White Acres, White Cross, Newquay, Cornwall TR8 4LWPhone

Earlier this year, our project manager Laurie phoned me to ask me to write a review. I could not believe my luck and booked a week holiday for the week starting on the 28th April.Holiday detailsAddress: White Acres, White Cross, Newquay, Cornwall TR8 4LWPhone: 0845 458 0065Directions: From Exeter follow the A30 into Cornwall passing Bodmin. At Indian Queens take the A392 towards Newquay. White Acres is clearly sign posted on your right hand side.

Web site: www.whiteacres.co.uk This is a site well worth visiting as it not only gives details of White Acres but a continually updated guide to the fishing. You can check out how it is fishing and get some very good fishing hints from Clint Elliot before you go on holiday.

Accommodation: There is a great range of Lodges and holiday homes.Lodges: These are specially designed top of the range wooden Scandinavian lodges that are situated beside Jenny’s Lake. They are all either new or less than two years old. These are superbly equipped with terrific views from their balconies. They have either two or three bedrooms. The larger lodges have an extra bathroom which is en-suite. The kitchens are all fully fitted, there are also; luxurious sofas, telephone, central heating, double glazing, French windows, large screen TV and video.Holiday Homes: These were a great surprise to me as they are so far removed from the old caravan that they are unrecognisable. A11 services are now plumbed in and many even have central heating. There are eight different models available ranging from 8 berth down to smaller 4 berth models. They all looked new or virtually new to me and were kept in first class condition. The choice is yours and to help you, detailed plans of the layouts are given both on the web site and in the brochure. They also give details of what is inside the home which can include: clothes airer, fridge, colour T.V., video, microwave, vacuum cleaner, toaster, kettle, double glazing, carpet sweeper, linen, gas cooker and central heating.Whatever you choice I doubt that you will be disappointed.Entertainment: Children are exceptionally well catered for with a whole range of activities that are too many to go into in a fishing magazine. I could not think of anything that they had not provided. Including swimming pool, pirate ship, adventure fort, travelling zoo, nightly shows and pool room.The club has a terrific bar with many top ranking acts that have included Frank Carson, Tom O’Connor, The Rockin’ Berries, Cannon and Ball, Brotherhood of Man and David Copperfield.There is also a restaurant and a take-away on site that is very convenient for anglers.The lakes: This I suspect is the most important factor for our readers and again you’ll not be disappointed. There are nine purpose built lakes on site plus the famous Bolingey lake about eight miles away. In one week you have not really got the time to explore the full potential of White Acres fishing. I would imagine two weeks would give you a much better chance of covering the waters.The lakes are stocked with different species offering designer fishing for residents. There is also a well stocked tackle shop on site where good bait and tackle can be purchased at reasonable prices. Clint Elliot, the resident professional, is available to steer you in the right direction. His advice can certainly save you a lot of time and effort. I found him very knowledgeable and most helpful. He is certainly an outstanding angler.I make no secret of it that I prefer fishing for specimen fish and White Acres caters well for the big fish man with two specimen lakes. These are Pat’s Pool and the newer Nelson’s lake. Nelson’s Lake is approximately 2.4 acres with about eight feet of depth. It is well landscaped with plenty of features to allow a whole range of specimen styles to be used. It has eight large catfish, the smallest being 251b ranging to over 341b. There are plenty of twenty pound plus carp running into good thirties. No fish has been stocked under 141b. Pat’s Pool holds a terrific head of specimen carp including big ghost carp and catfish over 341b. Both waters have a lot of offer the big fish angler.Jenny’s Pool is classed as a pleasure lake and is stocked with a great variety of fish including double figure bream, big tench, smaller catfish, carp, roach and perch. A truly mixed 5 acre lake that can produce some surprises.Sycamore lake has been described as ‘carp city’ and has been stocked with a terrific head of carp ranging from 3lb to 15lb. Eery lake is another lake on site where carp dominate and should appeal to both match and pleasure anglers.Python Pool is a well established canalised lake with a large central island. It is well stocked with carp, crucian carp, roach and plenty of tench ranging from 8oz to over 41b.White Acres also now have a silverfish lake. I like this idea as it provides a great break from carp and tench. This is one lake where you can safely fish light without the danger of a carp smashing up your tackle.There are also two match lakes on site. These are Trelawney Lake and Pollawyn Lake. They are both well featured and capable of producing match weights of approaching two hundred pounds. Just look in the match section of either the Angling Times or Anglers Mail in the summer and you will see for yourself the monstrous bags produced from these lakes every week.Residents also have exclusive use of the famous Bolingey lake near Perranorth about eight miles away. Roger had some terrific bags with plenty of good ghost and ordinary carp from this venue during last years holiday. There were also some nice koi carp in his catches. It is certainly worth a visit.Investigating White AcresI was supposed to visit White Acres in early January but heavy snow made it impossible for me to get through. I phoned Clint Elliot to tell him but he asked “What snow? There is no snow here”. I couldn’t believe it as there was up to 8 inches of snow in Bristol!Evidently they do not get the extreme cold down at White Acres and this could help explain why the catfish breed so freely on the site. The climate no doubt also accounts for the superior growth rates of the fish.Not being able to get to White Acres, I decided to have a serious chat with Roger Baker. Roger and his son, Paul have fished the venue for years and done very well on the matches held there every week.B. “Roger what is the big attraction of the matches at White Acres? R. “The variety in the fishing and the terrific bag weights that are possible. Clint Elliot had plenty of catches going into the big hundreds even Paul and I have won holiday matches with over 1001b bags”.B. “Yes but I am a bit of a big fish man and catching bags of pasties is not really my scene” R. “You’re completely wrong. A good bag will normally contain plenty of good doubles. I had about nine doubles with a mixture of ordinary and ghost carp in a match. Even the odd twenty pounder is caught in matches.” He then went on to explain that although there were plenty of good fish in most lakes, the Specimen Lakes which were not match fished would be more to my liking. There are plenty of carp running between 20lb and low thirties in them. The average appeared to be a very big double. The catfish, he explained, officially ran to about 341b but they are growing so quickly in the warmer climate that he felt a forty pound plus cat was on the cards for this year.B. “I suppose most of the specimen carp and catfish are caught by the bivvy boys” R. “Not necessarily true. They do catch some good fish but so do anglers float fishing in close with big baits. Your Virginia with her stalking approach should catch some big fish when you go down in April. I wouldn’t be surprised if she caught a thirty pound plus carp. And don’t forget the bream and tench. We have had bream to over 81b and some very good tench” B. “So the fishing is brilliant – but what about the accommodation? Is it as good as shown in the literature?” R. “There is no doubt that the fishing is brilliant and in my opinion the accommodation is even better than shown in the brochure. We had one of the new lodges last year and could not believe the quality. It was out of this world”

After that conversation I am really looking forward to my week at White Acres in April. An account of how Virginia and I do during that week should appear in the June edition of this magazine.