Finding the Perfect Fishing Haven!

Hands up those of you who have trawled the internet for a nice family holiday recently. One that would offer you some peaceful angling while restful in the knowledge that your spouse or partner isn’t scowling at you from behind and the kids haven’t taken to dismantling the travel chess in order to seek further entertainment to break the tedium that many fishing holidays can throw at a family?

Usually it’s one or the other, fishing with very little to do for the rest of the family, or indeed, the fishing has to be the sacrifice.

Maybe you have been searching for the ideal place to host you and a group of friends on a fishing break where ‘all mod cons’ will be preferable to ‘roughing it’, or you are a club secretary seeking a new and well-stocked venue with great facilities on-site for a match weekend where family friendly is an added bonus!

Well wait no longer. I think I have found the perfect venue, perfect enough for my long suffering wife to forgive me for past holidays of this nature, so already fellow anglers we are on to a winner.

The venue in question is the Burnham on Sea holiday park in Somerset run by Haven holidays and where groups are particularly welcomed and catered for with their own dedicated group booking staff and benefits such as savings on rates once you book 5 caravan holiday homes or more. Organise a group and you even get your own personal advisor to help with the planning and booking. They also have plenty of other great Parks around the UK too, several more with fishing also located on-site.

“…the positive atmosphere was instant”

Now I have, as previously touched on, been to many of ‘these sorts of places’ for short breaks as well as week-long stays in the past. The fact that the destinations had any fishing what so ever was enough to be the draw for me, even though very often the lakes were often nothing more than symmetrical holes in the ground and there really wasn’t an awful lot to keep my wife or toddler entertained on the site. This in turn would put pay to any real relaxation for any of us.

On arrival to the park at Burnham on Sea however the positive atmosphere was instant. Smiling staff carrying out their roles with pride, knowing they are contributing to the holidaymaker’s good time. I mean it, from the army of litter pickers and grounds keepers, to the reception staff and security guards, all were a pleasure to have dealings with. It may not sound much but you will soon appreciate the difference between the atmosphere here and that of a resort where people are simply just ‘doing their job’

From reception, we were pointed toward our accommodation, again, stunned! Beautifully clean, fresh, spacious and importantly for me, situated right next to one of the lakes with a swim literally just footsteps away (as were many of the neighbouring caravans– again great for groups of anglers!)

The intention had bee n to explore the park on Friday, the day of our arrival and to have a solid two days fishing before leaving on Monday morning.

This changed somewhat when I heard the golden words of an angel, in the form of my 4 year old son asking if we could go fishing. I had to act fast in case a change of mind was on the cards. I skipped on changing and was out setting up a waggler rod in record time.

So my son and I took the few steps to the swim behind our home for the weekend and plumbed about to discover a drop off or any underwater feature which was subsequently located and baited.

 It wasn’t long before the silver bream and roach were giving themselves away with dips on the waggler, making way for larger bream as the baited patch became larger.

“By the end of it, I’d put together a bag of 100lb+”

The 5 hours or so flew by as my boy and his mum took it in turns to visit dad at his new favourite place on earth. By the end my session on the match lake, I’d put together a bag of 100lb+ of mainly bream with the biggest being a little under 7lb, the average being upper 5’s and an absolutely stunning little carp that would certainly be a sight to behold if it reaches the 30lb mark as some of its brethren do in the specimen lake also on site.

Far from the generic holes in the ground that this sort of location/holiday usually offers, the match lake is a wonderfully kept haven of 2.5 acres that offers safe and comfortable fishing with decked swims as well as a true appreciation for the native wildlife, with banks of wild grasses allowed and indeed encouraged to grow between every peg. As with the rest of the Haven staff, the bailiffs are on hand and only too eager to ensure your stay is nothing short of totally pleasing.

The lake isn’t stocked with f1’s or other two-a-penny carp, you can get that kind of fishing anywhere. No, this is a true match venue, the largest bio mass being bream backed up by good quality silver stock. The resident carp are mostly old English bred carp that spawn well every year. In fact they were well on their way during my visit at the end of April.

