Lemington Lakes is owned and operated by husband and wife team Andy and Debbie Machin who ran Suffolk's Foxearth Fishery for nine years and turned it from an uninspiring venue into a thriving and popular fishery.
The magic which transformed Foxearth is paying off at Lemington Lakes where an ongoing fishery management project, being carried out in conjunction with independent fisheries consultant Andrew Ellis, is already yielding huge improvements in catches as a result of a reorganisation of existing fish stocks.
In addition to the fishing, Lemington Lakes also provides an excellent cafe and patio area. This means that a range of hot and cold food, snacks, sandwiches, confectionery and hot and cold drinks are available for anglers to enjoy throughout normal cafe opening hours.
Andy and Debbie have also developed an Anglers' Room (below left) where visitors and their families can enjoy a breakfast, snacks or drinks, watch television or videos, read magazines or just chill out and chat.
During autumn/winter 2007 the existing function room will be converted into two self-contained holiday cottages, each with two bedrooms, which will be ready for opening by Spring 2008.
Lemington Lakes is set in rolling Cotswolds countryside. A nicely matured fishery, it offers five lakes which are being managed to suit a variety of tastes from day pleasure anglers to matchmen and specimen carp anglers. Most pegs are suitable for disabled anglers and there is ample car parking on site with the new owners creating additional parking space nearer the pools.
Open from 7.00am until dusk, the spring-fed lakes are near the site of the former Medieval village of Lemington, which existed between the 11th and 14th Century, but the only remnants of which can be seen today are the nearby village church and the three-quarter acre Monks Pool which is used as a stock pool.
Monks Pool is more than 900 years old and was ceeded by Westminster Abbey in the 12th Century to the monks at Deerhurst, which was associated with nearby Tewkesbury Abbey, who used it for rearing carp for food. Another small pool at the top of the site was given by Lemington lakes to English Heritage and has now been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
The individual day-ticket best catch to date stands at over 200lbs whilst club matches are usually won with bags of 70lbs to over 100lbs. A new match record having been set early in May 2005 at 155lbs.
The couple are also steadily building up the range of tackle and accessories and now stock the full range of Dynamite baits and Korda tackle. This means anglers can now purchase a wide selection of terminal tackle, baits and groundbaits, plus a small selection of rods, reels, landing and keepnets plus accessories such as unhooking mats and even lanterns and batteries for night anglers.
Lemington Lakes has a Caravan Club 'Certificated Location Site' for five members (right) situated on the right hand side near the entrance. The site has stunning views across the Cotswold countryside as well as Elsan and water points with toilets and showers available within easy walking distance of the main complex. There is good access to walks and dogs are welcome.
A further new caravan site has also been developed next to the reception area for nine touring caravans, each with their own hard standing and electric hook-up.
For those who prefer more luxurious accommodation, the first floor of the new Cotswold stone house at Lemington Lakes has been purpose-built to provide three comfortable guest bedrooms complete with their own en-suite bathrooms. There is a choice of double or twin rooms which are available on a 'per-night' bed and breakfast basis with breakfasts being served in the cafeteria.
For further Details and photographs of the accommodation please follow this link.
Ticket Prices (except Bishops Specimen Lake)
|
Adults |
Under 14s |
| Day Tickets |
£7.00 |
£5.00 |
| After 4.00pm |
£5.00 |
£4.00 |
| Pre-booked 24-hour Ticket |
£17.00 |
£17.00 |
Match bookings for 10 pegs or more are available at £6.00 each.
24-hour tickets must be booked in advance.
Bishops Specimen Lake (Members only)
| Membership - All anglers |
£350.00 |
Cafeteria & Shop Opening Times
(March to November)
| Monday - Thursday |
7.00am until 2.00pm |
| Friday - Sunday |
7.00am until 5.00pm |
| Bank Holidays |
7.00am until 5.00pm |
Please note that the cafe is closed during December, January and February
Priory Pool
Ideal for both individual pleasure anglers and small club competitions, Priory Pool is the first water you come to on the right when you drive into Lemington Lakes.
Set back from the main drive, this three-quarter acre water offers a total of 18 well-spaced pegs and holds a good head of roach to 2lbs 8oz and Crucian Carp to 3lbs. Stocks have been supplemented for 2004 with the addition of some decent sized bream, more tench around the 1lb to 2lb mark, and some rudd.
A narrow shelf about three feet wide and three feet wide deep runs around the fringes of the pool before the depth drops to about 6ft. This shelf is always worth a try, particularly in summer.
Priory is generally is best fished with bread, maggot, luncheon meat or sweetcorn on the waggler or pole, although despite its size some anglers still prefer to fish the swimfeeder. The water hits its peak mid-Summer when bags of over 50lb a day are often taken, although sport is generally good because it is a fairly easy water to fish.
Bishops Specimen Lake
(Members only)
Known until 2004 simply as Lemington Lake, this 20 peg water covering some two-and-a-half acres is being continually developed as Lemington's specimen lake with common, mirror and ghost carp to 30lbs, and with fish being caught like this 26lb 8oz common, taken by Andrew Ellis in 2004, it is not surprising that this is becoming an increasingly popular short and long-stay venue with carp anglers.
