The Famous Five Lakes

Welcome to

Availability 2026

Late Availability on the Lakes

Date Week Beginnng	Eagles	Orchard	Birch	Poplars
3rd January		Available	Available	Available
10th January		Available	Available	Available
17th January		Available	Available	Available
24th January		Available	Available	Available
31st January		Available	Available	Available
7th Feburary		Available	Available	Available

Contact us by WhatsApp (+33 6 37 76 53 26), eMail (famousfivefishing@gmail.com) or via the Contact form on the website. We’ll do all we can do to make it the Christmas you want it to be!

Winter Sessions at The Famous Five

With an extensive work programme planned over the winter period on all the lakes at The Famous Five there will likely be some lake closures

EAGLES LAKE: will be closed from 17th November 2025 until 14th February 2026 for planned winter works

POPLARS and BIRCH LAKES will remain open throughout the winter period. Week long and short sessions are available throughout the winter period.

Record breaking catfish on Eagles Lake

Introducing ‘Big Bruce’.

All 151lb of this remarkable creature landed on 27th October 2025 by father and son team, Del and Mitch! This is a new catfish record from The Famous Five!

As with all the big catfish this made full use of the lake on the way in to the banks to be landed putting up the most titanic of struggles in doing so! It came in on a 20mm drilled halibut pellet with a pink fluro pop_up in on 40lb main line and a 4.5lb tc cat rod in just about an hour! And as with other big cats it started out on the left hand side of the land moving to the waters behind the island.

New fish stock 2025/26

As with previous years we will be introducing new stock in to each of the lakes during the closed season. We will update this section of website once the stock has arrived! As with previous years there are some very special fish on order and hopefully a couple of surprises!!

Eagles Lake – New Arrivals 14th November

10 pike have been introduced into Eagles Lake being sourced from local fishfarmer Gandon Pisciculture in Montjean. These have been introduced to up the predator numbers in Eagles in order to introduce an additional control mechanism for the fry. The 2025 season saw a period where the fry far out numbered the capacity of the catfish and zander in the lake and proved to be a little bit of a nuisance. The hope is that these pike will assist the pre-existing predators in reducing these numbers during the 2026 season and hopefully provide the carp with greater access to food and bait within the lake.

Black Bass

A small number of black bass has been introduced into Poplars Lake which together with the pike and zander should provide us with enough predators to control the fry for the 2026 season. There are still a small number of catfish within Poplars but we continue to look to remove them into Birch to provide a catfish free environment and one that, hopefully at the end of 2026, can be clean enough to accept tench.

Big Head Carp into Poplars and Eagles

The Bighead carp have arrived! For this stocking we have made the decision to introduce just two bighead’s into Famous Five Lakes; one into Poplars and one into Eagles. It’s more of a trial run thing than anything else as we look to see how they integrate into their respective lakes, the anglers experiences and the health and wellbeing of the bighead’s themselves. If successful we will look to introduce more next year.

Carp across the lakes

13th December 2025 heralded the arrival of the new carp across the lakes of the Famous Five.

Poplars received 2 carp at 30lb2oz and 30b12oz

Birch received 2 carp at 29lb8oz and 29lb10oz

Peters and Eagles received 18 carp from 10lb to 19lb plus 5 larger carp ranging from 27lb7oz to 32lb8oz

Orchard received 1 carp at 30lb8oz

The carp going in to Peter’s rather than directly into Eagles (for the larger carp) was due to the levels being dropped in Eagles in advance of the scheduled works. When the level is back up there will be a concerted effort to land the larger fish out of Peter’s and transfer into Eagles. This will include the bighead carp also currently residing in Peter’s!

The 2025 POPLARS 48H Challenge

The bar has been set high during the current season with the current record being set at 22 fish out within a 48h session on Poplars Lake.

The challenge will run through to the end of the year with the winner being announced on this page.

Come 2026 the challenge will reset for the new season. The challenge terms and conditions for 2026 will be announced at the turn of the year!

The 2026 BIRCH Challenge

Birch Lake has the most diverse population of fish within it. This includes common, mirror and grass carp, pike, zander, perch, roach, rudd and, of course, some monster wels catfish.

The challenge is simple … capture one each of the above species with photographic proof within a single session and win a prize!!

Closed Season Works 2025/6

As with previous years there is a substantial amount of works planned for the closed season across all the lakes at The Famous Five.

Eagles

Aeration: an additional aeration pump is to be installed on lake with the most likely location being behind the island orientated towards the right hand side of the lake. This is to encourage greater movement of the carp in particular within the area of water to the right hand side away from their current holding area behind the island. The current aerator to the left hand side of the lake will remain in place but will be fenced off to prevent the cats, in particular, from snagging in this corner
De-silting: the water level will be dropped in December to allow for the bay on the right hand side of the lake to be de-silted and scrapped replicating the works conducted last year on the lefthand side of the lake. This de-silting/scrapping will continue down the margins to the bottom right hand corner again to encourage movement of fish into this corner. Associated with this will be the on-going works on the treeline to allow for greater airflow on the righthand side of the lake.
Island swim: accessed via ‘The Bridge of Death’ the island has provided greater and safer access to key areas of the lake.
New swims: on back bank of lake
Dipping pool: is set to be installed on the main bank close to the accommodation
Upgrading of accommodation: re-decorationn and repairs. Potential extension of living accommodation. Installation of new shower.
NEW FISH STOCK: due mid-December. Carp, Big Head Carp. Pike

Peters

De-silting: mechanical de-silting
Swims/Posts: improved access to swims
NEW FISH STOCK: due mid December. Carp, tench

Orchard

Swimming Pool: a new above ground swimming pool of approx 9m x 3.5m is to be installed close to the cabin
De-silting: the water level will be dropped in November with the aim of continuing the mechanical de-silting at the top of the lake around the lilies and in the bottom lefthand corner of the lake to both increase the depth of available water and to improve the general water quality.
Re-decoration of cabin: painting and decorating of cabin throughout and upgrade of shower
NEW FISH STOCK: due mid December. Carp, Big Head Carp

Birch

Accommodation: re-decoration and repairs to accommodation
Hot tub/jacuzzi: installation of hot tub to the outside of the accommodation
Landscaping of main fishing bank: continued work on lowering of hedge along the bank with the potential for the installation of 2+ swims along the banks
NEW FISH STOCK: due mid December. Carp, Big Head Carp, Perch

Poplars

Refresh Swims:
Landscaping of main fishing bank: continued work of lowering of hedge along the main bank
NEW FISH STOCK: due mid-December. Carp. Big Head Carp. Perch. Tench

General Works

On-going general maintenance across the complex with tree works around the site, road and access maintenance

Winter Feeding Program

Each of the lakes will be fed over the closed season. The current strategy includes the following:

Prepared particle: maize, maize/wheat and maize/wheat and barley
Pellet in the form of Aller Aqua’s maintenance feed (8mm)
Boilies in the form of feed boilies from Karper France and Woody’s Baits