Description

The Furnace Lakes complex is a brilliant place to try and catch your first 20lb + carp, and is widely regarded as one of South Englands finest specimen carp waters. The main estate itself dates back over 300 years to a time when Henry VIII used the 'Furnace Pond' to cool cannon balls manufactured on-site. Since then it has been a trout fishery for some years owned by the retail giant WH Smith, but since its sale to private owners some 20 years ago it has taken on a different guise in the shape of a remarkable 'Big Fish' venue.

It is true to say that furnace has even held UK records for Perch and is currently home to what many believe is the biggest coarse fish in the UK (a 98lb British wels catfish). The potential of this venue is hard to match, with Roman lake holding carp up to 46lb, Kiln lake holding carp to 55lb, Plantation lake holding carp up to 44lb while Specimen and Furnace lake both holding carp in excess of 33lb. The tactics employed by the majority of successful specimen anglers tend to include the use of bite alarms and boilies fished tight to the islands or features, with the key seeming to be the rig camouflage, size of hook and quality of bait.

A useful tip when fishing these lakes is to use either back-leads or the slack line method to ensure your end tackle is securely pinned to the bottom well out of the way of any easily spooked carp. These waters are highly pressured so be assured the carp have seen it all before, therefore trying something a little different can often be the key to a special fish.

Furnace Lake: contains mid sized carp, tench and silver fish and is the largest lake on the complex at approximately 6 acres. This water contains loads of small and medium sized carp, with a few nudging the mid thirties. It also contains specimen sized tench and bream as well as barrels of silver fish.

Furnace Pond: contains mid sized carp, tench and silver fish and is the original Furnace lake, now a small pond containing carp to around 30lb, with the average fish being 8-12lb. There are also plenty of silver fish as well as tench to 6lb+

Specimen Lake: contains specimen carp and catfish. The first specimen dedicated lake to be built at furnace, stocked with larger carp, and catfish. Approximately three acres in size, 10 good sized pegs with a central island feature, the average depth of water is from 1 - 2 metres with the odd deeper spot.

Roman Lake: contains specimen carp and catfish. A very well stocked lake steeped in history due to the site on which it is built: the Dorking to Chichester 'Roman Road'. The lake itself is stuffed with 120+ carp between 20 and 30lb, and approximately 20 carp between 30 and 40lb. The largest recorded carp from roman being a 47lb monster caught in 2006 from peg 4. Roman lake also holds around 10 large catfish ranging from 40 - 70lb as well as several kittens.

Kiln Lake: contains specimen carp and catfish and is slightly larger in size than Roman with 18 oversized pegs ideal for long stay specimen hunters. Kiln also has an impressive stocking prospectus with 150 carp over double figures. The average sized fish is from 14 - 22lb, but the lake does have several thirties, a few forties and one fish known to be in the mid fifties. Add to that the recent reported capture of a catfish at 96lb and you have one heck of a lake.

Plantation Lake: contains specimen carp and catfish. The newest addition to the furnace lakes complex, this enlarged 6 acre, 20 peg lake complete with no less then 9 islands was opened for angling in 2006. Stocked with carp to the mid forties and catfish to mid twenties.

With over 125 pegs across the 6 lakes, the vast majority of which are purpose built woodchip oversize pegs, you can normally find a peg on one of the lakes, although getting onto the specimen carp lakes is a different story. Even during the week in, summertime especially, you do struggle to get onto to the big carp lakes. While this does ruin things a little, it must surely be an indication of the popularity of this venue.

There are not many places that you can take the kitchen sink and still enjoy the walk to the peg, but Furnace manages it with ease. Any angler staying for 24 hours or longer gets delivered to his peg by quad-bike with all the fishing tackle being towed behind in a trailer. You simply dont get better then that (well unless you can park by your peg), and we think that this leans towards justifying the £30 a day price tag. When you have finished your session, you simply phone the main house and within minutes one of the lads appears with his quad and trailer in tow..... Excellent!

A recent price hike in 2006 did see prices pushed to £30 a day (24 hrs), which is expensive by anyone's standards. After speaking to the owner about this, we were told that this was due to people fishing an extra rod during the night when they had only paid the £25 for 2 rods. So they decided to put the price up to £30 and allow everyone to fish 3 rods...