If you are looking for a secluded fishery where you can get away from it all for a day's pleasure angling - Lanny's Lagoon on the Warwickshire/Leicestershire border has to be the place.
Just off the Fosse Way, the fishery is surrounded by five and a half acres of woodlands and offers two delightful pools holding a good head of carp, roach, rudd, perch, tench and barbel. Because Lanny's Lagoon is set in woodland, the pools are always sheltered from any wind whatever the time of year.
Although the lakes are about 150 yards down a track through the woods from the main car park at the entrance to the fishery, the walk is certainly worth it. However, disabled anglers can ring in advance to gain access and drive their cars to the car park next to the cabin, which is equipped with a toilet which has recently been upgraded.
Unlike many commercial day-ticket fisheries today, Lanny's Lagoon is run by owner John Lanwarne as a labour of love rather than an out-and-out money-making venture.
A former British Telecom engineer, Lanny retired from his nine-to-five job when he inherited the pools about 15 years ago and since then has progressively cleared the banks, created walkways and pegs around the pools, removed unwanted weed from the waters and created a haven for anglers who enjoy a quiet day's secluded fishing. Indeed, when he first took over the pools he had to hack a path through shrubs and undergrowth to get to the waterside!
Open from dawn until dusk, the blend of carp and silver fish make Lanny's Lagoon a good year-round venue and it is certainly worth going off the beaten track to find and enjoy this lovely fishery.
Although the two pools are known as Top Lake and Middle Lake, there is actually no Bottom Lake!
Day tickets are available on the bank or from the on-site cabin. The fishery is available for club matches at £5.00 per peg or £100.00 to hire the whole 22-peg Top Lake. Keepnets are allowed, although should not be used for retaining carp, and unhooking mats are recommended for handling larger fish. Younger anglers under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult.
2007 Ticket Costs
|
Day tickets (Dawn until an hour before dusk) |
After 4.00pm (Summer) |
| Adults |
£6.00 |
£4.00 |
| Junior/OAP/Disabled |
£4.00 |
£3.00 |
Bookings for matches should be made by contacting
John Lanwarne on 07970 907995
Top Lake
Just over an acre in size, Top Lake can cater for about 24 anglers and holds a good head of Common Carp to 18lbs, Mirror Carp to 12lbs, Leathers to 8lbs and a few ghosties to 12lbs. The average size of the carp is between 7lbs and 8lbs. In addition, there are large numbers of roach, rudd and skimmer bream to just under 1lb, perch to 2lbs, Crucian Carp to 1lb 8oz and barbel to 3lbs.
Exciting sport should be provided in the coming years following the introduction in 2003 of tench which went in at between eight and 10 inches in length.
Despite the range and size of fish in Top Lake, the best technique for fishing the water is to use a single red maggot on a size 16s or 18s hook fished in the margins or about a yard out from the bank.
However, although this is effective, anglers should not fish too light as the big carp are equally likely to be caught on a single red maggot as the small perch and roach! Whatever species you are after, it pays to feed a few maggots or samples of hookbait regularly taking care not to overfeed as this seems to put the fish off.
The water drops off quickly at the bankside to about seven feet and whilst much of the lake is this depth about seven metres out from Peg 11 there is a deep hole which goes down to some 15 feet.
Anglers fishing this peg should beware, however. The regular sprays of bubbles which break the surface at this point are not always fish but gas being given off from the bottom. This hole is part of an original pond which existed on the site and can be a good spot to fish, particularly in winter and cold weather.
As one would expect with a well established lake, the abundance of natural food - particularly bloodworm in the silt on the bottom and the vast amount of bugs which drop off the surrounding trees - means there is no real foolproof way of fishing the water.
Although the single red maggot method works well most of the time, anglers should be prepared to experiment with other techniques.
The unfortunate, but not to be unexpected drawback of fishing single red maggot is that anglers have to persevere with catching small fish until the bigger fish arrive and push the smallfry out of the swim.
More recently, as the water has become more popular, small pieces of luncheon meat and expander pellets have also been found to work well whilst those going specifically for the carp should also consider the Method feeder.
An unusual feature on Top Lake is the sight of Clive the Cormorant Man - a dummy fishing from a boat which keeps the water clear of cormorants. Although Clive makes a somewhat unusual feature, like the lily beds and central island he is worth fishing to. A popular technique here is to again use a single red maggot about a foot deep fished under a float.
Middle Lake
At just under an acre in size, Middle Lake has 17 pegs, 10 of which have been specially adapted for disabled anglers. Like Top Lake it has a central island and although it holds the same mix of species as Top Lake, the fish tend not to run quite as big on average - although this could be somewhat misleading as Middle Lake tends not to be fished as much as Top Lake and so its contents are still somewhat a mystery to most anglers.
Early in 2004, however, stocks were supplemented with half a ton of roach, rudd, mirrors, commons and hybrid crucian carp from the Environment Agency and these are now showing well and leading to substantial pleasure bags of fish.
Shallower than Top Lake at only five feet at the cabin end and shallowing to just a couple of feet at the narrow end - a popular spawning area for the fish - Middle Lake has shelves about three feet deep where the lily beds grow and plenty of bankside vegetation. As one would expect, it pays to fish these shelves, to the island and in the margins during warmer weather.
However, as the weather turns colder in late summer and winter, fishing the deeper water should produce good results and it may even be worth trying the Method feeder due to the large number of carp in the water.
One word of warning. Because Lanny's Lagoon is remote, quiet and sheltered, anglers fishing either lake must be prepared to be quite.
Any banging around, loud talking or heavy footsteps are likely to scare the fish as they are not used to noise and both lakes are only lightly fished - except for the occasional club match when weights of around 30lbs are common - although the best match result for the 2003 season came in at just under 70lbs
How to get there...
Lanny's Lagoon can be found on the main B4455 Fosse Way near Stretton under Fosse. Easily accessible from the A45 between Coventry and Rugby, leave the A45 at the Stretton-on-Dunsmore roundabout a head north along the Fosse Way.
Stay on the Fosse all the way through Brinklow and Lanny's Lagoon can be found signed on the left about a quarter of a mile after the B4027 goes right off the Fosse.
If you reach the M6 motorway bridge you have gone too far!
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Lanny's Lagoon
Disabled anglers can now fish on the special anglers' platforms on the Middle Lake at Lanny's Lagoon following the installation of the timber pegs through Environment Agency-funding.
The work has greatly improved the look of this delightful pleasure venue just off the Fosse Way in Warwickshire.