OLD WHAT'S NEW AT REVELS!!!!

A CHANCE TO CATCH UP ON OLDER RAMBLINGS FROM THE FISHERY

Christmas match went well and we had a good turnout of 26 anglers. As a couple of areas were out of bounds due to current fishery extensions which are being made and also flooding a couple of the usual match waters and areas were not used and out of bounds so the anglers were spread around several other waters here. Fishing was an hour shorter then the normal matches here due to the lack of daylight, forcast weather and the amount of anglers to get round on the weigh in and we did not want to loose the daylight. Silver fish were the name of the game and it was silvers which made up 90% of bags and kept everything a very very close thing with less then 1lb seperating 7 anglers for 3rd place overall. Results were as follows. 1st on the day overall was Ian Brouncey 30lb 2oz 2nd Steve Tucker 28lb 12oz 3rd Nigel Bartlett 23lb 12oz 4th Matt Parsons 23lb 10oz 5th Jumbo Harris 23lb 5oz 6th Alex Murray 23lb 3oz 7th Kev Newman 22lb 15oz you can see how tight the placings were all made up of good sized bags of Roach, Bream, Gudgeon and Rudd although must be noted Matt Parsons had a cracking Golden Rudd of over a 1lb was was a shock for us and a shock for the angler as many were fishing pole with light elastic is Kev newman latching into a very unexpected, due to the target species being silvers and also the water being fished, a single Mirror Carp of 18lb 15oz was took a considerable time to bank on light elastic. Our recent stock of Barbel which have done so well this summer were disapointingly noted in their absence and could only be put down to the extreme amount of colour in the water from the flooding. Overall the day ended in the customary complementary Mince pies and Coffee with draw prizes awarded to every angler and then continuing to all had gone. A quick note and thanks to Sensas angling for donating some cracking prizes for the draw

23/11/09 I cant believe so long has past since my last update. We have had a very pleasing summer here at the fishery free from problems and grief which makes life easier i must say. The autumn went on well into October and the fishing stayed good. When it did all break it did so quick and the heavens opened. However we did make good use of the last of the dry weather and continued laying hardcore paths and upgrading swims round the lakes.

The 2 biggest most exciting happenings. Mainly as we have waited so very long for both of these improvements and that is our parking facilities have now been doubled in size. I appreciate there has been some frustration this summer as many times we have run out of parking room on the main complex but this has been well and truely put right. This is all open now but we are at the time of writing waiting for some heavy plant to turn up to put in the finishing touches. Also and still cant believe this as i have waited so very long and that is the power cable at the top end of the fishery which more our holiday anglers are familiar with have gone!!!! This has left the door wide open now for us to extend substanitially the Old Stock Pond and Specimen lake.

As said above we are awaiting plant and depending as always how things weather wise and money wise go this winter we plan a large extension to Dead Tree Lake. As well as Finish the car park and at the same time tweek a minor alteration to Main Lake and middle and then up the top with the time left on Specimen lake and Old stock pond. I know i talked about hitting Trendles hard this winter but this has been left on hold to 2011 now as we had not banked on the power cables going as we have waited over 6 years for this. Anyway updates when i have them.

We have had the first stocking of the winter go in about a month ago and this was a stocking of 250lb of 1lb Carp and we have furhter introductions planned as time progresses.

Due to demand we are doing some open matches here this winter and pretty much being organised round what the majority want. The first was a couple of saturdays ago in the most terrible conditions you can imagine and i nearly canceled half way through on grounds of safty as things were flying round like missiles and trees dropping as people fished. Anyway the few hard core anglers who held out it fished ok all things considering and first place was taken with 60lb exactly and second 53lb 10oz mainly small carp. While the weather is still seasonably warm the Carp are still feeding and while they are feeding we are not seeing the stunning bags of Roach and Bream of last winter yet but as soon as some cold weather sorts this out the situation will change dramatically. Contact the fishery for dates as i have them on 01300 345301.

Sample of new stock arriving. Click on image for full size pic.

Winning match bag in the worst condition possible and well earnt win

14/07/09 Quick update so very brief. All waters still fishing very very well. As covered on the front home page 'Back of the Landing Net' Lads have just filmed a short 10 min program here as part of the You Tube series they produce and despite terrible conditons has come out very well. Check it out on the link on our home page. In all although summer has suddenly disapeared fish are still feeding despite change. It has also taken the pressure away from us about worrying about lake levels. Although we were not in serious trouble i was starting to worry what another month of dry weather was going to do but anyway all in the past now as everything is full and fresh. Weather has ment the tackle shop has had a long overdue couple of days sort out as we have been stuck indoors and we have so many special offers here at the moment which have come from either wholesale stock clearences or where we have cleared out another shop i am looking at re-doing our tackle shop page on the website shortly but many items do go faster than i can list them on so do not delay in paying us a visit.

NOTE:- TESCOS HAVE PRODUCED A WHERE TO FISH GUIDE IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE ANGLERS MAIL THIS SUMMER WHICH IS AVAILABLE IN THE NEWSPAPER SECTION OF THE TESCO STORES. The first four pages of which are a guide to "visiting a commercial fishery" and they wanted to base it on a long established commercial fishery and with our 23+ years behind us we are amoungst the longest established "Commercial" setups in the country we were asked if the could use us. The feature has come out really well and if you are after more details and an independant feature about us you will not find better.

On the fishing front we are really on a high at the moment and even had a customer remark on having his best day in 5 years fishing here during the week and caught in excess of 10 species of fish in one session incuding a couple of nice specimens. The best bigger Carp fishing appears this week to involve a trudge upto the Old Top Match Lake. An angler staying with us from Poole had one very good session which included 20 double figure Carp over a couple of day fishing sessions best specimen 23lb 3oz. Smaller Carp are also willing when you get the bait right and local angling star Brian Preston chose our venue to trial a new paste bait and in just 4 hours took 53 Carp from Trendles Pool for a whooping 150lb of fish. However Carp are not the real stars of the show here at the moment this has got to be the Roach which are in a huge frenzy at the moment and im not talking small fish. I watched an angler yesterday evening on Dead Tree Lake which has never really been regarded as a main Silver fish water here taking a Roach a chuck using just the top 3 sections of his pole on Sweetcorn last night and i did not see a Roach under 12oz being hooked. Bites were pretty much instant every put in with the occasionaly Bream to over 3lb also making an appearence. With the fish feeding like this a lot of anglers are remarking you have got to keep the loose feed going in as as soon as you slack the bites stop dead. May the current level of sport continue.

16/06/09 THE RIVER SEASON OPENS Been awhile since my last update so thought i would just follow up on recent happings. As we are now getting very booked up this summer I have also put together a list which is accurate as of this morning for availabilty on both our static mobile home holidays and specimen lake to give a rough idea whats left as im turning a lot of people away at the moment because of lack of availabilty as this year so far has been an exceptionally busy one this is just a rough guide to dates as this does change nearly daily. We have 6 units of 4 berth static mobile home availabilty and dates left are as follows for a week starting:-

From October we will consider long weekend bookings again and we are now taking 2010 bookings.

All bookings made require a minimum £10 a day non refundable deposit at time of booking.

Overall its been a pleasant spring on all fronts the weather has been good although a fresh input of rain would not go a miss. The lakes are looking good and we have been busy and but not packed with the exception of the bankholidays. So no water has been over thrashed and thats kept the fishing at a good level. We ar enearly out of what i term the danger time each year of April to July where as the fish are at their lowest ebb of the year due to the stress of breeding, fishing and climate condtions if there is any likelyhood of problems it occurs then its the time of year mother nature sort the weak from the strong and generally natural selction takes place and this year has been so far perfect and all is looking good so fingers crossed just to get through the next couple of weeks. The fish have spawned well but not perfect as the Carp were disturbed by a bad Wednesday we had here a couple of weeks ago right at a crucial spawning moment so i dont think they are fully finished yet. Carp have been a little on and off this Spring and its all or nothing but the Roach Bream and Tench have more then made up for that espeically the Tench which have shown better this spring then i can remember for many many years and would nearly say you would have to go back to the early nineties to remember tench sport like it has been. Each year we get a suprise out of the blue last year was an Eel not everyones cup of tea but we dont get them here at all and in 23 years only seen 3 get caught and this year has been no different and thats been from the Pike Lake an angler catching a Golden Tench of all things just over 7lb in weight which has been a big shock this lake has also been producing other Tench as well as some really good Bream sport with the fish all 2-6lb in weight. Specimen Lake has been throwing up plenty of small cats of 3-10lb with then a gap to 22lb-30lb with plenty again caught around this weight. Best of the year so far 35lb 10oz and as usual lots of stories of the one getting away and 20lb braid being snaped like cotton!!!. Lakes looking good and grass cutting as always been a full time afair but should now start to slow down. A couple of swims i see do need attention as they have been well used this year so far and today im ordering some materials to put this right and as soon as we have time will be addressing this. Im already busy ordering and arranging some exciting new things for the 2010 season. More to be anounced in due course. Shop is full and busy and we have taken on a new range of baits "Demon Baits" this year which have been very popular and we are bursting at the seams with rod and reel deals as so many firms with the panic of the recession have been reducing their stock and we have been picking up lots of crazy priced items and passed these prices straight on to the customer.

11/03/09 Quick update to say weather is on the up and fishery has fished well this week although Carp still holiding in tight area. This showed Yesterday as local angler Brian Preston manged a 100lb+ bag of Carp from the Old Top Match lake and member of staff Dean hodder fishing the next swim struggled for well under half this fishing the same tactics. Im surprised over the years how well these slow but steady growing carp have done on the water and fighting value is second to none. Anyway we have finished doing any major works on site now to next year. Some jobs have gone well, others not so. But we continue our slow and steady pace of progress and gone so far the last 5 years.

If you have been thinking of booking a break with us or booking the specimen lake do contact us as soon as you are ready, as expected we have suddenly got really busy with bookings now with our credit crunch beating prices.

06/03/09

I awoke Thursday morning to the shock of a good 10 inches of lying snow which was a horrible setback as everything round the fishery was looking tidy and dry and i thought spring was comming.

This was wet heavy snow and the road past the fishery was closed for a few hours due to fallen trees and after i did manage to get in i was faced with a good couple of days clear up work due to the amount of trees that had come down onsite with the weight of the snow.

Anyway at the time of writing all is cleared its mild and just looking to dry up again now.

This has been a pain as we have so much to do for the summer and time is flying on. Anyway dispite this setback our latest stocking of fish still arrived as planned.

Friday saw a fantastic stocking of over 25 new double figure fish into the fishery topped by a specimen Common held here at 26lb 12oz. Even the smaller fish pictured scatered scale mirror at 11lb 2oz were some fantastic looking fish. This is a huge boost to the sport expected on site this summer.

Ive visted some fish dealers as of late already looking at placing orders for 2010 and must admit ive viewed fish of 15lb that were only 4 summers old!!! and expected to reach well over 20lb by next winter. These were being grown in purpose built barns with tropical year round tempertures and continous feed. As the dealers said the fish were guranteed disease free as never exposed to anything but personally i think they turn a horrible shape and i would hate to think what the internal organs are like being grown on like this. I know much is written about the merits of these different strains of fish and selective breeding and artificailly growing on. You only have to google search about this to read the pros and cons. Its been an interesting few weeks travelling round and at the moment my verdict is still out. In the mean time this new stock which has just been stocked above is all natually pond grown on fish and never been fished for. They are healthy hard fighting, good looking fish and will make someones day this year.

17/02/09 Just a few days since my last update and loads more going on here. Yesterday i returned from a long round trip with our latest new addition to the fishery.

Barbel which have been stocked into the main lake.

Lots more new exciting stockings to come in the comming months watch this space.

At long last we have had a rest bite in the weather and how quickly everything has dryed out. We have spent several weeks clearing out years of weed growth from the back of dead tree lake in the hope of being able to enlarge the lake and at long last after being parked up here since just after the new year the digger has today started on this project.

We hope to be able to add about an acre to this water and a whole new demension by carrying on our unique and unusal shapes which makes every swim unique.

