Trip #137 – Thorney Lakes – Re-review

Thorney Lakes – Re-review

So after my recent trip to Ash Ponds with my eldest son, my youngest son got incredibly jealous and wanted to go fishing. For some reason there is a minimum age of 10 years on Ash Ponds, and with son number 2 coming in at 4 (going on 15) that was out. Where could I take him? I had already decided I was going to take a whip and a pole and that was it. I called into TackleUK and asked the question, “Where can I fish the whip? There needs to be lots of silver fish to entertain a 4 year old?”. “Thorney” came the reply, I took the answer at face value as I knew the fishery itself had undergone some changes in the 10 years since I last visited.

Truthfully I had been to the venue in the last few years for a camping trip and I had visited the lakes then, there had been some minor changes but nowhere near what I experienced when I arrived this time. My son and I arrived for an afternoon session and drove down the road leading to the lakes. Immediately I noticed a difference, the new owner has installed a very hefty otterproof fence around both lakes. This was a welcome surprise because after my last visit I had wondered if local otters and mink had worked their way up the nearby water courses into the lakes to help themselves to an all you can eat buffet.

The Lakes themselves had also gone through a bit of a transformation. There were lily pads or features at almost every peg, looking around the lake I could see some other anglers and looking out at the water there were plenty of silverfish moving as well as the occasional carp surfacing in the hot afternoon sun.

I had to act quickly and set up as containing a very lively four-year-old is hard work.  So I quickly attached his rig to the tip of the whip and flicked it out with a single maggot on the hook.  Within seconds the float had dipped under and we were into our first fish. A fin perfect Roach of a few ounces. This was quickly followed by a stream of fish one after another after another. It was clear that the owner had invested a lot of time into these lakes.  At one point he came around to talk to us, started talking ot me about this fish he had stocked into the lakes.While we talked he watched us swinging several little silverfish much to my sons pleasure.  My son had also started to notice the big carp cruising across the surface around the lake. “Catch a big one Dad” were his instructions…

I haven’t fished a pole for quite literally years, so I only had a very small selection of rigs. While I sat and caught some more silverfish I started going through my box to see what options I had available. In the 45 minutes to an hour that followed we must have caught another 25-30 fish on the whip, that included a quick walk onto the island of the lake to look at the ducks.

When we returned to the box and sat back down there were a few larger carp swimming right in front of me. I took my chance attached a makeshift carp rig to the pole and shipped out. I was using an 8 mill pellet on a band and it wasn’t long before the tip of the float buried under the water, the elastic spring into life and I was into a fish. I’ve never really been convinced on pulla bungs, but having not played fish on the pole for years and knowing what a pulla bung is for (as well as having a few failed attempts at netting the fish), the requirement became immediately apparent.  After three failed netting attempts I finally managed to get to the bank a common carp just over 7lbs.  Now naturally my son was over the moon and in his mind he had caught the biggest fish in the lake.  We released the carp and went back to catching the smaller fish. We continued the session for the best part of another hour and caught a total of 78 silverfish plus the carp.  A very eventful afternoon indeed.

So what can I say, some really good improvements at Thorney Lakes.  Not to mention the shop where you buy your ticket now sells maggots and a few basic bits of terminal tackle which is really helpful.  The otter fence is obviously a great and much needed addition, and although my visit was probably 10 years ago this was a polar opposite in terms of abundance of fish.  The chap who now looks after the lakes clearly cares very much about anglers’ experiences and wants them to have the best time on the lakes possible.

As a re-rating I would say

Fishability **** –  as I said almost all pegs had some sort of feature and there were a lot of fish moving

Value for money – ***½ – We paid for an afternoon session which at the time I thought was useful at eight pounds a day ticket it is probably what an average fishery charges

Disabled access – *** Provided you had assistance this venue could be very wheelchair friendly as you can drive almost up to the water’s edge if necessary.  That said there are no solid pegs that I could see and you are fishing from a grassy bank into the lakes. 

I would definitely recommend Thorney Lakes to anyone looking for a busy fishing session as there is a huge head of silverfish and carp but the owner also assured me that there are a number of good tench in the lake. Returning home it was now my youngest son’s turn to start the bragging…