Fishing

Overview

With twelve lakes, two rivers and the Grand Union canal next door, Cosgrove Park has something for every angler interested in coarse fishing. Even a tackle shop on site located in our Lakeside Store.

Our lakes are stocked with carp to 29lb, bream to 11lb, roach & rudd to 2lb, tench to 10lb, perch to over 4lb and also hold pike to just under 35lb.

The River Gt Ouse and the River Tove both have excellent stocks of chub to over 7lb, roach & dace and also feature the occasional river carp and some superb pike & perch. 

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Lakeside/Riverside Plots

Our static holiday homes and touring caravan pitches are available on lakeside and riverside pitches.

Owning a holiday home at Cosgrove Park entitles you to fish our lakes all year round, and fish our two rivers during the coarse season.

With a private fishing swim and all the comforts of home...what more do you need?

Fishing Matches

All matches have a limited number of pegs available. Anglers must book their place and pay the respective entrance fee in the Main Office between 9am and 6pm. Space in each match is offered on a first come first served basis and may be booked up to three weeks before the match date.

2010 Match Dates

Full details will follow but here are the dates of the forthcoming matches for the 2010 season

Saturday 25th September / Draw 7.30am Fish 8.30am - 1.30pm / to be held on Grebe Lake

Saturday 16th October / Draw 7.30am Fish 8.30am - 1.30pm / to be held on Grebe Lake

2010 Match Results

Current Leaderboard (top 10) after their best of 6 matches as of Saturday 4th September 2010

Saturday 10th April AM

This match was won by Neil Kilsby, with Gary Setchell second and Jozef Hurst in third place.

Saturday 8th May AM

A bitterly cold wind combined with a virtually constant drizzle made this match difficult from the outset. By the end of the match a few of the anglers were visibly shivering with cold such was the drop in temperature.
Out of the seventeen anglers that started the match only ten made it through to the bitter end and of those only five managed to weigh in. 3rd, 4th and 5th places were a separated by just three ounces. In second place with a single common carp, was Dave Swaden at 2lb 2oz.
However the big catch of the day and in total contrast to every other angler was Claire Setchell who mangaged to net fifteen of this years newly stocked carp for an excellent match winning weight of 19lb 1oz. At one point she had four of the other anglers stood behind her watching her have bite after bite from the water fizzing in front of her. Certainly a fantastic achievement considering the other results on the lake and the fact that Claire managed to keep this fish in her swim and feeding throughout the match.

Friday 21st May (Evening)

Fifteen anglers turned out on a beautiful evening to fish the first match that we have held on Lily and Teal Lakes. Right from the draw the Canada Geese were obviously indignant at all these people coming to fish and proceeded to splash in and out of the lakes and argue with each other. The fishing was a lot slower than everyone expected with a few silver fish being caught early on. Quite a few anglers changed tactics and set out to catch a larger fish in the hope of beating those guys who were starting to catch roach and rudd.

In the end it was such a 'bonus' fish that took the 1st place and it was a cracking 7lb 12oz bream that fell to George Glass along with a single small perch for a total winning weight of 7lb 14oz. In second place with a brace of tench for 5lb 12oz was Brian Fensome and coming home in 3rd with a 2lb 2oz of roach, rudd and perch was Neil Kilsby.

Pictured above is George Glass with his fine 7lb 12oz bream whilst shown below are the two tench that fell to Brian Fensome (he is the one on the left)

5th June 2010

A beautiful morning which progressed into one of the hottest days of the year so far saw all eighteen pegs on Grebe Lake filled with eager anglers. Current points leader Neil Kilsby caught a small carp with his first cast out to the island, but that was it until later in the day when he bumped a few off from the margins. This years stock carp are starting to disperse and are showing up in more swims now - which led to eight anglers catching recently stocked carp. In first place Richard Middleton with six small carp for 7lb 11oz, taking second place was last match winner George Glass with 5lb 3oz and coming home in third was the Mayor aka Ken Ives with 4lb 13oz.

