5 Acre(s)
Despite its size, Arrow Valley Lake has a fairly flat and even bottom with banks which gradually slope to depths of between six and eight feet.
The deepest water can be found off the Shakespeare Bank from Pegs 35 to 38 where up to 10 feet of water can be found about 30 metres out.
As a result, the fishing is easy all around the lake although the most popular pegs tend to be those opposite the two islands where fish can be found throughout the year.
These are Pegs 21 to 30 and 53 to 56 where fishing a method feeder towards the islands is particularly popular for the carp and bream.
The pegs along the Bluebell Bank opposite the Visitor Centre about 200 yards from the Squash Club car park is a good spot for first time visitors to try as it offers between six and eight feet of water 10 meters out from the bank and holds a good mix of fish.
Whilst a method feeder is popular with anglers going after the carp, boilies fished on either modern or traditional carping techniques are also a popular bait with strawberry flavoured boilies and pop-ups both having worked well over the past couple of years.
Standard 8mm to 10mm fishmeal pellets fished in combination with a feeder packed with smaller feed pellets is another good technique.
Although a lot of anglers tend to target the carp at Arrow Valley, an increasing number of anglers in 2012 also fished the lake with the pole because of the decent bags of bream, skimmer bream and roach which have been showing, making the lake a popular venue for silver fish anglers out for a pleasant day's fishing.
However, because of the size of some of the carp in Arrow Valley Lake, fishing the pole is not recommended if you are targeting the commons as they derive from wild carp and are powerful fish.
Until recently there was little bankside cover at Arrow Valley, but the planting of reeds around the water's edge has helped not only in providing increased cover for anglers put also in providing valuable breeding grounds for the silver fish which are now successfully spawning in the lake.
This has particularly been the case for the bream where there have been large catches of skimmers to anglers fishing lighter tackle and whilst the average size of the common bream is between 4lbs and 5lbs it is believed the lake holds some specimens to double figures.
Anglers fishing for the carp are recommended to use 10lb line to Size 10 or 12 hooks although it can sometimes pay to fish slightly smaller to a Size 14.
When fishing for the bream lighter line strengths can be used, although many anglers still stick with 8lbs to 10lbs line for their general fishing.
Good catches of bream are taken in summer on Size 14 or 16 hooks, although in winter it can pay to drop down to a Size 16, 18 or even 20.
Fishing for the bream is good on both pole, waggler, the method feeder or open ended feeder with the most popular bream baits being small pop-up boilies or 8mm to 10mm white or red boilies.
Bunches of maggots and 4mm pellets are good baits for both the mature bream and the skimmers.
An increasingly popular bait in recent months for both the carp and the bream has proved to be 10mm to 12mm discs of bread punched out from a sliced loaf with one or two discs fished on a hair rig proving most successful.
Although the roach fishing at Arrow Valley Lake is not as good as it used to be, there is still a large head of fish between 8oz and 1lb with the occasional larger specimen coming to the net.
Not surprisingly these days the most popular technique when fishing for these is the pole, but the waggler is still very effective with the most popular baits being large pieces of hemp, tares, maggots and casters when fished over a bed of hemp.
The same technique is also good for the rudd which are beautiful fish in pristine condition.
Whilst few anglers tend to fish for the perch, Arrow Valley Lake holds a good head to 2lbs 8oz with the odd fish to 3lbs and over.
Here again the pole and waggler are most effective with chopped worm or a bunch of red maggots on a Size 14 or 16 hook and 2lb 8oz to 3lb line being recommended.
As with fishing for the roach, if you don't catch on the bottom try coming up in the water, feeding the swim regularly with samples of hook bait to attract the fish.
This technique is also good for catching rudd.
When fishing for the roach and rudd, a 2lb main line tied to a 1lb 8oz hook length and Size 18 to 20 hook is recommended.