Just took this from their website, thought it might b of interest to anyone considering going :

"The lake has been divided by a net between the narrowest part of the lake, allowing coarse and carp fishing to continue to the north of the lake and fly fishng to the south. This helps to ensure our stock levels per acre are kept at a high level."

It's a small lake with limited space on certain winds. Now there's no space on certain winds. Shame, this was one of my 'closed season' regulars.

Nick

It may only be temporary. Heard some rumours during the autumn that a new lake (fly) was being built.

Don't know if anyone else has heard that rumour or could confirm.

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[COLOR="Blue"]"A fish seen is a fish nearly caught"[/COLOR]

I understand that there are plans to creat a new trout lake, to the rear of the existing lake. Hoever, it appears they are having problems with either the Env. Agency or those responsible for the extraction from that particular pit, or both! In the meantime, presumably to maximise income from coarse/carp anglers and, as usual, to the detriment of trout fisherman, the existing trout lake has been split in two, leaving them only the top, shallow southern part. What a great pity...whilst it never was a large lake, it was quite adequate with differing depths and areas to fish. Very popular and a good few regular, very disappointed trout fisherman. Now, unfortunately it's not much more than a large stock pond! Plenty of fish in there and regularly stocked but not presenting much of a challenge, even to newcomers. I always thought that the prices charged were pretty reasonable but I note that no reductions have been made to take account of the changes!! Same thing happened of course over at Rib Valley Fishery. Rib Lake, always a super trout lake suddenly changed to coarse only, leaving the regular trout men to the smaller, less challenging Millenium Lake. Whilst I understand that running a fishery is a business not a hobby, it would be great if a balance could be struck which caters for all of us.

Agreed, and where as accomodating a further 12 or 15 course anglers may seem to make good commercial sense, they've lost £46 for the 2 off season visits I usually do there, along with many others.
There's no way that the other lakes are rammed solid with anglers during the winter when Damsel lake is open for trout fishing.
It's their choice though. Shame, it wasn't a bad place for some off season fun and nice people.

Since the lake was divided into 2, I've been twice. 1 windy day I had it to myself and the next time there was myself and one other angler who didn't stay long. I had some great sport catching some extremely fit and strong r/b's, but I have to think even though it was mid week, punters were voting with their feet, or lack of them. It's not my favourite fishery by any means, but it's handy for the Herts contingent and with this change I reckon a max of 6 can fish it comfortably, perhaps even 4. Mind you, if I have it to myself during the week it's just fine!
Del.