Venue Spotlight – Stafford Moor, North Devon

Stafford Moor Fishery Complex, North Devon

Beatties Lake at Stafford Moor

Right, next venue in my series on waters you could fish whilst on holiday (the last review was in 2005….sorry!) is Stafford Moor. It’s the venue that a lot of my articles are written at, mainly because I’m pretty confident I’ll get a few!

Stafford Moor is an ideal holiday venue – there are some really nice lodges on site where you can stay for the duration and you aren’t a million miles from the beaches or Dartmoor – indeed you can see it from the lakes. It’s in a fantastic location, all you will hear is the cattle mooing, birds tweeting and the odd Eurofighter or Apache helicopter doing low level training! Pretty rare at the moment though, they are busy elsewhere….

There’s a fully stocked tackle shop on site as well, with everything you could need in it.

Directions

From Torrington follow the A386 towards Hatherleigh. As you leave Torrington you will drop down a steep hill, and at the bottom take the left fork, the A3124 signposted RHS Rosemoor. Continue past Rosemoor Gardens and carry on through Beaford, ignoring the signs for Dolton, and keep heading towards Winkleigh. You will pass a crossroads with a garage on the left, approximately a mile past this you will see the turn on the right hand side signposted Stafford Moor. Carry on down the lane for approximately half a mile, and the entrance to the lakes is on the right.

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Dave with a couple of big carp he’s had from Stafford Moor

The Lake

The lake I’m reviewing is Beatties – the specimen carp water. There are another four lakes on site, which are mainly mixed pleasure or match lakes and quite well known on the match scene. One lake is a ‘silver fish’ only lake – quite refreshing these days!

Jay with a nice carp from Beatties

Beatties is described as 9 acres, with three main islands. There is a small cut through to a largely unfished back pool, which I actually find quite productive – just as well as it’s normally the only place I can get a swim when I roll up after work on a Saturday with my son Jay for an overnighter!

The Stock

You’ll never be far from them as there are 400 odd carp in Beatties! When I first started fishing it a few years ago you would get plagued with small fish, now those small fish are growing pretty quickly and probably average mid doubles. The lake has produced its first thirty recently, and has a few not far behind. There are also a handful of original commons from when it was a trout fishery, I’ve had two of them and they are cracking mid to upper 20lb fish – the main reason I still fish it.

The Cost

Pleasure fishing on the other lakes is £ 7.50

Concessions (OAP/under 12) £ 6

Beatties Lake: £ 9 per 12 hours, £ 18 24 hours. No concessions.

The Fishing

Stafford is definitely a runs water, and they like a bit of bait. You will catch on stringers/small bags but if you want to really have a good session, its worth putting a bit of bait out – realistically I reckon its hard to overbait it!

Dave with a 24lb 8oz common from Beatties

I prefer the usual boilie and pellet approach, though I’ll drop the pellet when the bream are on the munch. Corn works well, but again the bream do have a taste for it. There are tench in there as well, though you don’t see many caught – I’ve only had a handful in all the time I’ve fished it.

Keep rigs simple, an 8 inch nylon or combi link to a size 8 mugga/wide gape will do fine, there is no need for anything complicated. I also do much better on bottom baits than pop-ups, but that’s probably down to the way I bait the lake.

So long as you’re sensible you will catch. Get on the dam wall on a big south westerly, and remember that you don’t have to cast to the middle!

My favourite swims

My favourite two are the boathouse swim – though it’s a struggle to get in there – as you have a decent margin (where some big ‘proper’ crucians live) an island, a decent bar and access to the middle of the lake.

The other is a point right at the far end corner of the lake by the cut-through, though I seem to fish a different area to those that I’ve seen fish it – look past the island margin….

Stafford Moor is a great water to get a bend in the rod – Andy who runs the place is very helpful and will always point you in the right direction, he’s also honest, if it’s not fishing well he’ll say so. If you are going to visit, it’s well worth booking first as it’s becoming very popular, even mid week in winter there’s normally at least a few people on there. Give it a go!