Wyreside Lakes Lowdown: The Complete Guide to Carp, Pike, and Coarse Tactics
Nestled at the foot of the Forest of Bowland, Wyreside Lakes Fishery in Dolphinholme, Lancashire, is one of the North West’s most famous angling complexes. With six distinct waters, it caters to everyone from the dedicated specimen hunter to the pleasure angler.
However, success at Wyreside is often decided by choosing the right lake and applying the right tactics. Here is your in-depth guide to the main waters, their stock, and the winning methods to fish them.
🎣 The Carp & Specimen Waters
The complex is best known for its carp, which are split across four key lakes, each with a unique character and stock profile.
1. Wyre Lake (The Historic Big Water)
Size & Features: The largest lake at 18 acres with a 1-acre central island and 19 swims. Depths range from 3ft to 12ft. It is a mature, sprawling water with numerous little bays and out-of-bounds areas where the fish often hide.
Key Species & Stock: High-quality carp, with a lake record known to be near 40lb. Holds a good head of pike.
Best Tactics:
Location: The fish are highly mobile, but island pegs (e.g., Point, Gravelly, Heli-pad) often score well. Look for showing fish in the mornings (3 am–5 am).
Baiting: Due to the size, pre-baiting with high-quality boilies (fishmeal flavours work well) is vital to holding the mobile stock. Start with a small amount and build the spot up.
Weed: Do not ignore the weed in summer. Fishing a short Chod Rig or a Hinged Stiff Rig with a good buoyant pop-up fished above the weed is extremely effective.
2. Sunnyside One (S1 – The Social Specimen Lake)
Size & Features: A well-stocked carp and pike water with depths between 3ft–9ft. It has a silt/gravel bed and is known for being slightly shallower than S2.
Key Species & Stock: Carp up to 30lb+.
Best Tactics:
Margins: This lake is often won in the margins, especially on the far bank. Fish simple snowman or wafter rigs over a bed of boilies, corn, and pellets tight to features.
Surface: When conditions are warm and still, the fish move into the upper layers in massive numbers. Float fishing/surface gear is extremely effective and stealthy.
Shallow Areas: In the shallower corners, use small leads and minimal bait (a tiny mesh bag with a single pop-up) to avoid spooking fish, as they are easily disturbed in shallow water.
3. Sunnyside Two (S2 – The Consistent Carp Water)
Size & Features: A 10-acre lake with a small island and depths ranging from 3ft–14ft. It has 20 swims and a good amount of open water.
Key Species & Stock: Great head of carp, with a good number of 20lb+ fish (around 80) and a few 30s. Also holds pike up to 20lb+.
Best Tactics:
Zigs: S2 often fishes well on zigs, particularly off the corners and in the central open water. If the water temperatures rise, small 10mm pop-ups or foam suspended mid-water will pick up bonus fish, especially in the deeper areas (up to 14ft).
Location: The corners (pegs 1, 9, 14, and 18) and the central open water often hold large heads of carp.
Solid Bags: When fishing open water or over firm gravel, a Solid PVA Bag filled with low-oil pellets and a short, aggressive hooklink is a devastatingly accurate tactic year-round.
4. Foxes Lake (The Flipper)
Size & Features: A smaller, converted 4-acre carp lake.
Key Species & Stock: Carp up to 29lb+. Known for good winter form.
Best Tactics: Accuracy and Observation. Due to its size, the carp are highly responsive to bait, but also easily spooked. Simple bottom baits (wafters or match-the-hatch boilies) fished over a tight spread of boilies and pellets tend to be the winning formula. Fishing the margins and bars (if you locate them) is key.
🎣 The Mixed Coarse & Runs Water
River Lake (The Beginners’ Paradise)
Size & Features: A mature 1-acre runs water with depths between 3ft and 12ft. It is a very accessible lake with 16 pegs.
Key Species & Stock: Massive stock of Carp/F1’s (up to 17lb), huge heads of Tench (up to 12lb), Bream, Roach, Chub, Perch, and Ide.
Best Tactics:
Method Feeder: This is the primary tactic. A flat-bed method feeder loaded with groundbait and a brightly coloured Mainline wafter (e.g., Yellow Pineapple) or sweetcorn hookbait is deadly for the F1s, Tench, and smaller Carp.
Pole/Float: Ideal for pleasure fishing and kids. Pole fishing with natural baits like maggots, corn, and hemp in the margins and near the sunken features works exceptionally well for Tench and quality Roach.
Tench: Target the margins and corners with larger cubes of meat or 12mm boilies for the specimen tench.
🎣 Pike Fishing Tactics (October to March)
Wyreside offers excellent pike fishing on Wyre, Bantons, Sunnyside One, and Sunnyside Two during the winter season (1st October to 31st March).
Allowed Methods: Spinning, lure fishing, and dead baiting (no live baiting).
Top Bait: Roach and Mackerel dead baits tend to pick out the bigger fish.
Tactics: Fish dead baits either ledgered near drop-offs and feature edges, or suspended under a large pike float in the deeper areas of S2 or near the Wyre Lake island. Lure fishing is highly effective for covering water and catching numbers of smaller ‘jack’ pike.
💡 Wyreside General Top Tips
Observe the Rules: Wyreside has strict rules for fish safety: Barbed hooks only on all specimen waters (Foxes Lake is the exception for coarse). No leaders, lead core, or whole nuts are permitted. Only fishery-bought pellets can be used on the carp lakes.
Be Mobile: Carp are highly mobile, especially in the larger Wyre Lake. If you haven’t had action after several hours, be prepared to move to where you see fish showing.
Zig Fishing: Do not underestimate the need for Zig Rigs, particularly on the deeper Sunnyside Two and Wyre Lake. The fish often sit in the upper layers, even in winter.
Effort = Reward: Use a marker float to find clear spots and depths. Accuracy in baiting (especially when Spombing) is critical, particularly on the larger waters.