A happy new year to all our fishing men and women, now you can all get out of the house and back to your rods catching some great specimens. All lakes are open (except if they freeze over) and we have been having some great catches over the Christmas period.
Joe Waldron caught an 18lb Pike on Centre fishing a large Roach deadbait, float fished 20 yards to the island and took 5 minutes to get in the net. To top that Steve Wyndham Lewis caught a wonderful 20lb 3oz Pike on legered mackerel on peg 13 at the end of December. Centre lake seems to be doing well, although fishing with deadbait can have an odd turn around as Colin found out when he caught a 10lb, 15lb and 20lb Carp on dead sprats, and a few other chaps have experienced this as well.
Bean lake too has been doing well, six Carp 20lb and over were caught at the end of December and our most famous fishermen John caught Socrates on Paddock lake weighing in at 39lb; all photos of catches are on our website, take a look.
Last but by no means least, I have to address the barbed hook issue, a couple of guys were banned from Center lake for using barbed hooks, now that includes using semi barbs especially making sure that the hook that keeps the deadbait on is also barbless. Please ensure that you abide by these rules as barbed hooks will not be tolerated and you will be banned.
When visiting the lakes please also ensure that you park only on the designated parking areas, ie on hard standing only. Please don't park on the grass and as the ground is so wet you can not drive to the pegs so please be aware of this.
Our prices still remain the same; that's £5.00 per peg for all the lakes except Bean lake which is £10.00. It's worth calling first as sometimes the lakes are closed and you may waste a visit. We are now fully booked for matches during 2012 and although sometimes clubs may cancel we are really busy. Please don't forget to take all rubbish home, and most of all happy fishing and happy new year.

On the 4th of August Pat Hill organised her annual childrens fishing match at Stammerham Farm, all three lakes were used and the ages of the children varied from four years to 18 years, and just to make the day even more special Bob Nudd was there to give fishing tips and tropheys to all the winners.

The over all winner was George Hunt in the 11-13 age group, his winning weight was 65lb 2oz and no suprise that he fished Jenny lake, his picture with Bob Nudd is on our website under Jenny lake gallery. The following are the winners of each group.

4-10 age group

1st Kimberley Deacon = 53lb 14oz
2nd Harrison Deacon = 45lb 15oz
3rd Tom Clarke = 30lb 9oz
4th Bill Kirk = 12lb 12oz

11-13 age group

1st George Hunt = 65lb 2oz
2nd Alice Egglestone = 45lb 1oz
3rd Anthony Dunkley = 32lb 1oz
4th Elliott Godwin = 14lb 9oz

14-18 age group

1st Tom Barnard = 25lb 2oz
2nd Jack Deacon = 23lb 15oz
3rd Luke Parsons = 23lb 11oz
4th Ethan Parr = 23lb 8oz

Unfortunately the weather was atrocious, but 56 children weighed in at the end of the match. If you would like to get involved and get your child fishing for next years match please contact Pat Hill on
01293 871198

So great to see everyone taking full advantage of the wonderful weather we've all been having, the woods have become a carpet of blue and the birds are nesting, our swans on Bean Lake have a clutch of eggs and a few ducklings have been seen around the margins. Near on every day each lake has been fished and some super catches have been coming out.

We have a few regulars that fish Guinea, and they have enjoyed some excellent fishing, large Tench and beautiful Golden Orfe of which are now becoming quite a size, maggott seems to be the favourite bait, but just sitting on the bank watching the wild life and taking in the exceptional weather makes life feel very good indeed. Horsham A/C had a match on Guinea on April the 17th winning weight was 44lb 5oz , not a bad result at all.

Just behind Guinea is the site of our new lake which is to be called Lodge Lake. We have to wait for some rain before its ready to fish, and that does'nt look like that will happen for a while. But we have begun to landscape it with a few willows, lilly's and Iris's, its quite increadable the amount of insect life and frogs that have already started to inhabit the lake. Of course fish are the main objective here, but Chris still has to make up his mind as to what is going in it.