We have a short window of just a few days for this work so ill update on progress in my next write up. This is all happening well out of the way of the other water so not effecting the onsite fishing as shown today by:-

Local angler Brian preston spent a few hours at the fishery today practicing for the next open match this Saturday and put together a very respectful bag of fish.

Just part of a 70lb+ bag caught mid Feb from Main Lake in just a few hours. Couple of good sized double figure carp and some others having been already returned before the picture taken.

09/2/09 WHAT A WEEK! I only live a couple a miles from the fishery and due to our winter weather only manged to get in a couple of times in the last week. The road past the fishery was actually closed over the weekend as just 2 miles up the road the snow drifted upto 4 foot blocking nearly the whole width. This led to Saturdays open match being postphoned. Next match will be as scheduled in 2 weeks and the cancelled match will be re-fished 28th March.

Dorchester and District Angling Club had one of their winter league matches at the fishery last Sunday just before the Snows arrived and expectations were low.

However depite the conditons the winning weight was a very very respectful 97lb of Carp from the Main Lake and a swim that did not produce in the open the week before. Thats winter fishing for you!!

Due to the weather we have got very behind with some jobs here and our new stockings and lake enlargements have been delayed so keep watching this space.

30/01/09 HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERY ONE. Its gone from very cold to very wet here but nothing stops changing.

As mostly holiday anglers know we have one water "The Old Stock Pond" which is the only water on site to have a set of over head electric cables over and we have been waiting some 5 years or so now to have these removed. Out of the blue on New Years Eve we were informed that the electric board were arriving in 7 days to do the first stage of works and it was a mad rush to bring in a machine to dig the trenches which was our side of the deal. The new cables at the time of writing are now all buried although the work was wet and messy and we are now just awaiting the connections and removable of the overheads.

Once this is completed we can get on with plans to substantially increase the old stock pond further. This may be later this year after the summer.

While this was happening i could not resist while the machine was onsite to very slightly enlarge the Specimen lake in a way ive wanted too for a long time. This has worked well i think and although small difference it is really for the better.

There is also a chance in the next couple of weeks we may go for the plans we had for the far side of Dead Tree lake. We had not planned to do this for a couple more years yet but as things have panned out we have grabbed the moment to hopefully get on with this which will considerablly enlarge this water but ill tell you more in my next writings if this goes ahead.

We have a couple of new batches of fish on order and awaiting news of the consents and ill give more details soon. Some biggies!!!!.

We have been very busy on the other waters renewing swims. Pallets we are still slowly being replaced where needed with more substantial angling platforms. On the whole all lakes have had a lot of hard work put in and things are really looking good for the spring.

Fishing has been fair lately considering the wild swings in the weather. At the time of writing the DDAS match secretary has had 2 sessions on Middle lake this week both times taking 13-15 Carp in just an afternoon between 3lb-8lb on bomb fished Maggot. Our first open match was last saturday and was won by Alex Murray of Yeovil with 45Lb+ Condtions were not brilliant but some good bags of Silvers showed for the back up weights. One all Roach bag topped well over 20lb.

20 anglers fished and still open to anyone the would like to fish. Dates on home page. Weights on Dead Tree section were a close thing with only onces in it.

Sturminster moved their open match from the river to the Main Lake last week and it fished reasonable. Anglers had to choose between fishing for the silvers or Carp. One angler ended up battling a Carp of over 13lb on light line and the pole.

WINTER AT REVELS. ROLL ON THE SPRING

Picture 1 Looking down on Specimen/Catfish Lake just after recent small enlargement. Picture 2 Trendles Lake looking down and towards Caravan parking area. A few brave soles staying on site braving the winter weather for some winter sport. Picture 3 Looking down on one section of Dead Tree Lake on the left of the lake the rough ground being cleared for the possibilty of next weeks works.

click on images for larger pictures

15/12/08 Stop press at time of publishing this update we are awaiting news of a brand new exciting species of fish to be introduced to the fishery early 2009 providing consent is granted. watch this space!!!!!

14/12/08 XMAS MATCH RESULTS Today we had our annual club Chrismas match and considering the recent challenging conditons and the way it was fishing just 2 days ago and considering the very hard overnight frost im very pleased with the results. Many anglers came with low expections due to the poor results the week before when ice breaking was the tactic of the day. Fished over Dead Tree, Middle and Main lake there was a varied assortment of catches. All anglers returned plenty of fish from all lakes. Main lake produced the winning catch. From all Carp bags to some very respectful catches of small Bream and other silver fish. I witnessed several types of Carp, Rudd, Roach, Bream, Hybreds, Gudgeon and perch. 24 Anglers fished and results were as follows:-

Terry Dell. Pegged on the back arm on main lake. El Tel fished wagg and magg to catch 12 carp for a level 58lb. Many anglers were fishing light due to expectations of hard going and 3 of the larger double + fish Terry lost would have put this well on the way for a 100lb+ bag. Next to him was Jumbo Harris who fished a feeder to the rushes to catch 14 carp for 35lb 1oz. Ian Browncey bucked the trend and used his knowledge of the water to extract 31lb 4oz from peg 9 opposite the island consisting of around 20lb of skimmers with the balance smallish carp on polefished maggot.
Top weight on Middle lake was Ian Harringtons 12lb 14oz (one carp, silvers, waggler)and Nick White was top scorer on Dead Tree Lake with 22lb 14oz (carp, bomb and pole).

Lunchtime. 10 min recess for hot mince pies and mulled wine. Not the norm for an angling match but this is a Xmas match and not an everyday affair!!. An angler finds a welcome bigger Carp during the match. Problem being most anglers were expecting hard conditons and this angler had just a 2lb hook length on and this 6lb specimen took a good 15mins to bank. Jumbo Harris local angler was one to find a good hold up of Carp for 2nd place.

(click on pics for larger images)

Overall Main lake produced the winning bag but it was noted Middle lake and Deadtree lake all the weights could hardly be separated by an once or two.

10/12/08 NEW UPDATE AT LONG LAST This is a double update as i wrote the October one and had some technical issues and never had the means to publish it. Anyway all good now and we have had a cracking autumn here at the fishery. All the heavy plant has now gone and we have done some interesting new alterations which are settling in nicely. Out of the three new alteration one im over the moon with another which is ok and one im not sure about yet but overall nothing massive this year until we see how the pennies go with the loaming recession.

We are flat out now when its not to wet with 2 days a week working on the lakes. Mainly Main lake replacing worn out swims and adding some new ones.

We are continuing our policy of removing pallets as they get dangerous and replacing either with a hardcore bank swim or where this is not possible then we are putting in more long term swims made from treated 4x2. Much more labour intensive and expensive option but it does look really good. We reckon Main lake now holds around 28 permant pegs when we finish shortly and looks good. The silver fish fishing has been good recentaly and we have had a couple of really good club matches relocated to us and a good write up in the Angler Mail.

On the match front we are please to announce our forthcommng set of 5 matches (dates on the home page) And really pleased to annouce that Middy Tackle have put up an £1000 item of tackle for the angler with the best 4 results from the 5 matches. We are charging a lower entry fee then last year per match to help credit crunched anglers. As the series prize is sponsered each match can be treated as an individual open. Remember other lakes open as normal on match days.

10/10/08 NEW UPDATE AT LONG LAST I know its been a long long time comming but at long last ive time to write. So much has changed since my last ramblings and we have been so so busy. Last time i wrote big changes were afoot and most went very well and transformed the main lake but overall were cut short due to a drastic weather change and were making to much mess was so it was abandoned. Things quickly settled in and the new areas created in main lake were soon fishable and i was still very happy with what was acheived and got some very postives comments. Bascially on the fishery front and holiday vans we have been running at full capacity the entire spring and summer and i know there have been many disapointed potential customers as we have simply been so popular this year we have had no availabilty at all as its been a full book upto this month. Bad weather has very much dominated the year. Despite the rain and more rain the lakes have fished well. Odd patern has been the worse the weather the better the fishing. Bream fishing has been beyond all expectations and i cant understand why they have done so well and we have seen some really good bags of Bream from 12oz to 3lb+. Tench have shown better this year then for a long time with some nice fish to 7lb+ and one extra special pair being caught in quick succession in August. The 2 fish for over 12lb. Plenty of Carp to mid twenties showing. Smaller fish have been very prolific and at times these have been difficult to get through these but as the harder colder days come on quantity should change to quality. Last few weeks some huge Crucians have come out of the old top match lakes. Shop is bursting at the seams as ever. We had a problem this summer with the quality of our sea anglers live Ragworm and had several batches of some very poor quality worm which i appologise for but after a few phone calls this has now been rectified and its back to our usual high standard. Ive been off for a week and just before i went there was disturbing news of a confirmed outbreak of KHV at a local fishery and has lead to us implementing so new rules for a while. Basically anglers must have our personnal permission to use keepnets which have to be personnaly inspected first and all landing nets and mats and slings must be dipped in dip next to shop before use. A sad development which is a pain to anglers and us but im afraid a must. Also just before i went i had a surprise when asked if i was ready for any new developments by our local contractors who had an available slot and of course i jumped at the chance to get what was not finished last year and more all done this early in the year as it will be all settled before the winter comes in. As always, which is a running joke here now as the excavator was unloaded the havens opened on Sunday and again today but along with another item of very special heavy plant we have not used before here on site we have made some stunning progress today revamping and enlarging our very popular Trendles lake and at the time of writing im stunned we have achieved nearly a weeks progress in just one day. We also plan a few other small jobs this week and another adjustment on main lake and Dead Tree lake and also at long last and i know to the relieve of this summers anglers we are enlarging the main fishery car park as there were many times people could not get in it this summer. Lots more fish have also been recentally stocked with a nice introduction of 250lb of Carp into Main Lake and the 3rd introcuction since last wrote so the lakes are brimming with fish. I would also like to thank our anglers this year for our most rubbish free year ever round the lakes and it really does help us spend time on other projects like swim improvement when not on litter patrol. Anyway not long to our accomodation is drained down for the winter so just time if you fancy a last minute break and there are slots so give us a ring. As for the lakes we have put down lots of hard paths now and whatever the weather this winter fishing there are plenty of swims accessible with just a pair of trainers on. Although i know work is badly needed on the far 2 lakes (Pike lake and Old top Match Lake) and it is on the agenda. We did have to increase dayticket prices this year a little but still well below some other local fisheries and remember one price gives you access to most pools on the main fishery we do not charge for individual waters. Pike season is round the corner and we have lots of quality fish to be caught as well. For the first time since Easter we do have a few vacancies soon on the Catfish lake as well so in all no excuse to escape the worries of the Credit Crunch and pay us a visit. ;-)

10/10/08 NEWEST POOL ON SITE "TRENDLES" DURING RECENT ENLARGMENTS NOW TAKING FAR BANK TO NEARLY WITHIN CASTING DISTANCE OF TOURING VAN AREA (YOU CAN SEE IN PICTURE WE STILL HAVE A FEW DEDICATED PERSONS STAYING WITH US MAKING THE MOST OF THE AUTUMN FISHING SPORT!!). ALSO ADDING DISTARNCE BETWEEN MAIN SWIMS AND THE LONG ISLAND.

