Rectangular in shape with a central island, Moorhen Lake is about an acre-and-a-half in size and holds 20 well-spaced pegs with room for more anglers who want to fish from the grassed bankside.

About 80 per cent of the fish in Moorhen are common, mirror, ghost or crucian carp, the commons and mirrors being the biggest running to 20lbs, although the average is probably between 3lbs and 4lbs.

The ghosties run to 18lbs and average about 4lbs 8oz whilst the crucians, which were amongst the first fish to be stocked in Moorhen, now run to between 1lb 8oz and 3lbs.

In 2011 a further 6,000 F1 carp were introduced to boost stocks and these are now coming out at between 3lbs and 4lbs.

The remaining 20 per cent of the fish are made up fairly equally of silver orfe between 2lbs and 4lbs 8oz, bream from skimmers to 4lbs, roach and rudd to 1lb 8oz and some handsome perch which have been caught at just over 4lbs and which average between 2lbs and 3lbs - good fighting fish by any standards.

Immediately out from the bank Moorhen shelves down to about four feet deep about nine feet out with the remainder of the pool being about six feet deep.

Suitable for pole, waggler or swimfeeder, Moorhen is a good option for winter fishing as it is a little deeper than Heron Lake.

With no particular hot spots anglers stand an equal chance of catching wherever they fish.

In summer it usually pays to fish the margins or within six feet of the bank on the bottom or up in the water when the sun is out and the fish are cruising just under the surface.

Although floating baits are not allowed, regular feeding with small amounts of hookbait and fishing a foot to two feet deep in warm weather should keep the fish around you.

For the remainder of the time, put down a bed of Hillview's feeder pellets or hook samples and fish over them using meat baits, sweetcorn or soft hooker pellets for the carp and casters and maggots for the silver fish.

Maggots and casters are also good for all species in winter, as is sweetcorn which seems to be a popular year-round bait at Hillview although meat rarely does the trick in cold weather.

In winter it can also pay to fish towards the islands with the waggler or swimfeeder packed with hook samples, although fish can usually always be found in deeper water in winter.

Until September 2014 Moorhen held the venue match record, set in 2011 by Cheltenham's Steve Ford with a mainly carp catch which weighed in at 305lbs.

However, Moorhen's record has now been broken by Dave Huggins from Tewkesbury who fished Peg 18 and took 60lbs of silver fish and 337lbs of carp for a total of 397lbs - although even this was not enough to reclaim the venue record of 400lbs set by Andy Bruton.

Lake Rules