A few weeks ago the Pike were spawning on Centre quite a spectacle and there were some great specimens crashing around the margins, they seem to be total oblivious to anything or anyone. We did have a few out in the Pike season but unfortunately we have yet to see a Cat fish, let us know if you catch one. The Carp will begin to spawn soon especially if the weather remains this warm, the lakes are around 16 degrees at the moment and needs to reach around 21 or 22 degrees for the Carp to get started.

Had some fabulous fish out of Bean, John one of our regulars caught a lovely 33lb mirror a week ago, the pictures are on the website, and Mark Eaels could'nt go wrong on Copse Meadow the other week catching near on twenty Tench in a morning around 3 to 4lb size. So get out there and lets see what you can do, its very unusual not to catch on our lakes but if you have a bad day fishing its still a good day out and thats what fishing is all about.

Our lakes have been frozen since the end of November until last weekend, so do phone ahead to book your day tickets just in case we receive anymore hard frosts in the weeks to come.

We have had a few hardy fishermen braving the cold windy weather, the fishing is hard as to be expected, but on Centre things are looking up, Mark Eales one of our regulars, caught 12 pike on the 7th of January, the largest being 12lb and by chance he caught that particular pike twice, however a few days before that a 16lb pike came out from the depths, so dont be put off.

Day tickets are still only £5.00 per person (one rod only) and remember barbless hooks only please, but remember to book in case we have a match that day or the lakes are closed. From everyone at Dean House Farm we'd like to wish you a happy new year and some good fishing days to come.

Weed in Bean Lake really breaking up now because of the colder weather letting access to more fishing areas. Pike are regularly coming out of centre lake biggest so far 20lb. Match weights are getting less so its time to scale down hook sizes line diameter and bait size and reduce loose feeding. The autumn colours round the lakes are beautiful when the sun comes out and the pubs are lighting there fires now!

This month on the farm it was noticed that the main islands on the lakes needed some urgent attention in removing any tackle caught up on trees and bushes as it can cause many sad and slow deaths with wildfowl, we do this approximately 3 times a year.
So it was down to myself and Shane to row out ( not very well at first) and do the job. Although we all know that a bad cast can land you up in knots, but some of the finds we came acrossed were rather bizarre to say the least. We had all manner of home made floats and dodgy tackle, but what we came across more so was the large number of barbed hooks and some PVA bags with boilies in.
Since our website has been up and running there surely is no excuse from any fishermen that they dont know our fishing rules, yet time and time again we come up against certain individuals who decided that they can beat the system, but they are conning us, other fishermen in matches and day tickets too.
We can spot many of these chaps a mile off ( like naughty school boys trying to hide something from teacher), we often see the second rod being realed in at frantic speed, bags being covered up and even leaving before we collect the daily charge, which is extremely cheep anyway. On top of this we have rubbish left and worst of all discarded line stuffed in bushes or simply tossed to one side with no thought to what may happen to it, which shows no intellect at all.
Of course we become wise to many but the odd few contuine to get away with it, and so unfortunatly we end up treating all fishermen with suspicion, even though ninty nine per cent of you guys are one hundered per cent genuine and respect the rules and the well being of the fish itself,as all we are trying to do is keep the fish in tip top condition for you all to catch.
In conclusion to this the only way to eliminate these people is to step up our hook checks and bad rigs, and to ask all of you to be extra vigilant, and letting us know if you see anything slighty untoward. And so I'll end this news by thanking all the decent anglers we have, who look after our fish and enjoy a days honest fishing as its a pleasure to have you all, keep sending us your pictures as we have some great catches this year and the Pike season is soon to start.

Bean lake still produceing big fish up yo 25 lb this week, very weedy still but excellent conditions for the fish to keep growing.
Copse meadow lake very hard in the day but first thing and end of day best time to go.
On Center reported siteing of a pike taking fully grown moorehen by the island peg 5.