16/09/08 SAMPLE OF RECENT 250LB+ BATCH OFNEW FISH ADDED TO "MAINLAKE"

15/01/08 Christmas is out of the way and the new year is upon us and its all happening here. We are currentaly making the biggest lake changes since the fishery was built and all is going well. The Main lake has been increased in size with the addition of a new island. We have expanded this lake in 2 ways and now looks greatly enlarged following on from the little bit we did some 18 months ago. Im very happy the way this has gone although things are a bit muddy and churned up in the areas the work have been done in which is to be expected the way the weather is at the moment but the only time of year we can do work like this. One move that might not be at first popular with all but once viewed can be appreciated why we did it and thats the point has been removed. This has created much greater water area and a brand new island feature. The main reason behind this has often groups of night anglers have come in on a friday night for a weekends fishing and a group of 3 with 3 rods each have taken over the lake. This is no longer possible. There is still a good sized point to set up on but with the new features to fish from other anglers can set up on the other side and not be effected. Also once stretch of water behind the main island has been to narrow and grown over to fish. This has now been greatly widened and created several new swims. In all 30+ pegs are now possible very comfortably on the main lake which is greatly more then the 22 before. This would also now make for one of the most feature packed commercial lakes anywhere in the area. We have also removed a lot of our trees from the fishery and opened up the lakes greatly. The newest small Trendles pond very popular especially amoungst the holiday and match anglers has been slightly increased in size and a further new island feature added. The extension is only about a third of what was orginally planned for due partly to soil and weather restrctions but really adds a new character to this lake and also adds to our match cabability but again will take time to settle down and regrass over the area of extension. Despite the terrible weather this has all gone well and at the time of writing we start enlarging the specimen lake tomorrow. In all these 3 lake extension greatly increase our angler capacity. We are currentaly actively sourcing new fish which we hope to be stocking before the start of March. The Open matchs have been going well and well supported and some comments made on further improvements have been taken on board. We have postphoned this weekends match to the following week due to the very wet condtitions. Pike have been showing well and im pleased with the progress here. Last weekends match was fished on the main lake just before our works started and the bags of Roach caught were very impressive. Trout lakes have also fished well with one group of anglers returning 22 fish in thier days sport.

27/11/07 Autumn/winter weather is here and the fishery has very suddenaly gone much quieter although still a few dedicated anglers braving either very cold frosty weather or wet and wild. Behind the scenes things dont stop and we have just finished replacing our oldest on site holiday van with a much newer more modern van. We were very lucky and stumbled upon this van by accident but its huge the biggest we have ever had a whopping 40ft by 12ft and inside you would never believe you were in a van. This 6 berth van has replaced the old single bedroom van behind the bungalow. An old favourite i know to many of our visitors that knew it well but each year it was getting harder to prepare it for the summer season. Also this van being more modern its enabling us to stay open all year now with our accomodation. The last van to be replaced now in out ongoing improvements is the big double one at the top by the specimen lake and this is planned for later in 2008. Fishing has been up and down. Early November fished well and one pair of visitors had a stunning session on the specimen lake with over 20 double figure Carp to 21lb 6oz and a dozen Cats 4 of which were between 20lb and 37lb. As the frosts came in things have slowed right up but we are hoping this weeks warmer winds will liven things up again. The Pike have sprung into gear and there has been some good sport in multiple catches but you have to work for them. Silver fish feeding well and just waiting for our monster Perch winter sport we get here. Open coarse match planned for this Saturday and Open Pike match for this Sunday although forcast not to good. At long last and nearly 2 months late we have been promised the heavy plant machinary for next week to start on out lake enlargements and a few alterations although scaled down now from my original plans of a few months ago its still enough for some big changes. Full details and pics in next update.

07/10/07 AT LAST AN UPDATE!!!! Its been a long time and im very sorry and ive been driven mad by our regular visitors asking whats happened!! Well we are still here and this being our 20th year has been our busiest ever we have had a totally full book on both our holiday vans and the specimen lake and in all honesty its been as much as what we can keep up with on the fishery and in the shop ive not touched the website or our Yahoo club group and appologise for that. We have been lucky that a part time member of staff has been able to come in full time but as October is comming on things have now got quiet and we can take stock on what needs doing. Some swims have had heavy use and there are repairs to be done. At the time of writing we are awaiting some heavy machinary which is booked for the end of the month and we have some plans in the pipeline for some lake extensions but nothing to announce yet as we have not finalised what we are doing. As far as happenings since my last postings, well as anyone is aware there has been some awfull weather that started not long after my last post and kept going for weeks. We were spolit with the fishing earlier in the year and it went strength to strength but around the second May bankholiday the air pressure and tempertures started there summer long rollercoaster and it took its toll on the fishing and it could not start at a worse time right at a crucial spawning point. Junes fishing was very difficult for the Carp although the Bream fishing has continued to go from strength to strength and i got quite concerned for the Carp and we lost approx 30-35 females over the space of 4 weeks being spawn bound. We have replaced these fish and more since i hasten to add. Anyway July showed the signs of settleling down untill the weather turned again. In the end a patten formed where the worst the weather was the better it fished venture out on a wet wind swept day and you could bag. Fish on a lovely hot settled day and it was a struggle and this was pretty much the pattern right up to the August bankholiday where the fishing was on for 2 days then off for a couple of days. This patten has been pretty much reported countrywide and i have spoke to several fishery owners i work closely with and all have expirenced a simlar patten. Then at the beginning of September we had a high pressure system establish its self for the longest period of time since April and at last the fish came out to play and there have been some good catches right up to the time of writing. Although they still tend to hold up in the favourite swims as has been discovered with our regular customers. Bream have continued to amaze and there have been some really good bags out this summer along with the other silver fish. Trendles lake has fished well and the small stocked Carp from the beginning of the year have grown and an astonsihing weight. The biggest stocked was just 5lb and we have now seen several fish from 8lb to 9lb 8oz and the lake is still teaming with fish and they readily respond to a handfull of pellet. DDAS club had several 3 hour evening matches there in th summer and 50lb was needed to be in the frame. This lake is favourite for enlarging later this month as well. The old top match lake has produced some very large pleasure bags this year again but along with the rest of the fishing has not been consistent to later on in the year. The other lakes have all had there moments and everyone always has there favourite. We have continued with our restocking program and have just introduced another large batch of small fast growing Mirror and Common carp. Member of staff pictured below with sample fish part of hundreds more that have gone in:-

We are expeciting the huge influx of smaller fish to give some really good match sport into next year. We have not forgotton our specimen angler though and have some really nice home grown fish in the 19lb-23lb bracket now. Also we have just taken our second stocking of Pike. I know not everyones cup of tea and they have only gone in limited lake where we were allowed to stock them. We are jusyt about to launch 2 series of OpenMatches. One for the general Match angler and one for for the Pike angler. The Pike matches are very experimental and have limited pegs the dates are as follows:-

NOTE:- WE HAVE MANY LAKES AND NORMAL DAY TICKET ANGLING IS NOT EFFECTED ON MATCH DAYS

OPEN COARSE MATCHES:- All on a Saturday 17/11/07, 1/12/07, 12/01/08, 19/01/08, 9/02/08, 23/02/08 £20 entry all in per match including £4 pegging fee

OPEN PIKE MATCHES:- All on a Sunday 18/11/07, 02/12/07, 23/12/07, 20/01/08, 17/02/08, 16/03/08 £6 entry per match optional £5 superpool no pegging fee.

Match booking on (01300) 345301Matches are open to all anglers and are a friendly fun affair even for novices.

05/05/07 Just a quick update as so so busy here at the moment. Its been busy and everything has been ticking along nicely. More and More gear keeps turning up for the shop and we have just become a Masterline Masterdealer again after several year and lots of exciting things happening there with Masterline adding Trubucco to their range along with the original Ryobi Masterline, Normark, Cortland and others. We have just strted getting some Maver gear in as so many people have been asking and we are now holding more tackle then we have ever ever have and its is a considerable display. We also have a couple of liquidation clearences in the pipeline and if you have not already joined then subscribe to our yahoo group (link further down this page or on the main page) as it get first offers on that site.

Just proof of how quick things happen here i was happily mowing th grass minding my own business here 2 days ago and my mobile rang and within 2 hours we were getting emergency section 30 consent from the Environment Agency and taking delivery of 40 pike rescued from certain death after a removal excercise on a Trout fishing stretch of the River Frome. As we have waters here which are classified as "NON-ONLINE STILLWATER" we were able to do this and there were 8 fish between 18lb-24lb so this winter look forward to some piking fun.

(above) Member of staff with one of several around 20lb Pike being introduced. Another pair of twenties in the net ready to go in.

Fishing has been very good and ive had to keep reminding myself its only just May as the fishing is at mid-summer levels and we are already monitoring the water situation as we just dont know what the summer has in stall for us. Ive seen Carp to mid twenties, Tench to 5lb 2oz and Bream to over 7lb from the Pike lake. Bags of Carp well over 200lb from the Old top Match Lake and still bags and bags of Skimmers from all lakes its really been a mystry where in some lakes they have come from. We witnessed a hige slab of at least 6-8lb spawning in Desparation lake just last week and this lake has produced so many skimmers lately. Yet 3 years ago a Bream had never been heard of. Catfish are being caught at levels never seen before and mid twenties to mid thirties are a daily occurance we have nearly fully fuly booked now for the summer and the last few date available at the time of writing are listed below. These can be reserved on payment of a deposit wither in person or over the telephone.

Last note to make on this update we would like to welcome Sturminster and Hinton angling club to the fishery for a years affliattion from June 16th and look forward to meeting members.

16/04/07 Its been a busy couple of weeks at the fishery and still only mid-April we are in a really crazy weather cycle and the fish dont know whats hit them as the Carp are taking floating baits like its July. Anyway fishing has been good despite the amount of anglers on the bank. Specimen lake is really on form and benefited from our winters work. Never had such a head of 20lb+ Cats show and there has been 18 Twenties as well as a lot of smaller cats out in just 10 days including our new record of 39lb 4oz and lots around the 28lb mark as well. Banking these fish is now much easier with the lack of weed in the lakes. Lots of Carp as well showing to 23lb. In all really pleased with this. As for the main fishery amoungst the Carp which are showing in number the Bream have been the headline of the week with so many comming out and even more shocking they are showing from lakes where we have never really had them in before. All the fish range from 12oz to 5lb and are showing everywhere from Dead tree to the favourite Bream swims of Middle lake and Main lake and a member of staff had a really good bag from Desparation lake while fishing for Carp with B.A.M pellet of all things this shocked us further as well as the numbers of Bream caught. Pike lake has had its few hard core anglers fish this always hard going water and as always patience pays off and there has been a couple of carp to mid twenty and some really nice Tench to 6lb which is good to see. Trendles lake has been a star as ever amoungst the holiday anglers and really is bagging city with 50-60lb possible in just a couple of hours and following our trial match weight of over 100lb we hope to host another open match at some point but dates to be announced. We still have some bank jobs to do on the fishery with our ever ongoing improvements but this has ground to a halt for the moment as we have got so busy we have all been pretty much stuck to the tackle shop serving customers but we should have a lull in things now for a couple of weeks before the summer starts proper to finish up a couple of winter tasks. Dont forget our yahoo group (link below) Join us here and we update every couple of days and the group is interactive for anglers to post back comments and is getting very popular now.

05/04/07 A really quick update here as we are so so busy with Easter holidays looming down on us but had to announce the capture of our biggest ever fish which has just been banked and witnessed at 39LB 4OZ this Catfish obviously comming from the Specimen lake the early hours of this morning. This was caught by a holidaying family staying with us and pictures will follow as soon as they forward them to me when they get home next week. Overall the glorious spring weather is here and as soon as the horrible East breeze died off a couple of days ago every lake is in full gear with everything showing from loads of double figure Carp to some really nice Bream and Roach and some stunning bags from Dead tree lake, The Old top Match lake and Trendles lake as well as everything else. Dave Stanbridge from Yeovil had a cracking Chub last week well over 5lb and the first ive seen from the fishery for many months but proves these old Chub are still in there to be caught. I reckon they come out more often but often get mistaken by other anglers not expecting to see them. Anyway so much to do and so little time to get it all done today with the bank holiday starting tomorrow.

25/03/07 Quick update cold weather has taken its toll on the water colour the last 10 days and what a shame as it was looking really good. Fish however still feeding resonable despite the clear water but hopefully things will colour up again as the stiff N/NE breeze eases off. We have really made a move forward on some work on the top match lake putting in several new swims some that have been unfishable for the last 4-5 years and its really taking shape on this lake again that so rarely gets the chance for new work being the furthest from the main fishery. Our open match yesterday has been an astonding success depite the hard conditions the first trial of the new Trendles pool has been a full success. 1st on the day was Alex Murrray (Team Mossela) with a fantastic 103lb 13oz of Carp from Trendles. 2nd Matt Parsons (Sensas Thyers) 85lb 5oz Carp and Roach Dead Tree Lake and 3rd Ian Brouncy 50lb 5oz Carp from Trendles Lake again. In all we have manged to keep a level playing field in these two lakes and have just installed a gate at the entrance of Dead Tree lake which enables us to now be able two seal these two lakes right off in the event of a private booking complete with a private parking area at the edge of Trendles match and can take around 30 pegs between the 2 lakes and not interfere with the other day ticket waters whatsoever. Hopefully plans are already in the pipe line for a big enlargement of both of these 2 waters if things go well this summer hopefully doubling capacity. Private bookings now being taken with a very resonable pegging fee. Not the full day ticket charges some fisheries impose. Looking forward to the warm weather now as if these weights are possible on a day when i was really concerned for the outcome whats possible when they really come on the feed!!!!!!

