fill many decades ago, the water was then leased by an angling club called Winterton Working Mens Club back in the late 70's, it then fell into the hands of a local gentleman who leased it for a further 3-4 yrs, until he felt he could no longer carry the burden on his own, since then it has been a bit of a free for all, anyone who wanted to fish it did so! , after several requests to obtain the lease on the lake and several knock backs i managed to persuade the land owners to live out a 'dream' of mine and have a fishery of my own .

The proposal was set in motion, the reply i was awaiting for came back 'affirmative', time to rock & roll.

The history of the fish stocks are a little vague, excuse me as i have not done enough delving on this side of things, but from what i can gather when W.W.M.C leased the lake they stocked it with predominantly Bream & Tench, it wasn't until the early 80's that they decided to introduce some Carp into the place, these i believe were purchased from Humberside Fisheries, these Carp were basically left to grow on their own devices for the next decade or so as the club was mainly match orientated (why did they stock them in the 1st place?). It wasn't until the 90's that one or two people noticed there was some nice fish to be had from this water as the Carp had grown on. When the local gentleman took over the lease it had a name for producing some decent Specimens for a water this far north of the country, but it was kept fairly local.

Over the last 3yrs it has been a bit of a free for all as mentioned before, the banks eventually became overgrown to the extent that none of the pegs were visible, even the tracks to the pegs had been taken over by mother nature, so as the lease finally dropped through the doorstep some serious work was needed, a few petrol strimmers, hedgecutters, lawnmowers would see to that, this we have managed, now was the time for sorting the pegs or rather places to fish from .

The lake itself is around 6 acres, i think it is rather beautifull but in a different way to most lakes, it is long, deep and fairly snaggy in places, the intention is not to spoil the beauty of the place by bulldozing the way to the swims but, rather some nice intricate pathways, it's hard to describe when you havn't seen it before as to what it is currently now, anyhow here is the plan of the pegs.



We tried to create 12 pegs but unfortunately the bank was to steep on the road side to allow us to do this, we are left with 9 pegs/swims of which there will be a max of 8 anglers at anyone time, incidently none of these swims will conflict with any other swims on the lake, you have your own water so to speak.

What Carp stock is left? From what i can gather there is around 30 possibly more, maybe slightly less, Carp left in this lake along with Tench & Bream, a few Perch and a couple of old Chub that are rather big. What Carp are left are absolutely stunning fish, left to their own devices, they certainly flourished, whilst not attaining the dizzy weights of the cousins down south, they more than make up for it with looks, as said before the lake is deep, gin clear, this has led to the fish being very dark on top.

A few pictures to wet the appetite







More recently a 27.12 mirror caught a couple of weeks ago.


Whilst the fishing for the Carp i can honestly describe as moderate to hard, the rewards are there for those who put the effort in .

Photo's of the lake? Ok here goes.











Whilst the lake looks lovely from the photo's and the wind is subdued, as with all waters the place can turn into an ugly beast when fit .

There was a bit of work to do with snag removal, swim building and litter, here's some photo's of what we managed to do.
For some reason the previous post was maybe too long?

The diver on a bit of snag removal


Bowsaw was handy



Mussels? Plenty of them!!



Swim called Birches1 before it's trim



Afer trim!



Newly dugout Birches2



A nice photo of the Point swim.



The rules and costs for fishing the lake? Look below.

1. Strictly, no fires of any kind.
2. 3 rods max.
3. No sacks, and that means NON whatsoever. Fish retention in a landing net ok, whilst you sort weighing and camera equipment out, be prepared.
4. Radio’s are permitted but keep the sound to a sensible level and show respect for those fishing nearby.
5. Barbed or Micro-Barbed hooks only.
6. Minimum 15 lb B.S. Line due to the snags, No Braided Mainlines. No Leadcore, NO FIXED Leads
7. No Baitboats, if you can’t cast in this lake, take up golf!!
8. Strictly NO Nuts of anykind, particles permitted but please ensure these are well prepared, that includes both soaking & boiling correctly.
9. No Shelf-Life/Readymade Boilies whatsoever, Shelf-Life Pop-Ups & Hookbaits ok. We encourage the use of good quality freezer bait & pellets.
10. Please show respect for fellow anglers, wildlife, pondlife etc, no removing obstacles/trees/bushes without prior permission. Keep Bite Alarm noise to a sensible level.
11. Fishing is by APPOINTMENT only, you must book in advance, ANYONE caught with litter in their swim will be asked to leave immediately without a refund of monies paid.
12. Anti-Septic liquids such as Klin-ik as well as properly padded unhooking mats must be used AT ALL TIMES, if you don’t have any, don’t bother fishing. Minimum 42” nets for Carp.
13. Under 16’s must be accompanied by an Adult . Please have a valid E.A. fishing license!
14. All Carp to be weighed so we can keep a track of growth rates. Publishing of photo’s ok with prior permission.
15. No fish to be removed from premises.

Afterall that should you want to have a dabble the costs are,

£5/day or £10/24hrs.

To book call Rob on 07595910003 or Cal on 07784482993.

The future? Well we have provisionally booked the services of Mainstream Fisheries who will electro fish and net the place to remove most of the Tench & Bream to allow more bio-availabilty to the Carp, on top of this we have 20 Leney/Sutton strain Carp to be stocked in Nov this year and a further 30 Leney/Sutton, Leney/Dink & Sutton strain of Carp for Nov next year through VS Fisheries. The ideal is to have around 80 Carp into the lake that is available to Joe Public without paying sky high syndicate prices. We hope the fish will bring enormous satisfaction to those that are willing to fish 'Sliver Lake'.

Nice one Cal thats superb news mate.

May I be the first (on here at least) to wish you the very best of luck with this venture. I look forward to seeing the whackers it produces in a few years time when your good water managment starts paying dividends.

Its a bit far for me to visit with any sort of regularity but I may pay a visit at some point just to have a nosy. Perhaps you could give me the guided tour and we could share a beer or two.

Only a couple mind, wouldnt want to give out the wrong messages to your customers.

smashing cal,be up soon..like the set-up and like the baitboat ban too m8, thats a plus with everyone being in the same boat ..how about a floater ban too ..prevent locals coming on for last few hours from littering the surface with em and dissappearing whilst those that travelled distance have to sit with them drifting about all night..its not right i know but it will happen ..but yes looking very nice and relaxing...lovely

The floater ban won't happen m8, if your one of the possible 8 booked on then i can't see how the locals will be coming down for the last few hrs, as you have to book in advance?

Andy, if your in this neck of the woods and want a look round the place, then i'll be more than happy to share a beer , oh and a look around the lake .

Can any of the mods tidy up the first two posts please?

Some of the residents, i'll add more when i recieve pictures of latest fish caught .

Cal, these look like young fish to me...

Which ones Paul?

All of them except the top and bottom one in the last sequence of pics...

Do you know when they were stocked, Cal?

From what i can gather there was an original stocking from Winterton Working Mens club when they had it some 25-30 yrs ago stock quantities i don't know, i'm also led to believe that there was few stockies went in from a local club water, around 15-20 fish, some 8yrs ago. Very much still learning about the water and what's in it.