Pictured above from left to right Ken Ives (3rd), George Glass (2nd) and Richard Middleton (1st) Pictured below with one of this years stock fish, is George "I'm seeking Preston Innovations Sponsorship" Glass

 

26th June 2010

The small Carp caught in the match held on Saturday proved to be in an obliging mood and from different areas of Grebe Lake making up the frame.

1^st

Mick Linford who pole fished in the margin of the corner peg 14, taking a nice bag of small ‘stockie’ Carp for 10lb 2oz.

2^nd

Gary Setchell used a ‘Method feeder’ to the island and pole in the margin of peg 6 taking two small Carp for 4lb 4oz.

3^rd

Chris Russell who fished a waggler taking 2 small Carp for 3lb 15oz from peg 4.

Saturday 10th July 2010 AM

The match on Saturday proved to be a contrast in methods of catching with John (Blankety-Blank no more) Hayes pole fishing towards the island from peg 12 taking a good bag of this year’s stockies and mixed bits for 10lb 12oz. Unfortunately John lost a real biggy.

2^nd

Gary Setchell used a ‘Method feeder’ to the island from peg 10 taking two good Carp including a 7lb 2oz Mirror for a very close run 10lb 11oz. It may have been different if Gary had managed to stay attached to the 4 Carp he pulled out of.

3^rd

Graham Johnson who had one lovely Mirror Carp of 6lb ledgering to the island from peg 4.

 

Top 3 Anglers

 

Saturday 31st July AM

The match on Saturday was very well attended with 21 anglers requiring the use of both Mallard and Grebe lakes. The fishing was quite hard following a busy week with lots of pleasure anglers taking good bags of fish. It soon became apparent that one good fish would probably win the match, and so it proved with the top six anglers catching one Carp each. The biggest fish made up the top three places.

1^st

Mr Middleton on his second win of the year taking a stunning Linear Mirror Carp for 4lb 15oz taken in the last 20 minutes.

2^nd

Gary Setchell on his 4^th second place of the year with one Carp and a Perch for 3lb 13oz.

3^rd

Mr Albrighton (first timer) with one Carp for 3lb 12oz.

Saturday 14th August AM

The match on Saturday was very well attended with 22 anglers again requiring the use of both Mallard and Grebe lakes. The fishing was hard for most, but it was nice to see the appearance of numerous good quality Tench and Bream making up the winning bags. It was also nice to see the top results coming from both lakes

1^st

Graham Johnson with his second good result of the year, taking a Carp and a Tench for 6lb 4oz from peg 5.

2^nd

Claire Setchell (definitely the most improved angler of the year) taking a single Bream from Mallard for 5lb 10oz. Claire concentrated on her favourite ‘Method feeder’ ignoring the small fish that she realised would not get her in the frame.

3^rd

George Glass had two nice pole caught Tench for 5lb 2oz. George lost a couple of nice fish in the large weed bed in front of him on peg 6.

The points leader board has closed up at the top with Claire Setchell now pushing ‘the old man’ and George Glass moving into 3^rd place.

Lovely Tench of 4lbs for Mr Roberts for a good 4th place

Saturday 4th September AM

The match on Saturday was again well attended with 21 anglers and treated to some lovely weather. Again the results proved that both Grebe and Mallard lakes at the moment are fishing on equal terms. 

1st place 

Gary Setchell with 4 lovely condition carp including the below immaculate ‘Linear’ mirror for 15lb 12oz. Gary fished a ‘method’ feeder to the island from peg 18. Gary said "it was good to get a win at last" to go with his 4 x second and 1 x fifth places and to increase his overall points lead.

2nd place 

George Glass continued his good run of form with 6lb 4oz made up of 2 Bream caught on the ‘method’ and some bits on the pole from peg 20 on Mallard lake. George’s second place secured good points again to take him into second place in the points table.

3rd place

Mr Roberts, float fishing from peg 23 on Mallard lake had a carp and a ‘skimmer’ bream for 5lb 15oz. The result may have been different had he not lost 3 good carp! However this good result pushed Mr Roberts into the top 10 in the points table for the first time this year.

