Carp (Mirrors & Commons) Pike, Tench, Perch, Ruff, Roach and Bream.

Lake Record: 

The Orange fish at 41lb 8ozs (Mirror)

Known Fish:

The Orange Fish (41lb 4ozs) 
The Big Common (30lb 8ozs) 
Moon Scale (35lb 12ozs) 
Single Scale (35lb 8ozs) 

Rules: 

You must have an EA rod licence, Fishing is permitted between half an hour before sunrise and half an hour after sunset, All fish to be returned immediately, No keepnet’s, No Night Fishing and you must have a landing net and a sensible sized carp mat.

Bait Restrictions: 

No live baits for Pike.

Ticket Info: 

Day/Week Tickets Available From Bells Of Hythe 02380 8425065
Season tickets from NFDC

Tickets Prices: 

Child: Day £6.50 Week £19.00
Adult: Day £10.00 Week £32.50

General Info: 

According to Hampshire’s Forestry Commission the pond was created in the 18th Century to provide power for an iron mill, which is fascinating really, really fascinating (Snore!!!!)

So anyway Hatchet can be an ominous place to fish while some get on there and hammer it with captures of up to 8 Common carp and 1 of the big mirrors in a session most return from there with a dry landing net and 25 shots left in the camera.

It has some good features like a patch of vegetation (the cabbages) near the car park end of the lake and some large drop off’s along the road bank. 
There is an old river bed that still runs the length of the pond that is silty and if you can find some of the harder silt patches they make for an excellent place to set your traps.

The top end of the lake up near ‘Little Hatchet’ is the shallowest part of the lake and I have heard of it being walked across in the summer months.
A lot of anglers will do ‘the big walk’ and set of from the car park to get round the back side of the lake (opposite the road bank) towards what is known as the ‘Pines’ swim. This is a good idea in the summer as you can escape some of the tourists that go to Hatchet to demonstrate how annoying tourists can be. I was once asked what time the tide was in?
From the Pines side of the lake you can either fish back towards the car park or fish directly out from the pines or walk up towards the shallows, this can be a great way to catch fish just off of the bank in about 2 ½ foot of water, you can simply wade your baits out and set them perfectly.

Let’s talk carp!
The lakes has some great old English mirrors, the biggest being ‘The Orange’ fish that local angler and personal friend Greg Alexander had out last winter at 41lb 8ozs, this fish was called the ‘Esso Fish’ for a while as some Noddy anglers had assumed that this fish had been put in from the local Esso Reservoir at this size, well you know what they say about assumption!