Charlies Lakes in Ashford kent

Well the Matchpool lot turned up at this place one Friday afternoon after just 5 days of pre-warning for the owner. The motley crew who arrived was Rickster, Old Codger and Wezley. The 3 of them had 2 things on their minds, to catch big Carp and to Catch Catfish.
Please check their website http://www.charlieslake.co.uk// for prices.

Rickster Says:

A quick walk around the lake revealed not many swims available and we would be hard pushed to find 3 swims next to each other. In the end we opted for a double swim and a single swim next door to each other. Right over the other side of the lake, we soon got set up and sat down to enjoy a nice cup of coffee. It was then we all noticed one thing the A2070 running along just behind the fence. Thought ok the road does spoil the peace and quiet but it should calm down late at night. The road being there is part of modern times in a town that is growing by the day. Well before the road did quieten down it turned into like a drag strip with all the cars going past with their wide bore exhausts. Not to let that put us off it’s on with the fishing, hard going to begin with but we did start catching the Carp and Catfish throughout Saturday and Sunday which was nice. As we were all a bit undecided we went back for a second visit. This time un-announced. For some strange reason the weather was better but the place was near empty, We bagged 3 swims near the car park, which was a result as it saved walking all the gear right around to the other side of the lake, Fishing was hard going over this weekend, but you can’t go fishing expecting to land huge fish everyday of the week, if you did you would soon be bored with it. We had the swims 1 facing an island, 1 facing a point over the other side and 1 in a basin, a few features to fish to which was nice. I Struggled to catch this weekend but Old Codger and Wezley seemed to able to get in the fish, We all still had a good time though and it is one of the places we would go back to again.

The Rules

Dave likes to keep things simple,

• No braided mainline.
• Barbless hooks preferred.
• No peanut Baits
• No litter ( A bin between every swim there is no excuse)
• No Keep Nets
• No Carp sacks.
• No Driving around the lake
• An Unhooking mat and suitable landing net are required.

Use your common sense, and what Dave says goes.
We would also recommend you keep bait in tubs or covered up because once the dogs come around they will eat it, the dogs are friendly enough but they do like to eat meat etc. Please be aware of this and baited hooks etc over night, you don’t want to have to get a fish hook out of a great big rotty do you?

Old Codger says:

Charlie’s lake, http://www.charlieslake.co.uk/ is set in the Kent countryside in Kingsnorth near Ashford.
There are two lakes, one for the serious angler and a smaller one more for Dads and Lads, both hold a good head of fish. including some decent carp and catfish. The swims are well set out and well kept with plenty of space in between and a nice touch is the fact that there is a dustbin between every two swims, so no excuse for leaving rubbish lying about when you leave.
Dave the Guvnor is a pleasant fellow and will be visiting you two or three times during your stay, he also brings his ‘gang’ with him, several dogs ranging from a big Rotty to a couple of hairy hounds, these are friendly if a bit inquisitive dogs. The fishing is not that hard although like all fishing it’s a case of the right time and place, during our visit several large fish were caught including a 29lbd mirror carp. Apparently pop ups don’t work and the favoured method is to back lead as this seems to produce more fish for some reason, it probably also produces less tangles between anglers as the fish are hard fighters here. There is a decent car park and access to all swims is fairly easy although there are no disabled swims as such there are several along the car park bank that are very easy to get to. There is a toilet on site although it is basic, also running water. We would recommend Charlie’s for either a day trip or a longer stay, one tip though if you are going get there early as it gets very busy at times although you can usually find a swim.

Wezley says:

Hi there and this is my Review of Charlie’s Lake in Ashford that we visited a couple of weeks ago.
On first arriving at the venue there is ample car parking space and a there are also toilets over to the left 'not 5 star but they do the job'.
The lake can accommodate a lot of fishermen but it can get a bit crowded when full but it’s still fishable by all means, upon finding our swim we tackled up and began to fish.
It was a slow evening with no bites or runs and it wasn’t until the morning hours that we had a run and produced a Catfish and there was a couple of other small runs and nothing.
The next day was better as we all had runs and caught some nice carp the largest was 16lb from what I can remember.
We found it quite hard fishing in the swim we had as we were situated next to the road side with fencing as our barrier and the locals use it as a race course so it made it a bit noisy.
Each of the swims were well laid out and some are even double swims so you could get two bivvies in them no problem, also
in each swim are rubbish bins 'wow' not a lot of venues have this and I find it very good indeed that this is thought of for fishermen and the surrounding area so that there is no litter at all floating around.
The fish in the lake are in very good condition and fight well.
The lake itself has one fishable feature which is an island in the middle and other than that it’s just fish were you can as there’s no other visible features other than the bank margins.
Over all we had a great time and will be going back again for another go.

Part 2.
Well we went back and had a better time as we had swims right next to the car park so we only had to walk 10 paces and there we were at our swims :-).
The first night again was slow but the next day picked up with a few carp and cats and then the night time going into morning was even better with cats and carp coming out again and I got my PB Catfish of 10lb.
After that it died down a bit with a couple more fish the next day and then it was home time again.
See ya next time

Matchpools opinion:

Well worth a visit or two. Don’t expect to catch fish nonstop, this is fishing as it should be. The venue offers some explosive fishing from roach at around the pound mark to catfish knocking 50 pound. It really is a hidden little gem in a vast town; minutes from the M20 this offers access to most people. Night times did seem more action than days.
Don’t forget to tell Dave you read it on Matchpool!

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