(Photos will follow shortly)

Restocking

2010

April 16th, two deliveries of fish today! The first comprised of 1000 4-6" tench and the second brought a further 1,500lbs of Common & Mirror Carp all between 1 and 3lbs. Once again supplied by Sport & Leisure Fisheries. All of the fish have never been fished for and were delivered in immaculate condition. The fish have been introduced to the Residents Lake, both Fountain View Lakes, Heronsfield Lake, Kingfisher Lake, Island View, Willow View/Banks, Lily Lake, Grebe Lake, Mallard Lake and Teal Lake.

2009

April 24th, we have just taken delivery of over 1,500lbs of Common & Mirror Carp from Sport & Leisure Fisheries. All of the fish have never been fished for and have been introduced to the Residents Lake, both Fountain View Lakes, Heronsfield Lake, Lily, Grebe (formerly Doughnut), Mallard (formerly Football) and Teal (formerly Snake) Lakes.

Prior to the park opening we also stocked just over 300lbs of 2-4lb Common/Mirror Carp along with around 3000 roach this winter.

2008

March 26 2008: Today we had expected delivery of around 100 Common Carp in the 4lb - 8lb bracket, unfortunately the suppliers had only managed to net 31 from the donor water. But these fish averaged 6.5lb and we put 15 into Fountain View 1 and 16 into Fountain View 2. We have Environment Agency permission to stock the additional fish and will be sourcing some similar sized clean, health checked fish over the next week or so.

In the photo gallery below you can see the size and quality of the Commons. as you can see we dragged Gary away from some work to help us with the fish - although he didn't take much persuasion!

March 12 2008: So far 10,000 roach have been evenly distributed amongst the back four lakes which should help with some of the match weights during the forthcoming season.

2007

During end of March 2007, just under 50,000 stock fish were introduced to supplement the existing fish stocks. Click HERE for update

This coincided with the start of our new fishery evaluation strategy which will briefly comprise of the following:

• anglers will be asked to provide detailed feedback on their catches including photographs of specimen fish
• water samples will be taken to determine oxygen levels & composition
• weed growth will be monitored
• where viable, representative sample netting to assess stocks

The results of this ongoing strategy will form the basis of future stocking programs as our aim is to deliver the best possible mixed coarse fishery that we can and build upon the natural resources that we have available to us.

Juniors: Introduction to fishing lessons

Our two hour introduction to fishing lessons for children on site proved to be so popular during the last two years that we are pleased to announce that we shall be running them again this year.

All necessary equipment and bait is provided by the Park.

The lessons are free, but must be pre-booked in the Main Office.

Each lesson will last for two hours and we can accommodate four children on each lesson. Parents/Guardians are required to stay for the duration of the lesson for children aged 10 and under.

The lessons will be held every Tuesday from the 20th July till the 31st August throughout the childrens summer holidays. Session times 9.00am - 11am / 11.30am - 1.30pm / 3.00pm - 5.00pm

Book your space in the Main Office - please note there are only four places per session, so don't delay book as soon as possible.

Children aged 10 and under need to be accompanied by a responsible person.

Introduction to fishing lessons - 27th July 2010

This years first introduction to fishing lessons proved very successful once again particularly on the first session with the four youngsters taking over 30 perch, roach, rudd and even roach bream hybrids.

The heavy shower that we had in the morning did not dampen their spirits and they all went away with a huge smile on their faces.

Introduction to fishing lessons - August 2010

 

Photo Gallery

Click on to the images below to see a larger photo, simply click your browser back button to return to the gallery

2009 Gallery - Caught since March 2009

2008 Gallery - Caught since March 21st 2008

2007 Gallery - Caught between Apr & Oct 2007

Past Gallery - All caught prior to Nov 1st 2006

Our holiday home and touring caravan owners are welcome to submit photos of their catch from Cosgrove Park via email