The moment of truth as the winning 100lb+match bag comes to the scales

15/03/07 First taste of spring is here and have we ever made the most of it!!! Its been non-stop work.. We have really got on with some work round the lakes and we have dried out nicely. We have tried to keep strict to our plan to work on only one lake at a time before moving onto the next. Strarting right at the top of the fishery we have finished putting the new swims round the old recentaly enlarged stock pond. The specimen lake which i talked about in my last update is now finished and has been completly de-weeded and is at its clearest for 3 years as well as this we have cleared the island and trimmed the trees right back and laid the hardcore paths right round. In all very pleased with the finished job. We have then just put the finishing touches to Trendles lake and now well into Dead tree lake. With our fourth comming open match on the 24th March (still taking bookings by the way) we have put in some work on the old top match lake. There is so much more to be done here but it will have to wait as it is the bottom of the list of lakes to be sorted but we have touched up a couple of swims and installed some more. Also a retired angling customer of ours has given us a day and his skils to remove a couple of very large troublesome trees from the Main lake which has opened a swim up and allowed us to put in another that has not been used for years. In all im very pleased how this has gone and has really opened up the main lake from the top end which has fished so well so far this year and i reckon will be one of this years favourite areas and the spot that 2 of our 3 known thirty pound Carp were landed from last year.

On the fishing front the warm weather has really got things going and fish have been rising to the surface well. Ive seen good bags from all lakes. We have had 2 20lb+ catfish out in 2 weeks as well as some smaller Cats the first of this year and i await eageraly for our first 40lb+ fish which is very possible this year. Ive been surprised since removing the weed how many smaller carp that have been caught from here which we will be using else where on the fishery. Despite several fish from 2-5lb a group last weekend still managed 67 fish with an average of 10lb. Deadtree lake and Trendles lake still producing small carp in 50-70lb bags to paste, maggot or corn. Main lake has produced a string of doubles and fished well although not seeing the large silver fish of a couple of weeks ago. The old Top match lake which is renowned as a summer only water and set our plesure bag record last year with 400lb in 10 hours is starting to show its form with 150lb of fish yeaterday to feeder fished corn to the island. This lake was stocked with small 1-4lb Carp some 11 years ago and they have steadily grown. Last year they were mainly comming out at between 8-12lb but yesterdays bag every fish was over 10lb and the best at 15lb. Another hot summer on this lake and we could be soon be looking forward to a lake full of purely home grown 20lb+ fish and a lot of them. We are now trying to get our last big jobs done as we have a large booking of holiday anglers for this summer season which starts from Easter as when the lakes are getting busy its nearly impossible to be felling trees or hammering in swims.

While we have been busy with the lake work we have finished installing our hot shower block and also finished converting the fishery toilets to lake water. We try to do our green bit and already recycle some of the fishery rubbish. We also try to use re-cycled bags and packaging in the shop. By all means the smallest drop in the ocean on the whole picture but when working outside like we do a lot of the time the last 12 months we have seen and expirenced things that bring it home that we all need to do our bit. We are already making plans on big fishery changes for this Autumn before this season even gets going. Southern electric have agreed to remove a couple of power cables that just cross the far corner of our porperty and we have had some cracking ideas some very original so ill keep them under wraps for a minute.

We are nearly doing updates on the fishery daily over on our Yahoo group so if you want to follow things faster then happens on here and be also free to add comments yourself then follow the link below to join. This group has really taken off now.

25/02/07 We have just finished re-decorating all the holiday vans and in the nick of time as well as this week and last every van is full.

Holiday vans ready for anglers.

Despite being very wet on site at the moment due to the non-stop rain the fishing has been far beyond my best expectations. The youngsters have really been doing the business as well. The string of low doubles that have been comming out has been non stop. Fish after fish. One father and son here on holiday managed 9 doubles to 20lb in just 24 hours from the main lake. And another Father and son followed this with 6 doubles on thier stint on their stint. One young lad from Wales fishing on his own today has had several fish including a 13lb and 16lb specimen his personnal bests this has also been followed with a couple of 20lb fish and unconfirmed rumours at the time of writing a 30lb fish has shown again but just waiting to confirm this. New pics on the pics page. There has been some really good silver fish out. One chap on the main lake adopted a very strange technique as we have a lot of water pushing through at the moment he found enough flow on the inlet to actually trot a float so he set up his river gear to the amusement of some other anglers and bagged some stunning roach to 1lb 15oz as well as some good Perch. New Trendles lake and Dead tree lake continue to porduce large bags of small carp and since last writing they benefit from a further introduction of 600 pastie sized carp.

One of hundreds of fantastic new fish being stocked.

We have spent a lot of time on the Specimen lake and have had a really big clean up of the vegatation in and out of the lake and it really looks different. Some anglers have been shocked of the change we have made. Some really happy some not so but with the lack of snags now thats more fish on the bank and i think as soon as the Spring growth sets in everything will look really good. Lots of new plans and lots to announce but not for the minute as im going to keep you waiting so check back soon.

We have announced a date for an Open match at the fishery of Saturday March 24th and entries are being taken now.

The Yahoo group we have set up is growing well and updates are nearly daily on there. Following link below to join. We are getting a lot of second hand tackle comming in and its being offered to the group before anyone else as well.

15/01/07 We have just started a brand new interactive group on yahoo which we are going to use as a communication method for all our local anglers, holiday anglers and local club members.

This is a site which can be used for members to post messages about anything of interest about angling local club waters and our own fishery or even bring anything we need to know about or even suggestions to our attention any interaction is welcome. Members will really become part of the Revels fishery Community. Any of our extra special tackle offers we get especially items where amounts are limited will be offered to memers first via the group as well as details of any matches or announcements.

Membership is free just simply complete and follow the link below to be amoungst the first to be part of something very new. It is expected to take 3 months or so to get the group upto full steam so do allow a few weeks before the messages begin to flow:-

Dont worry though we will still be maintaining our regular blog here.

10/01/07

Just a really quick update to say due to the crazy mild weather the lakes are fishing exceptionally well for this time of the year and the carp are feeding really well with 100lb still possible in the right spots which is unheard of for us. First anglers fishing the new lake although a bit muddy have described the fishing as fish sucide as it is litually a fish a chuck and this lake is still only half stocked. Our first batch of new fish for 2007 is due 10/2/07 and comming in is another 100lb of pastie sized carp and 250 small tench and this continues our program of fishery re-stocking started last year but i must admit the cost and short supply of these stock fish is really bad but what we are getting is tip top quality and anglers catching these new stockies have really remarked on this. The ground is really saturarated at the moment its been so so wet but we are pleased how our paths are holding up with the amount of anglers comming and going and there are many swims on several lakes easily accessible without the need for boots on our hard core paths which is very good to see.

01/01/07 HAPPY NEW YEAR AND HOPEFULLY AS EXCITING AS LAST

Just a quick couple of notes before the year gets underway. Ive been happy with the main of the fishing on site during the christmas holidays. Make no mistake fishing is nothing like the height of the summer but still get the right spot and the right bait and ive seen several bags touching 100lb mainly on Dead tree lake which for winter stillwater fishing i really can not complain about. The water did go very clear for a bit during the foggy days last week but the fish kept feeding mid water. Dorchester and Distrcit Angling Club had there annual xmas match and there was some very reasonable bags caught with nearly 50lb taking first place and some good back up weights.

The second bigger batch of new fish are in and there was some fantastic looking fish as well. The Trendles lake is now stocked although we still awating to hear about another batch of different fish as well. Ive been asked a lot about matches and these are a possibility on a more regular basis but there are also a lot of rumblings going on about the whole keepnet issue due to the devestating effectd of KHV in the country last year but after a long disscussion here over the holidays we are going into 2007 with no new restrictions on nets although we may ask for anglers to sign a declaration if they wish to use nets to where they were used previous to comming to us. I have looked into supplying our own nets but after hearing what happened at a popular Cornish venue trying this i was not impressed. So ill see what happens but just to confirm there are no new restrictions for the time being. Also ticket prices are all frozen for the forseeable future and we are one of the only fisheries in the southwest with a day ticket price under £5 although night tickets may have to increase 50p this summer and this is only due to the rubbish recycling restrictions local council put on us and this is about to get tighter with the recycling rules and as the vast amount of our rubbish is generated by the night anglers this is the fairest way to pass this on but this is a little way off yet.

Holidays vans are about to get there annual makeover and we are opening up from Feb. Shower block is on schedule to be finished by March for touring van, camping and night angler visitors.

part of the third place Dorchester and District christmas match bag

Some of the hundreds of pounds of new fish arriving in Trendles lake.

This time last year i was talking about how stunned i was that my small entries here on the huge worldwide web was getting so many hits and here again as im writing we have had nearly 10,000 hits since this time and will soon be exceeding 30,000. With so many people reading my wafflings and many spelling mistakes ill try and keep everyone upto date with the happenings here over the next 12 months and if this year was anything to go by who knows what will have happened by this time next year. Happy new year everyone!!!!!.

08/12/06

Another year ends and i wish all our customers past, present and future all the best.

Ive missed my November update due to a very strange happening. I spent a little while in hospital after being bitten by a creepy crawley that turned out posionous. After making the Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail and the Sun as well as many lesser papers ive had a lot of customers reading about it and had a lot of well wishing emails which i thank everyone for. Despite missing the sale in Salisbury which is where my mishap happened while setting the fishing stall up im back on form now.

Onto the update. Well im a little more behind on the lake work then what i had hoped for and only just getting the chance to get on with the new swims but we have had a chance to lay another few hundred yards of hard paths and in the nick of time as well with the wet weather comming in. We have also fully hard cored a path and wood chipped the swims right round the Specimen lake. So not the mud bath it was last winter and it looks good. Im very pleased with this. Most of our time here especially while ive been led up has been spent on the mail order side of things and the tackle shop which has been exceptionally busy. The whole Keenets affair which ive talked about below has lead to yet another batch of crazy priced gear comming in, even though i thought we had it all and i currentaly have a vast amount of tackle in storage at the moment as it is far to much for the shop and would fill our shop many times over. We have really gone to town at sorting the shop out and bought some more fittings and taken some more floor space back from the adjoining shop that was not being used and we were paying rates on anyway and now enlarged our tackle shop quite a lot further and it is currentaly crammed in every corner from floor to ceiling with gear and some very very cheap offers. We would now probally have one of the largest displays of tackle anywhere in Dorset. And we have some offers so cheap its scary.

One small view of the shop as of today

Anyway we have had our toilet facilities changed and now have a separate area for holiday residents staying with us as well as hot showers which i know has been of interest to some of our long term night anglers and this will be all up and running by March. We have further electrical hook-ups going in shortly in the caravan field and now have a hard core area for camper vans as i know a couple of regular visitors have asked for these. Trendles lake is full and holding well. There has been a small amount of bank movment but not down to leaking but more to the amount of rain we have had and we have just processed the section 30's for permission to stock 1000lb of Carp which will hopefully be in by Christmas.

