Description:
Over 17 acres in size, Elysium is easily the largest of the Celtic Lakes Resort waters. Developed as the venue's specimen lake, it was originally stocked with over 350 Marc Simmonds mirror carp between 4lb and 10lb and 350 common carp between 2lb and 20lb. The specimen lake has already produced carp to 35lb. Elysium also contains over 250 catfish to 85lb with the average size already around the 20lb to 30lb mark.

The specimen lake has 40 well spaced pegs each consisting of a gravel or bark topped wooden platform, easily large enough to accommodate 2 rod pods. The pegs are so well spaced there is easily room to add a similar number of additional pegs in future.

In addition to the carp and catfish, lake 6 has been heavily stocked with roach, rudd and perch to 3lb, tench to 5lb, bream to 8lb, pike to 20lb and a large quantity of koi and ghost carp around the 8oz mark, all of which are packing on the weight rapidly and are already providing some exciting angling for those not interest in those "monster carp and catfish".

Tree planting continues around Elysium to provide plenty of cover for anglers. The lake has two main islands planted with shrubs and plants, which slope down to an uneven bottom with a maximum depth of 16ft. The average depth is somewhere between 6 to 8ft. Because of the uneven bottom, it is worth spending time plumbing the depth to find the holes and hollows that the carp just love. The deepest water is in the far right hand bay from the entrance as well as round the back between the left hand bank and islands.

Who will this lake appeal to:
"Big fish" specimen hunters who love the thrill of searching out the big carp and cats as well as more general coarse anglers who want the reliability of fishing a well stocked lake for silver fish but who also want the chance of something much, much bigger !

Best baits and tactics:
All techniques seem to be working well so far on Elysium. A wide variety of techniques including modern carp fishing, waggler fishing, traditional ledgering and even pole fishing are all putting plenty of fish on the bank.

The most effective baits so far seem to have been boilies of all flavours and sweetcorn, although don't forget the much neglected maggots which so far have not been tried.