However you like to fish, match man or family man, it is possible to have great success on this lake alone. If you see yourself as a specialist who likes to target specimens of various species then it can be done here with an almost text book approach. Very good roach and rudd are present, as are perch to a very respectable 3lb 8oz, a strong head of tench to good weights and rising along with carp to their mid-twenties and bream well into double figures.

If you regard yourself as an occasional pleasure angler then again, you are in terrific luck as are the novices who will strike gold if they take the textbook approach to fishing this sort of water.

Saturday arrived and seeing as I had fished pretty much from the arrival, I was keen to explore the site and its activities. Well, this is where us angling parents can win, no longer will the kids have to make do with just a slide and a bat and ball, here you have ten pin bowling, archery, Astroturf football pitches, basketball courts, a good sized play area, crazy golf, lazer quest on certain days, plus both an outside as well as an indoor swimming pool with a slide and Jacuzzi.

“…the weekly match which is open to all holiday makers was due to weigh in”

Importantly for me, my family was happy as we stopped for lunch at the on site bar/restaurant, which, as I’m sure you can predict, was clean and full of pleasant staff. The food was very decent and all-in-all the place had the feel of a very well run high street venue.

The afternoon was upon us and the weekly match which is open to all holiday makers was due to weigh in – the perfect opportunity for a group of friends or family to have a light-hearted challenge by the way! I had no qualms about leaving my Barnard counterparts to it, knowing that they would be entertained while I took the opportunity to catch up with my good friend and all round match ace, Barry Fitchew of Team Mosella UK. Now this chap knows a few things or a hundred about match fishing and he did me proud by netting a 40lb bag during four hours of some of the most difficult conditions for bait presentation I have known.

Once that was over, the plan had been to have an overnight session for the big carp on the Specimen lake which is slightly larger than its match counterpart with some really impressive bank side features. Night fishing can be arranged on here, either in your own bivvy, under the stars, or by hiring one of the recently erected bivvy cabins.

The lake holds all the species that the match lake does though with many more and larger carp and some very good sized and un-pressurised pike that could make an ideal late season break for any serious pike anglers

Watching the water for a while, I spotted some impressive looking carp but they were spawning very hard and my confidence dropped somewhat, though it gave me a chance to act on something that really pricked my ears while speaking to Bailiff Paul. Big eels (and I mean BIG eels), with a venue record of 10 lb reported as well as a good number of 5lb and upward fish.

I shan’t bore you with my actions during the night, but I shall tell you that picking my spot and baiting it with a few pints of dead maggots and fishing worm over the top did the trick, 28 runs, 20 fish landed and one dropped at the net, the largest in fact, so large that I was grateful for choosing 15lb mainline as opposed to 12 because I struggled enough with holding it out of the snags as it was. As the fish neared my landing net, it basically flicked its tail and transferred the hook before it swam off into the darkness. I know my eels and I would happily put a 6lb weight on it. My biggest landed fish was 3lb 14oz with the average being an ounce under 3lb.

If after a venue for your first bash at eel fishing or if you are already an eel fan then look no further but please do read up on safe handling and techniques for this rather fantastic creature.

I rolled indoors at first light, not before snapping the final fish of the session, which weighed in at 3lb 4oz. Pictured with the fish is a certain night fisherman who ended up not getting one of the forty winks intended.

Sunday arrived all too quickly, and after a quick scoot around both lakes and spotting carp still too pre-occupied to eat with any conviction, I spent some time talking to other angling holiday makers. Most were returning visitors and who agreed with me entirely about the venue as a whole and how at Burnham on sea holiday village, everyone was catered for very comfortably.

The reason most of those I spoke to had returned and the reason that we already are planning the same is that the venue truly does offer something for everybody.

The bottom line is this; if you really want to ensure your family is having a good time while you get the chance to unwind and fish then you don’t need to look any further than Haven at Burnham on Sea.