Trendles lake Septemeber

and as of today ready for stocking and fishing

The stocking of small carp that went into Dead tree lake back in May and agian in August (pics below)have done very well and are all comming out well over a pound now and i look forward to the potential bags that will feature here next Spring. We have some good silver fish comming out of the Main lake at the moment and its nice to see bags of fish not dominated by Carp. We have a reputation of being the last fishery in the area to ice over during really cold snaps due to the power of some very deep underground springs and we will have now taken this to a new height by buying a piece of equipment that will keep our main lake even clearer in the advent of icy weather but this is yet to be tested and the way the weather has been i dont know if we will even get a chance. All the holiday vans are drained now but we are already taking bookings for straight after xmas and half term week in Febuary is nearly fully booked so im even more hoping the weather will stay mild. If you are thinking of booking for next year we now have the diary open and a lot of last years customers are already booking.

In all i could not have dreamed of acheiving what i have when i was writing this time last (see old whats new) and it has been one hell of a busy year for us here and i cant wait for the spring as ive so many other idea and improvements i want to do. I hope to get a chance to work on the lakes now over the next few weeks and sort soem of the tree growth out from this year. Have a good Christmas and hope to see a lot of you next year. HAPPY CHRISTMAS

stop press:- We have just cleared a retail shop that has gone out of business of tackle. Where we are going to put this i dont know but again some stunning bargains and some fly gear as well. No peace for the wicked here.

29/09/06

Well in the 19 years ive been building,creating and running the fishery this is busiest year to date. Right from customers to new developments and ideas and in the shop as well its all happening here on all fronts and at times we have had trouble keeping up and this month is no exception and ive just been in the right place at the right time to secure a really huge amount of very very cheap gear for the shop. First though ill just point out although we have had some digger work on the fishery this is mainly at the far end where the dayticket anglers do not go anyway and the main fishery is as it always is and the few alterations we have done on the main lakes have been done in a way you would barely know any digging has been done as all the turf has been relaid in all very clever.

Where do i start!!. Ive had emails and phone calls asking for an update on the lake excavations. First all the heavy plant is gone as due to the dry ground we have moved forward very very quickly and cleanly with our recent works which is a pleasant change as when we have some digging done here as we are usually upto our knees in mud but this has been a very clean visit. I wrote last month on what i wanted to acheive in the next few weeks (listed in the last update below) and in all its been a 90% success. First the enlargement of the main lake and opening one of the banks up has been successful beyond my expectations and im really pleased with this. The creation of a new island has increased the overall size of the lake and the areas enlarged have been left very clean and new swims ready to fish as the machine driver was very very good in replacing turf where he had dug you would not know he has been there and is very impressive. This was a very quick bit of work for the amount it has acheived and in just a few hours has transformed this lake that local anglers and visitors would hardly know it. We have also just introduced a new stock of 15 double figure carp onto this lake as well. Next the widening of the arm of Deadtree lake is better then it was but i dont feel is quite enough yet so i will see how things go and listen to what the anglers think. Next the new lake that was put in last year has had its dam rebuilt and has been increased in size by a third as well and while empty of water has had the island reshaped and another added. The dam which slipped in the heavy rains last may just before we started stocking and then leaked has now been built differently im still open minded about this and as to if this will now be fine and again time will tell. This lake still will not be stocked and fished to late next year although i may use it for a bit of fly fishing once the water is back in while we are waiting to see what happens with the dam. The climate and weather does appear to be changing and with a lot less rain about we have to put careful thought into what we are doing. The specimen lake has not been touched although i wrote below about hoping to enlarge slightly but basically this was for the clay to sort out the new lake and it was not needed in the end. The stock pond has been very successfully doubled in size and is now of a much better size although i know may of our holiday anglers have had fantastic fun on here over the years this has now been greatly improved and with an addition of another island as well. This whole area of our property has been an overgrown wilderness for many years and this has all now been cleared and landscaped and another very small pond which was once a small holding pond for new fish when we first set up has been uncovered from the dense overgrowth and has been exavated out to a fishable size although still very small we are going to see what happens over the next year and will if all goes well open this up into a further small lake.

This is one small section of Main Lake before alteration then during (very strange happening the Carp went mad while the machine was digging for an hour these 2 people caught 3 doubles from this swim within 20 mins of this photo why they choose to set up there with 7 other lakes to choose from i dont know but still it paid off so what do i know!!) and finally one section finished. There is another section like this just off shot.

We have put in place the area where we hope to create two very unique undercover any weather fishing swims on the top ponds. We hope to cover this and install washing facilities, electric, cooking and sleeping facilities. This is still a little way off but we are forging forward with this very different idea which i touched on in last months writings below prehaps not an eden project style dome like i joked about but still much better then sitting out in a full atlantic storm. In all a lot going forward.

The lake number 12 we created at the begining of the year then had problems with this now has been drained the dam rebult and at the same time enlarged further and the islands reshaped. The banks had already greened the summer and as the work was inside the lake it saved disturbing the already settled in banks. Hopefully this will now be full and stocked by next summer.

The far end of the fishery where our holiday anglers know well but day ticket anglers dont get access we have doubled the size of the water nicknamed the "Stock Pond" and above this right on the spring head we have opened up an exsisting tiny pond to see what the chances are of turning this into the 13th water next year. This area of the fishery has been overgrown for many years and this has now all been tidyied and landscaped. This is the only area we have been left with that is a bit muddy but hopefully the grass seed will soon take hold.

On top of keeping a watch on all this we have had the job of collecting the remainder of the clearence tackle from the Keenets operation from Warminster. Now the whole situation here with the rumours circulating the fishing world is a rife and its not for me to comment but basically they are now operating out of Birmingham under a new parent company and the remainder of the stock that did not go to Birmingham we have purchased and it has litually taken us a 7 tonne lorry and several trips to get it back to the fishery and we have some crazy priced bargains now available to take us right into next year.and beyond. A lot of this we have to sort still and it will appear in our shop for sale as we do. Some of stock that did not come to us has ended up going to auction to clear and we basically had no room left anyway this will be at Livestock Market at Netherhampton nr Salisbury on November 11th and i have been allowed to have a stall there for the day so will be in attendence. If you want details of this let me know.

If this all is not enough to keep me going we have introduced a new stock of double figure Carp into the Main lake as well as the specimen lake and finally we have replaced our very smallest holiday van with a bigger 2 bedroom mobile home. Ill be sorry to see this little van go but its the oldest one on site and was due for replacement as its had a hard busy season this year as we have been fully fully booked since July but have just now got a few vacancies from October on and the way the weather has been so warm still the fish are really fishing well still. So if you have not been with us before or fancy a quick break before the winter give us a ring. I hope to have the staff back on swim improvements and with the enlargements on the lakes we have some new swims prepare so our work is cut out again this winter. I feel as though due to the new works we are well behind with this again but we will get there. I hope to get some more hardcore down again soon on the paths to imporve further on what we started last winter and a quick footnote we are at the time of writing putting in a hardcore park that i have been asked for by visiting camper vans complete with its own eletrical hook-up.s Ill stop here although ive lots more to tell but again ill leave some more for my next update.

STOPRESS:- Just had a couple of new developments happen today which will be very much to the benefit our our night anglers and caravanners and campers but ill follow this up with my next update

Staff member holding one of another batch of fish just been introduced to the lakes. This is the last of our series of stockings this year but plan more next year and not just Carp either.

26/08/06

Bankholiday weekend is here again and as ever its the busiest weekend of the year here at the fishery and this year is no exception. We have had some really exceptional catches and surprises happen here in the last few weeks and rumours have lead to us being particually busy with visitors. We have even had to quickly provide a temporary overflow carparkfor this weekend as we have well exceeded what the usual fishery carpark can hold. Basically fishing has been as follows:- We have had 3 fish out in three weeks that have exceeded 30lb confirmed and witnessed by either myself or a member of staff. These have all been different fish and are as follows. Common of 30lb 12oz from Main lake on Prawns, Mirror of 30lb 15oz from Pike lake on Cooked Beefburger!!!! (yes you read it right) and a Mirror of 32lb 5oz from Pike lake on Pellet. There have also been our best showing ever of 20lb+ fish from the Specimen lake and all other lakes as well. If you read my other ramblings below you will see i have been expirementing with a few secret feeding techniques to the fishery to maintain fish growth and health and this combined with the warm summer has really seen the fish packing on weight. Double figure fish that we know well due to markings have been showing and increasing in weight by as much as 4lb-6lb this year which is quite remarkable. I take a lot of pride in providing a fishery of home grown fish and this was topped with our 37lb 15oz Catfish this year and all these fish are totally home grown at the fishery and not bought in or imported just for catching.

Another fish gets caught this summer now well in the twenty pound+ bracket.

I dont take pleasure in seeing the fishery so busy and look forward to returning to our usual levels of trade but on the whole as we have had a very sucessful summer and our best one in the 19+ years we have been going. Its been really rewarding to get some good postive remarks about the fishery but dont forget i dont mind the bad ones either as ill always take them on board and address them any way within my means and thanks to our regular anglers in helping making this such a good year and as always you will also see us pile a lot back into with investing in further fishery improvements very shortly. Now most of our big digging works usually happens in the height of the winter but there is a couple of improvements we have put off for a few years as we really need solid hard ground to do them in so we are going to bite the bullet and we have a collection of heavy plant arriving this Friday to start the big work again. This will be done as diplomatic as possible not to effect the rest of the fishery as there are still a lot of anglers about in September. We were going to do this in early October but the contractors have had to change the dates. The main plans are as follows and that is to enlarge the main lake into the biggest lake on site by far by removing a area of land from the center of the lake. This has been carefully planned so as not to ruin the lake that has had 19 years to mature and also after careful calcualtions we are creating a new island and instead of losing swims we will be gaining 2 more then what we had before hopefully . The lake will now be permentaly pegged from the dam which has never been fished or allowed access to anglers before. Next we intend to widen the new arm of Dead tree lake as the recent addition to this lake is still needing a couple of extra metres width. Again a shame as this is just starting to mature but it been asked for by many anglers and better done now while its hard and dry then later when the gorund will scar for the winter. While on the main fishery a couple of well known snags are going to be chained out by the diggers. Next we aim to finish our newer lake that we encountered problems with earlier this year and also further extend this. We need to thicken the bottom with an additional layer of clay which this area of our land lacks so this is going to be taken from the Specimen lake bank also increasing the size of the Specimen lake at the same time. Next our very popular Stock pond which daily visitors to our fishery reading this will know very little about but our holiday anglers know and lovel is changing forever. This is a very small water of only about 1/3 acre but is very mature and only holiday residents get exclusive access to and has been a great hit over the years for a bit of quiet easy fishing while the other lakes are busy. This is stuffed to the brim with everything including a few surprises and is where we harvest some of our stock fish from. Now this is about to be trebled in size to a resonable lake size water and again with careful planning will not upset the fact it is already very mature. Also we may allow very limited Dayticket access through a very special additon to this lake and this addition is very very special and possible a first in the fishery world but im keeping that a secret but a quick hint have you ever on the coldest most terrible winters day when fishing would have been impossible been to the Eden Project!!!!!!. Now while you are thinking about this finally there is a small chance after all the other improvements have been completed and if money, time and weather hold out that we will be creating our 13th water again this will be a small affair and a replacement for the original Stock pond but we will see how we get on. We need somewhere to grow our future 40lb fish!!! LOL.

In the shop we have had a very unplanned and large introduction of equipment. This is mainly due to the happenings at Keenets or Sharpes group as its now known which as many of you are aware we have had a very close and loyal tie to for the full 19+ years the fishery has been going and due to the current depressed state of the tackle trade they have seen fit to move to Birmingham and been taken over by a new parent company. I must admit ill miss my regular trips up the road to Warminster to pick some bargains up. There will be a lot of exciting new products next year but in the mean time we have picked up thousands of excess items at a massively reduced price and we have just open the cases in the shop and torn the lids off and selling them from there cases at silly discounts but when they are all gone they are gone. I.e Keepnets from £80+ down to £25, Method coil feeders from £1.50 down to 50p. Carp waggler rods from £60 down to £20. Poles from £125 down to £35 Bib and Braces from £60 down to £20, Landing Handles from £16 down to £5, Brollies from £35 down to £10 Rod rests, Pole rollers,and hundreds and hundreds of other items. Ill try and list this on our Tackle shop web page but there is so much and its going to go fast so not sure what time ill get. If you are located not to far away from us it would really pay to take a drive over to see what we have got as im sure you will find it worth your while. If you a booked in for a stay with us this autumn then you are in for a treat when you see this lot. And ive still more to pick up this week.

