Venues: South West

When someone got in touch with us here at Total Carp HQ, about a property which was going to be hitting the market soon, and would be ideally suited to an angler, we just naturally had to take a look. We got in contact with Ex Editor Dan Murrell who lives in the South West to go and take a look and find out what it was all about.

I am not alone when I say that I have always dreamed of owning my own lake, as an angler we have all daydreamed about what life would be like if we had our own fishery to run, or even a lake in our own back garden. It was because of this natural intrigue I just new I had to go and take a look.

Nestled amongst rich farmland in a quintessential Cornish village and only a stones throw from some of the best summer holiday beaches around, sits Richmond Farm.

The site itself is situated in Tregonetha, St Collumb and in its entirety is 8.22 acres of land with a detached bungalow, complete with multiple outbuildings, but also amongst the grounds is a lake spanning near 2 acres and what’s more it has never been fished! Naturally I done some digging, and managed to find out that the lake was dug (No pun intended) over 30 years ago, and was in fact stocked with carp with a view to be turned into a fishery, however this never happened. It was only natural that I decided to take a small amount of tackle down to the Richmond Farm, to see for myself what if anything was in there still!

On First impressions, the lake is stunning. Left alone for many years it is a well established venue with rich bankside vegetation, adding to the mystery and intrigue even more, with next to no swims present already on the lake. At approximately two acres in size, there are two islands and also a spit which protrudes from one of the banks, making it a very interesting shape indeed, and certainly had me thinking about where I would be placing swims, and plotting out the fishery, this was more than a blank canvas it was an already matured lake, but with no prior swims or access made, you could tailor it into your own dream lake. Walking the banks with the current landowner, it soon become apparent that the venue has never previously been managed and these fish had been stocked years previous and left to their own natural devices. As we neared the end of the tour, Rob reached inside a metal bin and began to scatter some bird seed on the waters surface to showcase the waterfowl which also resided on the lake.

It was then my Father and I realised just how many fish were present, as the surface erupted and boiled in front of us. Mouths protruded from the surface everywhere we looked, and a plethora of common carp and ghost carp got fixated on picking the seed from the surface. In amongst the common carp you would sometimes catch a glimpse of a rare mirror carp, but how we were ever going to single them out we had no idea.

We readied some light gear and ventured around to one of the few clearings on the bank, with plenty of optimism and intrigue. Well, if I said it was chaotic that would be an understatement. Fishing simple tactics between us, a mixture of pop-ups over Bags of Pellet, and method feeder with bright hook baits, we caught over 10 fish within the first hour. As suspected, all of the fish were indeed commons, however a mixture of ghost commons thrown in too. Each of the fish showed immaculate condition, especially in the mouth and put up a great account of their selves having probably never been hooked before. In order to give the swim a bit of a chance to rest and get some bait out there, we fired some ground bait balls and pellet throughout the swim targeting one of the islands and ventured around the lake armed with just a float rod. It didn’t take long before we found plenty of silver fish, both Roach and Rudd, and what they lacked for in size, biggest being just under a 1lb, they made up for in quality and certainly quantity.

It was clear to see now, that although the lake had been dug in readiness for use as a fishery, no feeding, or stock management had ever been undertaken to a serious degree over the years. Everywhere we walked the overgrown margins and bays throughout the lake clouded up as carp dug around in search of food, this really was quite a spectacle to see, as these fish were completely unaware of us or angling pressure, and this is rare to find nowadays.

We continued fishing into the early evening and finished with a tally of just under 50 carp, and as you guessed it, all of those were commons, as we did manage to lose a mirror stalking in the edge, there’s always one that gets away and typically it had to be the mirror! As you can imagine the journey back home was spent talking about what we would do if it was ours, sadly and I honestly believe this is a rare opportunity to change someone’s life who has always dreamed of their own lake, and with a guide price of £445,00 I think you would agree that isn’t very much for your very own house, farm and fishery!

If you are interested in purchasing the property and the lake, please contact;
Phone - 01726 72289
Email - [email protected]
www.millerson.com