Longford Lake is a 70 plus acre lake fed by the River Darent, situated between Dunton Green and Chipstead. The fishing is controlled by Holmesdale Angling and Conservation Society, a small but very friendly club currently with no waiting list for prospective new members who are able to join throughout the year (see link elsewhere on this page). I joined at the start of the 2002/3 season and have so far enjoyed a years fishing in un-crowded surroundings, even in mid summer I was often one of only two or three anglers on the water, strange when you see the overcrowded banks of the other lakes in the Darent Valley!
So whats the catch? Well, the lake has depths of up to 90 feet and for most of the year all the shallower area's are covered in thick weed making bait presentation a problem. The anglers share the water with Chipstead Sailing Club and most weekends will find yellow wellied, wet suited dinghy sailors capsizing their dinghy's in your swim and picking up your lines, such fun!! It's also not the easiest of waters I have ever fished and many anglers have spent a season or more on the lake without putting a carp on the bank. But for peace and solitude Longford Lake is hard to beat.
The stock of carp is hard to ascertain but the average carp caught
are between 12lb and low twenties with a few upper twenties to 29lb
being banked last season. Lots of people have seen, or claim to have
seen a few much larger carp and it is a widely held view that there
could be a surprise awaiting some lucky carper, I hope it's me!
The lake has some huge bream shoals to specimen size and also some
very big tench.
As I have already stated, Longford Lake is not a "runs water" but the fish are all in pristine condition (no parrots here!) So if you want to get away from the crowd and catch some beautiful carp that don't have names, then you could do much worse than to check out Longford.
Visit H.A.C.S
Kim Weedon