The fishery shop as pictured today is really bursting at the seams and there are some crazy bargains to be had but not a lot of room left.

Anyway thanks again to everyone who has fished with us this summer which has made it a very enjoyable one for us and hope the same for you. Rubbish has been kept at its lowest level ever round the lakes but there is still the odd culprit and please someone tell me why oh why do they do it. Anyway this lot will keep your appetite wetted for my next update in a couple of weeks as ive still lots i want to write about but ill save it to then and ill tell you how the improvements are going. Still not to late to book an autumn holiday with us and as from October fo rthe first time in months we do have vacancies again.

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03/08/06

Another month has passed very quickly and its been a hot one. We have still been very lucky with our waters and not had any problems to speak of with water quality. We did have cautious concerns about one lake last month but in the end we left an aereator running 24/7 on this lake and its turned out to be an interesting thing to do in the end as even in the very hardest of the hot conditions the fish have fed readily all day near the pump. Otherwise fishing has generally been surprisingly good on all lakes during the heat. Ive been expirementing with a couple of very simple but odd techniques on Desparation lake, Dead tree lake and Stock pond during the last few weeks with some very interesting results and i have hopefully put this down to the reason behind the eagerness to feed at any time of day despite the heat. I am however going to leave the technique as a secret here as i know these pages are read very readily and ive had many of my ideas copied in the past. If anyone wants to see what effect its had on the fish though the best way is to ask in the shop and me or Dean will give you a handfull of pellets and if you throw them into Dead tree lake or even more so Desparation lake and Stock pond just watch what happens it is quite stunning.

These 2 pics were taken just 20 secs apart after introducing a handful of feed. To really appreciate it you need to see it in person as this is not really the best example in pics but put it this way if you blank on Desparation Lake at the moment you need to consider taking up a new sport!!!!!!

On the fishing front you will see from our front page we have just had a new pleasure bag record set which is a crazy crazy weight so much so im not asking for anyone else to try and beat this now as even though this was weighed in stages its a gigantic weight of fish to bag up.

Even though we have plenty of fish being caught we have had the last stage of our summer long new stocking program intoriduced this weekend consiting of another 500 pastie size super fast growing Carp. We are also already thinking ahead to next year on fish stocks as well but more news on this in months to come.

Two of our staff members introducing one of several buckets of new fish into Dead tree Lake. Note the hard core paths and swims in the pic which we are slowly but surely building round the fishery. We still have a lot to do this winter though.

The holiday vans are all fully booked until mid September and we have had a good year and some really nice people through the fishery this summer with just one problem to speak of and that was an unexpected Wasp nest in a tackle storage shed but this was caught at a very early stage and very quickly removed. Im afraid ive not got the power over nature and these things happen.

We have kept on top of the grass cutting this year although its a mamouth a task as ever and the lakes are looking really really good and we are still getting plenty of praise. I keep seeing further improvements we could make and my list of jobs for this winter is growing rapidly. See my note in the new stocking pic above about paths. The only major job undertaken this month has been the removal of the bridge across the Canal stretch mainly for safety but also Dead tree lake can now be isolated much better in the event of a match. Cosmetically i think it makes the lake look a lot better as well. On the match front Wednesday matches are still continuing every second Wednesday and are usually a small friendly affair. So fancy a go then let us know. Matches are restrcited to a small corner of the fishery and most of the fishery is always free for holiday anglers and day ticket anglers.

Shop is still well kitted out and we have had some really silly deals comming through this summer. Brollies especially we are selling well under even trade price and we are totally unbeatable on these prices.

We are still sorting out a CCTV system around the fishery and this is partially up and running some cameras obvious some very hidden but not quite finished off yet and we are looking into doing something very very unique in the fishery world with this but ill report further when ive checked out if its going to work or not.

Heavy plant machinary is reserved to return to the fishery late September hopefully before the wet and again i have some trend setting ideas to try and create while its on site. We have a lot to do on several lakes but disturbance will be kept as small as possible to anglers.

01/07/06

First chance ive had to do a write up for a while as we have had one of our busiest years ever here at the fishery and it been all we can do to keep up with it. Our winter works have paid off by the praise the we have been getting from anglers who have only just been back to the fishery for the first time this summer and i thank them for the many kind words we have had. A recent email which is typical of some we have had is posted on the fishery pics page. During the hot weather we have kept watching our waters closely and the trend this year with many waters according to the Environment agency has been one of problems but we have been lucky and have only had to put an aereator in one lake for one 3 hour session otherwise water quality has been very good. I know many fisheries have had big problems and this was predicted by the Environment agency right back in April for a bad summer. We are not a fishery with lists and lists of rules but we have got a temporary groundbait ban in force for a few weeks now until the hot weather goes. Overall we are very lucky as we have some very powerful springs in our lakes which protect us from things like this in the summer and its suprising how ice free they keep us in the winter as well. Despite the hot weather the fishing has been consistant. Deadtree lake and the pike lake have shone brightly above all the lakes. The new stock of small carp have really livened things up and its not just the new stock feeding as they have appeared to have kicked all the other fish into gear as well. The pike lake has seen some fish showing that have not been seen for years and notable fish include Bream to nearly 8lb, lots of Tench, Mirror Carp to 25lb 2oz, Common Carp of 19lb 8oz, Ghost Koi of 14lb 9oz and a totally stunning pure Crucian Carp of 4lb 8oz and i dont know anywhere else in the area then can boast a Crucian to that standard. You sometimes see hybreds but not a fish like this. Main lake has been throwing up plenty of 10-20LB Carp and its been one of the best years from this lake for mid double fish. Due to the fact we walk our lakes twice a day we have kept everything just about litter free. this summer and we do our best to keep our fishery very clean. But i still occasionally have a day when i ask myself why do some people leave the rubbish they do. They are not helping us or our sport. We have another new stocking of fish in the pipeline for August as soon as the Environment paperwork is through. Ill keep it a secret for now as to where they are going to. Holiday chalets have also been exceptionally busy and in all our vans between the time of writing now and the beginning of September we only have 1 vacancies left. Also the Specimen lake is nearly fully booked to mid September. Plenty of caravan and camping room though. Our catering facilities are now in full swing and having cooked food and full breakfasts and dinners delivered to the peg has been a great hit and we have plans in due course to develop this idea further. Only 2 things on a negative note to report and thats as from the beginning of August daytickets are increasing to £4.50 this is the first increase in 6 years and we have held off as long as possible before increasing but we still remain one of the cheapest ticket prices in the southwest. This is to fund the massive amount of work we are doing on the lakes and also due to increasing overheads. Especially our rubbish removal. This is a trade waste and you would not believe how much the council charge us to have it collected. The only other thing is we have had a few problems with the newest lake as reported below and the opening of this has been put back to next year and we are going to make some further alterations when we sort the bank problem on this lake this winter which will also now include enlarging this and another of our lakes further. All the other 11 waters are looking good though. Tackle shop is packed to the eaves with gear and again been busier then ever and its been as much as myself, Dean and my mother can do to serve customers some Saturdays and we may look into enlarging the shop further this winter but thats a long way off. Still got some exciting developments with the CCTV system thats being slowly implemented around the fishery very descreetly with the exception of the shop cameras but again ill write more about this soon.

29/05/06

Loads to report yet again. First on the fishing front due to demand we have started our bi-weekly Wednesday opens again and these have started well. These are an informal affair and are great fun. A good entry level into match fishing if you have never tried it before. There are prizes for heaviest catch and also heaviest catch of silver fish only so you dont have to be into carp to win. We alternate the lakes we use and only use a small part of the fishery so dont effect the other fishing. Also at the time of writing we have been approached to run an evening series starting shortly on a bi-weekly Wednesday basis again. If any person has a group of anglers wanting a match they can hire a lake or if you want an open we can help out with further numbers no problem. We only take a very small pegging fee not full day tickets like some.

Fishing has been very good during the wet weather and as you will see from our web front page we have smashed all records here with our biggest fish ever and there have been plenty of twenties out. Im really pleased the way its fishing at the moment on all lakes and after all our hard work this winter its looking really good and we are getting plenty of praise and its nice to get some feedback. We have just taken delivery of a lovely new batch of a thousand "pastie" size super fast growing Mirror and Common carp (pics below) thats fish from 4oz - 12oz in size and these have all gone into one lake. By next summer these should all be 1-2LB fish so work the maths out for yourself what a boost this lake has just got.

Our on site catering is now up and running despite mountains of red tape. Our Revels Breakfast and massive Revels special has been a popular hit with night anglers. We hope to build on the catering to our anglers with something very new and special to replace it with next year as long as we can prove the viability so watch this space.

The extreme wet weather has put plans back on the newest lake on site and we will not be opening that lake now to next year as we have a bit of dam damage caused by the heavy rains to repair at the end of the summer when we can get some heavy plant in again. All dark clouds have a silver linning though. Something good is also now going to come out of this as well. We had not planned on but we have had a further idea with this new water and enlarging it further but ill report further in later writings.

Around the fishery some regulars may have noticed CCTV signs and this is an ongoing project. Not that we get any real problems here but prevention is better then cure and this is also to protect a few future plans we have and again ill fill in further in due course.

Hoiliday bookings are busy in our 5 on site vans and there is now just a handfull of vacancies left right upto September so if you were thinking of anything then act really fast now.

Last note and one that still shocks me we have now surged through 20000 hits on our webcounter and according to our microsoft stastics we are getting 50-100 hits daily. So thanks to everyone who takes the time to read my roughly put together writings. I know they are basic (and my spelling and punctuation is not tip top) but i had an offer today from someone to take them on. They said they only wanted £2000 a year and then i explained how many £4 daytickets it takes to get that back and it would be an expense that would have to be passed on and id rather save our customers who we appreciate from that. So you are stuck with my spelling mistakes for a moment. We are the lowest priced fishery around but quality is not. We just make savings based on shrewd business decisions and pass this on to our customers. This could lead on to tell you about a couple of other enviromentally sound plans we have which would also keep our costs down but ill save that to another update while i explore this further.

Just a quick foot note as ive been writing this in bits over the bankholiday we have fished very well here on site and the new stocking is already making bags up on the lake stocked just hours after stocking. We have been excepetionally busy but as always due to the way we have laid our fishery out you can always find swims to tuck away into and not see another angler all day. Specimen lake and Holiday vans are getting close to a closed book now untill September there is the odd space here and there but be quick if you are thinking of booking either one. fishery number (01300) 345301

new stocking small but very bagable:-

10/05/06

Well where do i start with the update there is so much to report. The first bankholiday of the month has just passed and we have been exceptionally busy at the fishery so much so its set a few records for ourselves but as ever due to the way the fishery is laid out there is always plenty of choice of swims where you will not see another angler all day. There have been some stunning fish out including our first ever thirty witnessed by no fewer then 5 other anglers 3 local and a couple of holiday anglers and this has come in at 32lb 2oz and weighed on a very respectable set of scales this has also come from the main lake so you dont have to wait for a gap on the specimen lake to await a chance to catch this stunning specimen mirror. The only snag is pics were taken but the angler left without passing on any to me and i plead with the angler if he is reading this then please get in touch with the pics. The pike lake has thrown up a few mid twentys and has been fishing well for other species also. Specimen lake has thrown up some lovely fish and its only a matter of time to we break thirty here as well i reckon it will be this season. this lake is very busy with bookings and there is very little space left now to the Autumn so get your booking in quick. Other lakes are also fishing well for silver fish and some nice Tench showing now. The Anglers mail has just completed a feature this weekend and the fishing went very very well on the Canal stretch so watch the JUNE 1Oth edition or just after this one for the exciting feature. We have now completed our on going fishery improvement plans for the summer due to the fishery being busy and also the grass cutting is now nearly a full time job. Again myself and Dean have made some huge steps forward with the fishery and i know some old faces have remarked just how much we have moved forward but we still have more plans for the winter some just hard graft from us other plans involving heavy plant machinary. To be honest we would never say we are finished our work here as there is always something to do or improve on but i am quite proud as to how it s looking at the moment but still welcome feedback. A few spring pictures below. We are pushing forward with some huge plans for our 20th year aniversary next year but still at a very early stage. New lake is being planted and first fish are due in at the end of the month. Shop is well stocked although as we have been stunningly busy its hard to keep it that way. Catering facilities are still in the making and going forward. Im off to due a course tomorrow to get a certificate from the local council to get the green light to porceed with this. In all its all good stuff and there are a few more plans and ideas but these are being kept top secret for a bit while we investigate the fesibilty. Last note is i see we are due to exceed 20,000 hits to the website in the next few days and this really always amazes me where all the visitors come from and going by the emails and phone calls there are many new visitors nearly daily. Thanks to a customer who has shown me how to install a crawler into the site which increases the chances of a search engine finding our site before others. SEE YOU ALL SOON.