As part of the development plan, the tench and silver fish which used to be in here have been moved to Lemington's other waters whilst nearly all of the tench have been moved to Sunset Lake, which is being developed as a 'tench only' water.
In addition, a further 20 fish weighing between 17lbs and 27lb have been introduced from Lemington Lakes' own stock ponds and are already starting to show. This brings the head of big fish in the water to more than 150.
The depth varies from 3ft 6ins to 12ft in the deepest points, although much of the lake averages 7ft. At the dam end by the reeds and lilies the average depth is 10ft.
To reflect the nature of Bishops, the number of pegs have been reduced and new double-width pegs built around the lake to cater for anglers who want to fish overnight.
As one might expect with an established water, both modern and traditional carp fishing techniques work well with those not using boilies going for peperami, tiger nuts, maize, flavoured sweetcorn, pellets or luncheon meat as the preferred baits.
Unusually, those who use boilies find that the fish-based flavours such as halibut work best in summer with the fruit flavours coming into their own in the winter.
In summer, fishing floating crust, bog biscuits or flavoured floating pellets all work well, although for some reason more fish tend to fall to a bait fished in open water than one close in to the margins. Fishing the method feeder is also a favoured technique all year round.
The biggest fish to have come out of Bishops so far in 2004 is a 26lb Common taken on tiger nuts which was part of a bag which contained several doubles.
Westminster Lake
Unlike the other Lemington Lakes waters, Westminster Lake is currently being left untouched under the new fishery improvement work and is being retained as a general mixed fishery, although all the fishing platforms are being improved and made suitable for disabled anglers ion liaison with the British Disdabled Anglers Association. The sport should also be enhanced with fewer matches being held on the water.
However, there are plans for further improvements to be made to the water, including removing many of the small roach up to 4oz. This should reduce competition for food in the lake and benefit all the other fish stocks in Westminster. It will also allow for the introduction of other quality fish.
Once known as 'Five Acre Lake' - despite the fact it is only four-and-a-half acres in size - Westminster is the largest of the five Lemington waters. Built in 1991, it accommodates nearly 50 anglers and is suitable for both pleasure and match angling.
A good all-round water, Westminster is heavily stocked with a huge head of carp averaging 5lbs but which run well into double figures. There is at least one known 20lb plus carp together with several 15lb-plus fish in the water. In addition there are chub, tench and bream to 5lbs, roach and golden orfe to 2lbs, as well as crucians, rudd and dace.
Because it is a general mixed pleasure water, Westminster is a popular venue for pole, waggler and ledger anglers. Again, popular baits tend to be sweetcorn, pellets, luncheon meat, maggots, caster and worms.
All round the water fishes well so, unless you have a personally preferred spot, picking any of the pegs should provide results. However, wherever you fish it pays to feed with groundbait or samples of hookbait and to feed little and regularly once you have attracted the fish into your swim.
It also pays to have a word with Debbie when you buy your ticket to see if any particular swims, baits or techniques are proving particularly successful. A few words of advice from those who know how the water is fishing could save time and trouble once you have tackled up.
Sunset Lake
Developed originally as a pleasure carp water, Sunset Lake has been enlarged from its previous one-and-a-quarter acres to two acres in size and transformed into an out-and-out 24-peg tench water for the increasing number of anglers who want an alternative to carp and silver fish. The carp have been moved to Lemington's other waters.
Expected to be re-opened in May 2007, the water was drained and the contours reshaped to provide a shallower lake running between five and six feet deep with four central islands which have been planted with lilies. The lake has now been stocked with tench running between six inches to 8lbs.
Abbey Lake
Due for opening in 2008, Lemington Lakes' new Abbey Lake is about three-and-a-half acres in size with 40 pegs and a depth of between four and five feet. It has narrow planting shelf about a foot wide and one foot deep which runs all the way round the lake and gradually slopes down to the maximum depth. The water has an even bottom.
Abbey is being developed as a mixed match and pleasure water and has been stocked with tench, crucians, rudd, roach and bream with nothing over 5lbs, making it an ideal year-round water and a valuable addition to the current offering at Lemington.
Abbey Lake will be the only water on the Lemington Lakes complex where matches will be held and both match and pleasure anglers will be allowed to use keepnets.
Lemington Lakes is regularly updating its website where it posts recent match results and other week-to-week news of interest to anglers. Follow the link to their site by clicking on the blue logo to the left.
How to get there . . .
From the North, take the A429 Stratford-upon-Avon to Moreton-in-Marsh road. Just before you enter Moreton you will see Lemington Lakes signposted. Take the left turn into Todenham Road which is immediately before the bridge over the railway.
Lemington Lakes is one-and-three-quarter miles on the left. From the south, drive through Moreton towards Stratford and just after you leave the village and go over the railway bridge Lemington Lakes is signposted to the right.
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