With eight lakes providing a range of angling to satisfy everyone from beginners to seasoned specimen carp aficionados, Cottington Lakes has established itself as one of the region's top day-ticket venues. The tackle store handles ticket sales for the coarse lakes, while the Diary and Bookings system handles lake bookings for the specimen lakes.

Lake Pepper

The lake was one of Cottington's earliest purpose-dug lakes, with excavation beginning in 1990. The lake (once a trout pond) was originally opened to carp fishermen in 2003, with an enlargement almost tripling its area completed in 2007.

Pepper is made up of two different portions connected by a small causeway and is around 7 acres in size. It has a canal spanning the length of it, with the deepest points in New Pepper at the further end of the lake. At any one moment, the lake may accommodate up to 16 fishermen fishing from designated swims (one angler per swim). Old Pepper, which includes swims 1 to 8, is noted for its mature reed beds and shallower waters, while New Pepper, which includes swims 9 to 16, is recognized for its deeper waters and three islands nestled in its middle.

Pepper has had over 15 years to develop as a specimen carp lake, and it has a healthy population of fish. It is said to contain around 200 carp, with about 40 weighing between 30 and 40 pounds, 14 with more above 40 pounds, and Cottington's Big Girl at 51 pounds 12 ounces.

Christine's Lake

Lake Christine is a classic carp angler's dream, and although being around three-and-a-half acres in size, it never gets overcrowded or overfished since the water is restricted to six fishermen at any one time – a characteristic that makes booking ahead of time a smart idea.

The lake's depths vary from four feet near the water's edge car park, which is always worth a try, to little over six feet in other areas. With so many bays and islands to fish to, it's always a good idea to spend some time on the bankside looking for fish and keeping an eye on where they patrol or feed.

There is a healthy population of common and mirror carp up to 30 pounds, as well as grass carp in the double digits. The lake record has now been set at 39 pounds.

Windsor Lake:

The 30-peg Lake, which opened in 2005 initially as a match water, is becoming more popular with day-ticket pleasure fishermen since it is such an easy lake to fish.

Windsor has a healthy head of tench to about 5lbs with the average being between 2lbs and 3lbs; skimmer bream to 2lbs 8oz; roach and rudd to about 2lbs; some chub to a similar size; and hard-fighting perch to 3lbs.

Despite the lack of visible characteristics like islands to fish to, it consistently provides nice pleasure catches and match-winning weights of 70 to 80 pounds. Depending on which direction the wind blows, the Match Lake end of the fishery may be extremely productive.