SPRING/SUMMER HERE AT LAST ON THE MAIN LAKE AT REVELS:-

08/04/06

I did not realise how long has past since my last writings. Also how much my ponderings were read as ive started getting emails asking for an update. I also love to get feedbacks good or bad i can take them all and find them very helpful. Except i know my spelling and punctuation are out a little but these writings are straight from the heart and head like any diary and straight to this page. We are still getting well over 300 hits a week on the site and it must be working as i keep getting many new faces arrive at the fishery with print outs from my site. Im self taught at producing these pages and i know they are a little rough around the edges in places but they do the job. Anyway we have been busy as always here at the fishery and things have been moving forward for us at a very fast pace. We are looking foward to one of our best years after a very long winter. We have had many visitors stay with us already since we opened our vans again for the year in Feburary although we have been very muddy on site things are really starting to dry up and the grass is growing. We reckon the trees, grass and water temperatures are about a month behind last year as we have had weeks of a biting east wind chilling everything. The lakes have fished steadily although fish have been holding in tight areas but at the time of writing the summer style of fishing is starting to come on and one thing is for sure what a week we have had for specimens which is nice to see. This includes a Perch of 3lb 4 oz a fantastic Tench of 6lb 9oz also a Bream of 6lb 2oz. Plenty of Carp especially to last Thursdays and last nights night anglers upto 19lb and last weekend a 48hr stint on the Specimen lake by 2 local anglers led to 26 doubles best of which weighed in at 25lb 2oz. We have plenty of big carp and good carp fishing but many other fisheries do as well but the other coarse fish in these specimen sizes are not so common to see and very few of these other waters can boast these levels of specimen sized non-carp coarse fish. Trout lakes are full including some really nice Rainbows to 6lb and a few browns to 4lb and fishing well. We have a block Enviroment Agency consent now so can stock more regularly so keep an even level of stock.

The tackle shop is bursting at the seams and we are getting further stock in and have secured some really good deals that we will be selling at some crazy crazy prices really unbeatable. On the whole the tackle trade in this country is in a right state due to the amount of cheap imports and supermarkets selling cheap gear. We have had new anglers wanting lessons and many are turning up with this gear. Its nice to see some new anglers but some of this gear is so cheap and useless i cant tell you. Please remember you may feel as though you are saving a few pennies buying this stuff but remember your traditional high street tackle shops are disappearing and one thing you will never see in Argos or Lidols is fresh bait. We are looking forward to our 20 years in at the fishery next year. I was just leaving school when i started the fishery and decided not to go into farming and at the time started with just 2 very small ponds and a small wooden shed as a tackle shop. When i started i wrote to many companies and the only one at the time to back me was Keenets or Sharpes group as it is now. We have a close relationship here and we are trying to set up something very special for a 20th year celebrations next year so watch this space for more details.

The fishery has been busy with plenty of anglers comming and going and lots of fish showing. At the time of writing we now either own or have control over 12 waters. 10 Coarse waters and 2 Trout lakes. When we re-newed our lease on the Trout lakes we took on the other lake on the same property as talked about in my last writing but due to the amount of commitment and new happenings at the main fishery we may be letting this on to our local club for a Season so we can concentrate on the core fishery. Here the new water is now completed and pegged although small we are hoping to turn this into a sucide small carp water. Progress photos below. Also at the time of writing another exciting development is we are hoping to establish is some full time catering arrangments at the fishery. Ive been kept on to by local anglers as well as holiday anglers for some time now and we have thought about the idea. We have been onto local council and there are a lot of rules and regs to comply with which we have started on including it looks like im going back to school as i need to get a couple of certificates before starting but again watch this space the REVELS BREKFAST FRY UP is on its way. See you soon.

pics of one months progress on one of our new waters from start to date and bits in between:-

23/2/06

At the time of writing the snow is falling and hopefully this is the last of the really cold weather of the winter. We have been busy with the holiday vans and have had quite a few visitors already this month and fishing has been steady although anglers have had to work for the fish while we are having this biting east wind but we have seen some nice fish caught including some very very nice Chub to nearly 6lb (first ive seen in a while but proves they are still resisdent). As well as some quality Roach i weighed one in yesterday at 2lb 5oz. Specimen lake is producing steady doubles to pellet of all things at the moment. Overall we are fishing ok considering the weather. Worst problem we currently have is Mud. The areas where we have laid down hardcore paths are ok but some areas are very very muddy and theres nothing we can do until it dries up and we lay further paths. At the time of writing much has moved on since my last update and some things unexpected as if we have not already made a lot of changes this year these oppertunities in improving are fishery happen so quickly. We have just tied up the lease on our trout lakes for another year and the oppertunity has come about to secure another water on this site. Although small it has not been fished for a few years and is rumoured to contain one or two very very big Carp ive heard weights of well in excess of 30lb mentioned as well as many other interesting fish. Due to this water not being on site of our main fishery we will be doing the fishing here by seperate ticket and fishing will be kept limited. We may do it by exclusive booking like our specimen lake its not decided yet. Another unexpected change is we are having to reinforce the outer banks of our specimen lake in line with what we have promised the Enviroment agency for our Catfish licence and we are shortly having 2 items of heavy plant in to do this. This will not effect any of the fishing on site but while these items of plant are here we are expediating our plans of a couple of years time to create another match lake area as we can kill 2 birds with one stone and use the material from this exacvation to widen the specimen lake dam. This extra water will not be fished to late this year though but in all will take our portfolio of fishing waters to 12. In all nothing ever stands still here and we are still pushing forward with are never ending list of improvements although weather has slowed things somewhat. We are mainly still doing a usual fishery improvements on Dead Tree lake and its now looking very different from what it did a couple of months ago. We have lots of other plans and idea's which are very original and different and unseen anywhere else in the country but this is all being kept under wraps for the time being as i have seen many of our trend setting idea's copied by other fisheries over the years so WATCH THIS SPACE!!!. On the tackle shop front much of our rearranging is completed and we are starting to get all the new 2006 items arrive we have bought from the trade shows this winter. Just a few finishing touches to go ut what a range of gear we have now on site. We have a new bait preparation area now as we are tired of struggling to sort bait in the main shop area and this has made life a lot easier for us.

01/02/06

First month of the year has already gone and where to!!! Its the so called quiet season for us but not here at Revels at the moment as i cant squeeze enough hours out of the week. I have completed much more then i could ever hope to though and many of our regulars can look forward to some big changes. The main one being is the shop. In the last 3 weeks we have taken the guts out of our shop and completely refitted. This has been a long slow process and the lakes and everything else has gone on hold while we have been on this. The shop will now hold 3 times the stock it ever did. We have also been to several trade shows in the last few weeks and have now ordered the gear to fill all this extra room which will be arriving throughout febuary. There are some very exciting new products out there for this year and we have secured some stunning prices which will be passed onto our customers. We have taken on several new brands and product ranges and our stock ranges will now include just to name a few:- Okuma, Browning, Zebco, Daiwa, Keenets, Faps, Rod Hutchinson, Maver, Masterline, Ron Thompson, Middy, Milo, Solar, Carp R Us, Sensas, Van enyde, Breakaway, Richworth and many many more. We have also reviewed our bait stoarge methods and facilities to enable us to provide tip top Coarse and Sea baits to our customers. We now have live sea baits in several times a week and are trying to be able to offer fresh Ragworm everyday and Lugworm when we can. Our freezers are full to the brim with a range of frozen Sea, Pike and Carp baits second to none. Overall the display of gear we will have by spring will put us up with some of the biggest in Dorset. I have been buying many offer items and also found some quite different angling products and hope to get our online tackle shop page up and running soon (it was only a year ago i created it and never got round to launching it.) Anyway in all its very exciting and we are shortly back to bank work as spring is not far off. The website i see is as busy as ever and im still shocked to be getting over 350 hits a week with no let up during January most people coming from search engines and word and mouth.

The fishing has been steady between freeze ups and nothing notable to report this month. Bad news though as we have had to increase our night tickets slightly this is due to an increase in our public liabilty insurance and we now have to pay £1 for every bag of rubbish we produce at the fishery to our dear local council. As most of this is produced by night anglers and as we allow night angling it weights on our insurance premium we are having to pass it on that way but we are still priced well below many of our competitors for night angling. Holiday and Specimen lake bookings are rushing in so dont delay if you are thinking of booking with us this summer. If you are in the area dont forget to pay us a visit.

16/1/06

Quick update from the news below we are still on island clearence duties at the moment as the weather is holding out well. Lack of frost and clear weather is still keeping the banks a bit tacky though. We have just finished clearing the very overgrown island on the mainlake and as can be see by the pic below i reckon the brambles overhung the lake a good 4ft i forgot what the island looked like but it is the first time its been cleared in 12 years so no wonder. We have just taken on an account with Browning and Zebco fishing tackle and awating our first order in and there are some really tasty items in there current range that will give the likes of Daiwa and Preston a run for there money this year. Shop facelift is still on hold awating the weather that we will have to put fishery improvements on hold.

STOP PRESS:- We have now started on the longawaited shop change around due to poor weather today.

Dean clearing the last of the overgrowth from island 2 on the mainlake. (he dosent just fish and stand in the shop talking about fishing. He does work as well in case any of our summer visitors ever wondered!!!!!)

5/1/06

THE FISHING The new year is now here and im still amazed when i check the counter our fishery website is attracting some several hundred hits a week. Anyway we had a busy xmas week at the fishery between the frosts and the fishing was reasonable.

THE FISHERY We are back on schedule with our ongoing improvments and have been mainly concentrating on "The Dead Tree Lake" and this has undergone some major tree clearence as well as lifiting the water by about 6" and have in the last few weeks added another extension in addition to the one we put on last year. Pics are in old news. Also we have cleared the island for the first time in some 10 years. We are not quite as muddy as we were and its all settling in nicely at the time of writing. There been a lot of small carp being caught from this lake and and with the extensions grassing in im hoping this will become a good bagging lake next summer along with the huge amount of 4-8oz Roach comming out. Over the next few weeks we are switching our efforts to all the islands as they are all in need of clearing. Now i know some people can look in horror after we have cleared an island but it does grow back quick and by removing the brambles and cover the fish have it does encourage them to spread out and feed more evenly over the rest fo the lake. We are also slowly renewing the path along side the "Pike Lake" up to the top "Match Lake" as i know ive had some moans about trollys tipping over and this path has become quite poor with a severe camber. This is a slow and tedious job but we are winning with a tactic that should last for a few years and as we go we are re-newing some of the swims on these lakes as well. As we only rent these 2 lakes from the adjoining farmer im limited to what i can do. Specimen lake had a small leak last summer which as a very hot summer the water level did suffer and we have now cured 75% of this but it has left the banks a bit muddy and bare in places and hopefully in due course we will concentrate some effort here. Disabled access swims are now settling in are will be fully accessible by spring. Trout lakes have fished well this winter but do need a few ods and ends doing. Our lease is due for renewing April 1st but we have not though ahead to what we are doing here.

If anyone would like to join us on our improvements we are always happy to accept some willing volunteers in return for some fishing or tackle.

THE ACCOMODATION We are up and running with 3 out of 5 of our vans but it is a bit cat and mouse with the freeze ups but no probs to report.

