Raker Lakes, The Lodge, Greengales Ln, Wheldrake, York YO19 6BW

01904 448 793 – rakerlakesyork@gmail.com

A sunny 24 degree Monday in August 2026 – Photos below

One thing worth knowing before you arrive is not to be fooled by the first car park. You need to go through the gate and continue down towards the lake you have actually booked, where you will find a second car park. Kingfisher Lake also had a very useful trolley available, although I could not confirm whether this was provided for anglers or simply left behind by someone. Either way, if you are heading for one of the further pegs, you will be glad to have it. It is a fair walk around the lake and I certainly would not fancy carrying all my tackle that distance.

First impressions of the venue were excellent.

The whole place was extremely clean and, more importantly, it was obvious that considerable thought had gone into the individual pegs. There was plenty of room on them, with designated areas that made sense for a bivvy and rod pod, and some were big enough that you could probably have a quick game of five a side if you really wanted to. This is something that stood out to me because too many fisheries seem to squeeze as many anglers as possible around a lake and call it a peg. That is not the case here.

The water itself is picturesque. It was incredibly clear, with no obvious weed problems or any of the usual underwater headaches that can make a session difficult before you have even cast a rod. The pegs are also very well spaced out. Anglers fishing pegs 2 and 3, 4, 5 and onwards through to 10 and 11 are well separated, and from most swims you are unlikely to be staring directly at the angler next to you all day.

Peg 12 did appear to involve casting through the swim of pegs 13 and 14, although this may simply have been down to the anglers fishing on the day rather than an issue with the peg itself.

There are toilet facilities towards the front of the venue, and the surrounding wooded areas mean that you are never particularly far from somewhere to disappear if you really do not fancy making the walk back to the facilities. There is no on-site cafe or bait/tackle shop at this venue.

When I arrived, there were already plenty of anglers around and only three pegs appeared to be available to day ticket anglers. The lake certainly did not feel empty. While I was setting up I could hear the angler in the next peg landing a fish, which immediately gave me a bit of confidence.

Unfortunately, that was about as exciting as the fishing got.

The angler next to me packed up around midday and another angler arrived in the same peg. From that point onwards, I did not hear anything from that swim before I left at around 7pm. In fact, for the rest of the day I did not hear or see anyone else catch anything either.

I saw one carp.

It was probably around the 10 to 15lb mark and appeared on the surface at around 2pm, just long enough to remind me that I had actually come fishing for carp before disappearing again. Other than that, I did not see a single sign of fish. Not a showing fish, not a bubbling fish, not even so much as an air bubble for the duration of my session.

That was particularly frustrating because the lake is advertised as holding 70 plus carp between 20 and 30lb. I obviously cannot say whether that figure is accurate, and one day’s fishing is certainly not enough to judge the stock of a lake, but given the size of the venue and the number of fish advertised, I expected to see considerably more signs of life.

When I left, I had the opportunity to speak to around six or seven other anglers. The general mood was not exactly one of celebration. Everyone seemed equally disappointed and, in typical angler fashion, appeared to be pondering where they had gone wrong and where the bloody fish had gone.

I fished with two rods, putting my new Kaizen Greens to work after they had already cost me £200 that week. My setup consisted of tungsten tubing running down to an inline 3oz weight, a speed bead and a size 8 hair rig. I changed baits throughout the day, moving between my preferred yellow pineapple wafter and boilies, while also using PVA mesh attached to the hook to create an attractive little package of pellet and groundbait around the hookbait.

Nothing worked.

And this is where I think Kingfisher needs a little context.

I would not describe this as a day ticket venue based on my experience. That does not mean I would not fish it again. Quite the opposite. I would definitely return, but I would want to stay overnight and preferably fish for at least 48 hours.

The lake gives you plenty to work with. There is a lot of margin water, overhanging trees and areas that look as though they could hold fish. I would want the time to properly develop a swim, watch the water and allow the fish to settle and become confident rather than turning up at 8am and expecting everything to happen before dusk.

For me, that is the biggest difference between the venue itself and my experience of the fishing. The venue is fantastic. The fishing, on the day I visited, was incredibly disappointing.

And I think it is important to make that distinction.

Kingfisher is one of the best presented fisheries I have visited. The pegs feel as though they have actually been designed for anglers rather than simply marked out wherever there happened to be a bit of bank available. There is space, privacy, access and thought behind the layout. The lake is beautiful and the whole place is exceptionally well kept.

But I came for the advertised 20 to 30lb carp and spent almost the entire day wondering whether there were actually any fish in there.

Would I come back?

Absolutely.

Would I book another day ticket?

Probably not.

Give me an overnight session and enough time to work out the lake and I would be very interested. I genuinely think there is a good venue hiding underneath what was, for me and several other anglers that day, a very difficult fishing experience.

The venue itself gets a 10 out of 10 from me. It is exactly what a modern fishery should be. Every swim feels tailored to the angler, the lake is beautifully maintained and there is a level of care that many fisheries in the area could learn from.

The fishing, however, needs more time before I can give it the same praise.

Overall, Kingfisher Lake gets 7.5 out of 10 from Before You Cast.

That score might seem generous considering I caught nothing, but I am not going to score a fishery purely because I blanked. My session tells me the fishing was poor on that particular day. It does not prove the lake is poor.

What I can say is that if you are considering Kingfisher, I would not judge it on a single day ticket. Give yourself the time to settle in, watch the water and let the lake tell you where the fish are.

And if you do go for a day, make sure you bring a trolley.

Catch Potential	5/10
Lake & Pegs	10/10
Access	8/10
Facilities	8/10
Value	6/10
Management & Upkeep	10/10
Overall	7.8/10