Lemington Lakes

[Carp Bird]

Hi Everyone

We finally have some time off so we decided to go to Lemington Lakes nr Moreton-In-Marsh. We were a little perturbed when the lady owner asked to inspect our gear - nobody has ever asked us to do that, even at Todber!!

We were then told that our unhooking mats were not good enough for their speciman lake and that we had to buy one of their big, padded ones if we wanted to fish, which we duly did. Now I should explain here that we are a husband and wife team - we always fish together, landing each-others fish, unhooking, even treating ulcers etc with our carp first-aid kit, I really believe that we are serious anglers who treat every fish we catch with kindness and respect.
Anyway, back to the story, they have a cafe there which was open and the owners obviously very elderly dog had wandered in and, while we were parting with £22 for the large mat, proceeded to defecate all over the floor, smearing it all about liberally as the poor old thing had trouble walking. The woman behind the counter started to panic, I held on to the dog to stop the problem becoming even worse and we all picked our way through the poo to the door - us going to the van and thence to the lake. We had by this time been treated to "THE RULES" which stated that there was to be no sharing of unhooking mats or nets, but she said that as long as we fished side-by-side we could, on this occasion (and since she didn't actually have another huge unhooking mat) share the net and mat. So, down we went and had a very good day, it was warm and there were loads of carp about, I had 4 nice sized fish, one of which equalled my pb of 16½ lb, very chuffed!!! Come half-past-five lady wandered down with another dog and we thought, oh she has come to see how we have got on, but NO!! she proceeded to tell us that she had told us to share a swim and only fish with one rod each (which we do anyway) and that the rules were quite clear about no sharing of equipment so she could not allow us to continue fishing and told us to leave. Now, if you look on the website, she is quite correct about her rules, but I find it very strange that she has these rules when she has a small tackle shop selling these big nets and the very large unhooking mats!!! I would just like to add that people who own these lakes and open them for business really should remember that you can tell by meeting a fisherman whether he or she is the sort who will look after your fish and the remarks on their website are very condescending and indeed, insulting to the serious fisherman, we will not be going back, oh and just to finish there were no ducks on any of the lakes, very little wildlife at all and I think we know why, her dog wandered into the bushes, there was a loud squeak and it emerged with a rabbit in its mouth, I am no fan of ducks as you know, but it is a funny way to carry on!!! My advice is, do not go there unless you are prepared to be inspected, ordered about and fleeced of as much money as you have on you!!!!!

[KABBYCHRIS]

Been there got the t-shirt not going back when i went got all the rules told by son who then watched me set up and told me where to cast tooso by the end of the lecture i could fish out in front of me but not too far out and not in the margins???nobody else on lake but i had only about a 20ft square swim. Pity because it could be nice up there and i would go again

[pingu]

sounded a very trying day there

well done on equaling pb though

dave

[NICK R]

well done on your pm
as for the lake i would of told them bye bye and done one

[barbelblanker]

Yep, I'd have walked before I even started there. I'm in favour of rules as there are enough idiots out there to make them necesary but this is too much. I'm guessing this person is not an angler.