TACKLE SHOP We are just in the process of ordering some new shop fittings and about to have a major change around in the shop for the first time in 7 years since we had the new shop built. Some things are going, some staying some being made bigger but all in all a good refresh. Timings on this have not been set as the lakes and accomodation gets priority but it is on the agenda. We have been expirementing with our live sea baits and our customers should benefit by this in due course with better and consitant supply of bait. We now have enlarged our range of frozen baits and stock a fantastic range of Pike and Sea baits including some unusal items. In all the trade is having a very hard time at presant and many shops and wholesalers are struggling. We personally can not complain and are as busy as ever and still endevour to suppply to the angler what they require at a price that cant be grumbled at.

HAVE A GOOD NEW YEAR AND MAKE A RESOLUTION TO VISIT US SOON IF YOU HAVE NOT BEFORE.

16/12/05 Quick update before xmas. Just noticed in the 12 months since creating my few pages we have had over 10,000 hits which has stunned and amazed me. Lakes are fishing well between frosts. Heavy machinary is now gone after are few alterations this winter but we are a bit muddy. We are still twice a week clearing and improving our fishing swims and islands working mainly on "Dead Tree Lake" at the moment and what a change again we have made to our fishing. Anyway wish all customers old and new the best for Xmas and the new year. The shop and the lakes are open throughout the festive season 7am-7pm. We are now taking holiday booking for 2006 so if you have rang before and told toring back do so as soon as possible.

14/11/05 Ive not updated this page for some time and i know many regualr visitors were following this last winter. Well ive had time to sit down and update my ramblings. Ive also now added a Specimen lake page which can be accessed from the main page.

On the whole we have had a very busy summer and have set ourselves several records in trade at the fishery and shop. This has bucked the general trend across the trade so what are we doing different i dont know. But what a difference a year can make. Since putting together my little website which is nothing special we have exceeded 10,000 hits which has astonished me. I know many new anglers have been finding us by the droves of new faces booking holidays in our onsite mobile homes. At the time of writing we are again excavating some limited extensions to the lakes. Dead tree lake and Specimen lake mainly and we have 90% cured a leak we had in the dam of the Specimen lake. Again as the excavator arrived the havens opened which we are getting used to. What a difference a bit of time can make to last years work though see below:-

Jan 2005 Jan 2005 Jan2005Final touches being added ready to let the water on from joining "Dead tree lake". See results below.

FEB 2005(Taken 2/2/05 this same extension stretch as pictured above now finished and joined into the "Dead Tree lake" (NOT IN VIEW) just need the grass to grow now.)

Nov 2005

Nov 2005 we have started again on another extension

It all soon settles in and the stretch pictured above is now fishing well. Last photo shows start of extension into a new field so does not effect the rest of the fishery at all and roll on a few months to heal over. Now this last stretch we have just constructed we are looking at the possibility of creating something totally unique in the Uk fishery market but watch the space to see what happens.

Also we have taken the oppertunity while the machinary has been on site to put in two disabled swims which are for disabaled use only and very easy to access from the car park. To honest you can practically drive into them. This brings us into our duties under Mr Blairs Disability Access Act which all business however small or large if they have members of the public on their property have to conform to. And we are proud we are now complient with this. The only other thing we are going to do over the winter is improve the shop access.

Otherwise at the time of writing the excavators are off and we are ready to re-start our programe of re-vamping the fishery we started on last winter as there is still a lot to do and again most of this will be on Mondays and Tuesdays weather permitting and will be inlimited areas at a time so as not to interfere with any anglers. All lakes are fishing well. Fish stocks are good and on the whole its been a pleasing summer we have been right on top of any old problems rearing there head this summer such as rubbish and mis-behaviour and have not had a single problem after banning a few individuals at the start of the year.

Holiday vans will be shortly drained down for the winter until Febuary and the shop is full to the brim with gear and open as normal.

14 MARCH 2005

This is nearly turning into a 6 weekly diary of events at the fishery. Why not bookmark it and pay a visit back when you can. It will become a real insite to running a busy fishery and i do sometimes list my thoughts out loud for all to read. And until this page becomes full im keeping the old updates further down the page and there are some pics right at the bottom. My spelling and puncuation are not perfect so please bare with mebut you will get the idea of what im saying.

• AT THE LAKES

Still work is ongoing and we have dried up at last. It was wet going for a few weeks. New swims and hardcore paths have now been added to some areas of all the main complex of lakes but there is still a lot to do. The difference we have made to the fishery is fantastic and even amazes me. Easter is looming so work will slow a little now but we still hope to get some work done on the Match and Pike lake shortly as it really needs it and we have not got that far yet. The couple of areas where we have enlarged the lakes this winter are now settling in just awaiting the grass seed to grow now. The last of the old summer vegatation has now been knocked down by the frosts and any old rubbish revealed and collected so the lakes are totally clean now. Why do some anglers go to great lengths to hide their litter it is so depressing to hook it out from the undergrowth. Why dont they take it home or bin it????. We have obtained 2 extra lakes for Trout fly fishing and have also been doing some work here errecting signs and seats e.t.c.

• IN THE SHOP

Our stock orders have arrived and the shop shelves are bursting at the seams. We are holding massive stocks and some real bargains as well. We are also re-stocking fly fishing equipment as we have now got 2 fly lakes to compliment our coarse fishery. We have also secured a second delivery of sea baits and now more or less have live lug and rag in stock 7 days a week.

• HOLIDAY ACCOMODATION

Three of our five lets are now taking 2005 visitors and we have been busy since the start of Febuary. All vans have been re-decorated and have some new fittings. Get your summer bookings in as we are booking fast.

• FISHING

Well in my old whats new below i talked about how mild it had been but boy we have paid for that. The lakes have frozen on and off for the last couple of weeks and as we had people on holiday with us we have gone to great lengths to keep fishing. Including Dean rowing around our boat to clear the ice. Some areas due to the strength and depth of our underground springs have kept clear. But through all this the fish have still shown. People on holiday have struggled for the first day or so until we have talked them into changing their tactics and as soon as they have they have bagged up. The carp in the main fishery have been a bit elusive but the silver fish bags are out of this world with bags and bags of Bream, chub, Roach, Rudd, Perch e.t.c. And some quality fish aswell. Bream to 5lb, Chub to 4Lb, Perch to 3Lb and plenty of 1lb+ fish with the others. Ive been very pleased with this show as the fish have been in prestine condition. The big Perch have really been going for it. A handfull of chop worm then one on the hook and its 1lb Perch after 1lb Perch with some real big ones showing. Our lake record is 2lb 15oz but a big 3lb is there to be caught and i still say we have potential for a 4lb fish one day. Pike have been showing well from the Pike lake and the Specimen lake has produced the goods with one bag of 11 doubles being taken in 24 hours best fish 19lb 2oz. And this is again between freeze ups so cant complain.

As stated above we now have 2 fly lakes near the fishery ready to open at the end of the month so i will be reporting on them next time. The enviroment agency has given the green light to the stocking of trout here ( any person stocking fish in the uk into any water including a farm pond needs to obtain a section 30 permission from the enviroment agency to do so all fish have to be health checked and permission given. A lot of anglers dont relise the lengths proper fisherys go to for this. I know there are some fisherys who stock without this consent which is there for the protection of our fish and is very wrong.)

We have just tied up a deal for the local Stalbridge angling club to obtain access to our waters for thier new season starting 1/4/05. This now means 3 local clubs have access and i welcome the members to come to us and hope to meet some new faces soon.

OLD WHATS NEW:-

14 FEBUARY 2005

• AT THE LAKES

We are still on going with our major re-vamp of the fishery. We have all new signs up and permentaly named all the lakes. Progress has been slow in the early part of this year as we have been spending our time re-decorating and fitting out our holiday vans. But we are full swing with work on the lakes as of this week and a lot of people are praiseing the difference we have made. As of 2005 we have taken a hardcore zero tolence on any bad bahaviour around the lakes for the benefit of our serious customers as we are aiming for a 100% quality fishery. We have already permentaly banned several youngsters for ticket dodging and littering and at the time of writing the lakes are spotlessly clean. Although we are on the muddy side of things at the moment due to the wet start of the year. We have a CCTV system set up now and are still making vast improvements.

We have always had a series of outside stockponds and interior fish holding tanks and aquacultured our own fish stocks but have now taken this further and have fitted out a building with a full fish aquaculture system. Any properly stocked fishery will often find due to the number of fish stocks even after a heavy spawning very few eggs survive due to egg eating but we harvest our spawning fish and grow these own so as to ensure our lakes are always stocked to there best. We also monitor our fish health and water oxygen levels closely. At the time of writing we are holding several thousand last years mirror/common carp ready to introduce into our waters later this year.

STOP PRESS:- We are currentaly trying to complete negotations on 2 more lakes about a mile from the fishery for Trout Fly fishing where we are hopeing to do lessons and special days for people who fancy ago but have never tried fly fishing but more on this soon!!!!!!

• IN THE SHOP

Not a lot new to report although we are carrying a good stock of gear as ever at very competitive prices. We are shortly trying out new methods of holding various live seabaits on a lengthy basis so as to gurantee 7 day availability but ill report further on this soon.

• HOLIDAY ACCOMODATION

We have as mentioned above just finished re-decorating the vans and fittng out with new appliances and we are now taking new bookings and just had the first visitors this week and all is reporting back well. Why not try a bargain prices break with us.

• FISHING

Due to the works completed late last year as detailed in old news below we have had a wet start to the year which has made things a little muddy in places but due to the continuing mad mild weather fishing is good. Plenty of carp especially around the 10lb mark. Also bags of silver fish from all lakes. No particular method stands out. Again as mentioned above in addition to our 7 coarse lakes we may (subject to final details) be shortly opening 2 fly lakes nearby the fishery. If you have never tried fly fisihing let us know and we can arrange a tutor to try it out.

13 DECEMBER 2004

• AT THE LAKES

Well we have been busy and at the time of writing we are still ongoing with a major facelift and revamp of the fishery. And before our regular anglers say it, i know its over due on some lakes. The first lake is nearly finished with all new platforms or hard standing swims and a hardcore path to all pegs. Also a lot of the overhanging trees have been trimmed back and all overhanging undergrowth on the island has been cleared. And what a breathtaking difference this has all made. As visitors in recent times will be aware, we have got one lake which was started on a few years ago and due to bank problems never completed. Well at the time of writing we are awaiting a large digger to come in and sort this out once and for all. What we are doing is joining this into the top pond, or more well known as the "Dead Tree Lake". We are also slightly enlarging the other end of this lake which in all will greatly increase the overall size of this lake but still maintaining its character and this lake will then be the next phase of our new swim building programe once the digging work is completed. This will make this lake a very unusual shape and offer a vast array of different fishing options as in with keeping with our other lakes for which we have become very well known for. Most of the swimbuilding work is being done on Mondays during the winter and we have a long long way to go yet to do all the lakes but bare with us. In all this is making a big difference to the fishery. If you have not been to us for a while be prepared for a big difference on you next visit.

• ON THE FISHING

Well our fishery Catfish record has offically been beaten and now stands at 21lb 6oz. There was a unconfirmed report of a 34LB fish comming out but as i failed to witness this and no photo's have been forthcomming im disregarding this 34LB report. Any persons fishing the Specimen lake must now park next to the shop. Strictly no cars can be driven beyond this even for unloading and loading. This has caused some sore words, but please believe me this is not down to us but due to our stock of Catfish and in the wisdom of the Enviroment agency we now hold a licence to be able to keep this fish and this is the very strict terms of the licence. Any other fishery owners reading these writings be aware if you have any non-native fish in your waters and the Enviroment agency become aware of them under the new laws brought in last year you are in for a hard time.

Fishing this winter has been resonable due to the lack of frosts (whats up with our weather?) Maggot has been slow but paste and corn has worked very well for the time of the year. Again all the fishing will benefit from our ongoing work. Unfortunately ticket prices are increasing very slightly next year (new prices now on our preivous web page) but all this money is being pilled into fishery work. We are still cheaper then many of our rivals.

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