Armed with our rods, reels and a few kilos of boilies we decided to set upon Oak Lake, Coking Farm Fishery for a 48 hour session.

To say this was a promising, yet relitively new lake wouldn't do it justice as they state on the website they have a head of 350 Carp ranging from mid double to upper 20's, 100 of which are now over 20lbs.

Pure Carp Team at Coking Farm Fishery

We were greeted by a very friendly bailiff (Chris) at 9am who showed us to our swims and advised us the lake had been fishing well all week. Being in the two favoured swims on the lake and although we had a challenging nothernly wind we were hopeful of a few 20's.

Once set up it was time to think about tactics. As we didn't know how much bait had gone in over the past week and not wanting to over bait our swims we decided on a single boilie tipped with floating corn and a few freebies over the top. Les' weapon of choice was Mistral Rosehip Isotonic 15mm tipped with yellow floating corn, Rik decided on CC Moore N-gage 14mm tipped with orange floating corn, both on simple braided hooklinks to curve shank hooks with Nash diffusion camo leaders.

We were off to a promising start when Riks alarms screamed off and he was into his first fish 1 hour in and was greeted with a 7lbs 2oz common, smaller then stated on the website but put this down to a one off. Less than 2 hours later and Les had his first bit of action. After a decent fight it weighed in at 11lbs 8oz, this was far better and closer to what was expected. Both Rik and Les had another run each but were both unsuccessful in banking them.

Les hits a run banking an 11lbs 8oz mirror

The second day was moderate fishing with Rik banking an 11lbs 10oz common at 9:45am and 3 more followed, all around the 8-9lbs bracket. Les managed to bank one fish at 8lbs 1oz.

Rik with the best of his session, coming in at 11lbs 10oz

The best fish of the session came out at 1:10am when Les' alarm sounded a one toner and after a heavy scrap he eventually landed a 15lbs 2oz mirror!

Les with the best of his session, a 15lbs 2oz mirror

In summary a great lake which we will definately visit again, however we were hoping for some of the bigger residents as stated on the website.

Tickets

£10 per day
£20 per 24 hours

Rules

Fish from designated pegs.
3 rods maximum.
No litter to be left
Landing nets must be 42” minimum.
Unhooking mats must be used at all times.
No Carp sacks to be used in summer months.
Barbless hooks only.
No fish to be moved.
Fish must be returned quickly to avoid causing unnecessary stress.
All juniors to be accompanied by an adult unless by prior arrangement.
Do not touch the electric fence.
Strictly no particle baits, nuts or pulses.

http://www.cokingfarmfishery.co.uk