Elphicks is a great fishing venue, its lakes are extensive as are its facilities, and as a woman as much as I don’t mind ‘roughing’ it, it is definitely nice to know there are toilets available and even a shower for night fishing!

There are 7 lakes at Elphicks and these are, North Lake: A Specimen Lake, Carp up to 481b and Cat fish up to 681b!!, Plantation lake: Another specimen lake but on a smaller scale with Carp up to 301b, Prairies Lake: This is what you call a ‘runs’ lake, if you want to catch some nice fish without too long to wait this is the right lake, carp to 201b, cat fish to 261b, Sandwich Lake: This lake has something for everyone, tench, roach, rudd, bream, dace, orfe, chubb and some very large perch! Kettles Lake: This is another ‘runs’ lake and is home to the famous tough fighting Ghost Carp, but also some big perch and other species as well. Pullens Lake: This Lake is purely for the serious specimen hunter, only five anglers at one time. The lake has been lightly stocked with carp to over 301b, it’s a hard lake, but the fight you get for the wait is well worth it! West end Lake: This is another Specimen lake for serious hunters only; once again patience is a virtue with this lake!

I have to say that all the lakes at Elphicks fisheries are beautiful. My Fiancé and I spent the day on Sandwich Lake and what a day it turned out to be! We always seem to go fishing in the autumn/winter, so are used to a lot of mud! Luckily at Elphicks this isn’t too much of a problem as the swims are ‘all weather’ and ours was made from Astroturf, slippy, but not as desperately muddy as at other lakes. We got set up with a couple of carp rods and a float rod each. The lake itself, is stunning, even in the bare nakedness which winter brings, we even had a little Robin friend, who, it has to be said, was the fattest little bird I had ever seen, and seemed to have formed quite an addiction to maggots!

My Fiancé went ahead and caught quite a few beautiful carp, all in gleaming good condition. He also caught a ghost carp which gave him the run around and also arm ache, but was worth it as the fish was stunning! I on the other hand, didn’t have as much luck as I would have liked. I don’t know why, the fish were quite obviously there! We had been told that there were big perch in this lake so we had bought a lovely shiny spinner, just in case. I had never seen a perch before, let alone caught one and honestly didn’t expect to either!

It got to late afternoon, early evening and I’d had enough of watching ‘him’ bag all the fish, so he put the spinner on my rod and gave me a 10 second lesson on how to spin and off I went! It was fun even without a fish, gently playing it, tugging it through the water, I was quite happily in my own little world doing this for about 5 minutes, when BANG! Something was on the end of the rod, my initial response was to think it was a mirror carp, odd I know, but I really wasn’t expecting to catch a Perch. One of my favourite memories is of me calling my Fiancé, more shouting at him for help really, and he came running over, net in hand bit smile on his face, perhaps more disbelief than anything! And there it was, my first perch, it was about 41b and very fat! I was also shocked at how they were not slimy but had a rough feel to them!

So, with Perch becoming my favourite fish I continued to catch another monster perch in quick succession, I quite obviously had the knack as ‘Fiancé’ couldn’t catch anything! The feeling I had when the fish hit the spinner and took off was awesome, so much adrenaline. Soon enough though night was falling upon us and it was time to pack up and go home leaving behind us a day full of great memories and laughs, and an even fatter Robin than we had first encountered.

Whatever type of angler you are, whatever type of fish you enjoy catching, this is certainly the place to go, it has everything a fishery should have and a whole lot more. And don’t forget to pack your spinner; you never know what you may find on the end of it!