White Springs
   Fishery

The Development Years
White Springs is owned and managed by a rather remarkable forward thinking gentleman and his beloved wife. When you see the massive scale of the site, spread over 37 acres of land and the sheer size of the lakes that people fish from every day, it would be difficult to imagine this picturesque holiday complex found in Pontarddulais near Swansea, being anything other than a totally natural occuring  phenomenon. One certainly would never imagine that in fact it was totally man made and had been designed and made by one man alone.  

In 1985 Vince was a landscape gardener and bought the 37 acre site from the local steel works. The land consisted mainly of a peat bog and he had wanted to expand and supplement his already thriving turf and landscaping business by selling the soil and reshape the landscape which was always something close to his heart.
As he started his new project little did he realise at the time that he was about to embark on a career change that would mark the start of a journey that would continue over the next twenty five years, resulting in one of the most famous UK's premier fisheries, winning awards and being voted one of the UK's top fisherys and becoming as much loved by the fishermen for his work and dedication to the site as the fishermen's love for the fish themselves.

Vince very early on discovered that the area was prone to spring wells, as this sleepy rather low valley had a naturally occuring high water table and it was realised that every time he dug a hole on the site it would be full of water the next day.
In the beginning this caused a lot of frustration for Vince as it was proving annoying when trying to extract the peat, something that he had not bargained on and didnt quite figure in with his business plans, however as the project started to take shape and not being the sort of person who doesnt find advantage with everything he does, an idea began to form and some digging later he produced the first picturesque lake which he named the Fly Lake or the Rainbow lake and a new venture was born.

Vince proudly opened White Springs as a trout farm fishery on June 1st 1987 after deciding to semi retire from his professional landscaping buisness, the name itself has come from the Welsh translation of PISTYLLGWYN, which was the name of his farm house at the time. He has never looked back. Even today you will still see him on his favourite JCB on site as he is still landscaping this time putting in some Scandinavian Log Cabins


White Springs -Brief TimeLine
1987 - The Origonal lake named the Rainbow Trout Lake or the Fly Lake as it was also known as, was built and stocked with rainbow trout. (which is now the top half of Specimen Lake)

1989 - Vince constructed the Brown Trout lake (This lake has now been joined with the original Rainbow Lake to form the Specimen Lake and would be the lake where the island is currently on )

1988/9 - The current Pleasure Lake was formed and stocked with trout this was then known as the Any Method Lake.

1989/90 - Construction started on the Main building complex which now contains the Apartments, Licensed Bar, Pool Room, Washrooms, Showers, Tackle Shop.
 

Over the next decade or so the trout fishing was the main fishing that was being done here and Vince decided to develop his own growing ponds to ensure that his stock of trout was always of the highest quality and he built two lakes to accomadate this, these became  known as simply 'the holding ponds' from which he managed his own stock of trout. Later on he would join these two lakes together to form the now Match Lake. With landscaping still being very much part of him and also his want to make the site accesible to all, he started to design and build the infrastructure to the roads and access to the swims firmly with disabled access in mind and in doing so he laid the foundations for the White Springs site as we know it today.

2000 - Vince created a reservoir to feed the stock/growing ponds (later to become the Ornamental pond or the duck pond)

2001 - Coarse Fishing was introduced into White Springs

2002 - The stock/growing ponds were joined together in the spring to form the New Match Lake and the stock from the Any Method Lake was moved to it. The Any Method lake was then converted to Coarse Fishing only and renamed the Pleasure Lake.

2002/3 The Coarse fish were thriving in the lakes due to the quality of the water there and demand for more pegs left Vince with no choice but to get the JcB out again.
 
2003 - The lakeside log cabins on the Pleasure Lake and Speciman Lake were constructed.

2003/4 - The Pit was created and opened in 2004 also Vince improved on the infrastructure and roadways to the swims making it more disabled friendly than ever before. 

   2004 - The fishery converted completely to Coarse Fishing only due to overwhelming demand for the Coarse Fishing pegs and the fact that the fish were doing extremely well in the spring water and were thriving.

2004/5 - The Old Canal was created and has now become famous for its specimen perch attracting the likes of Matt Hayes.

2005 - Due to the sucess of the other Canal the New Canal lake was also opened to keep up with demand. It was during this year the the Fishery received the honour of being voted Uk's top Coarse Fishery.

2005/6 - Vince joined the two lakes formally known as the Fly Lake and the Brown Trout Lake to form the Specimen Lake.

2007/8 - Improved access to the swims and roads.

2009 - Work started on building 3 Scandinavian Log Cabins.
To date this massive Coarse Fishery now boasts 6 lakes and is now rated one of the top Coarse Fisheries in the UK and has held prestigous titles such as the Welsh Carp Record, one of the Top 50 Fishing Sites to visit and of course voted UK's Top Coarse Fishery.

To think that at one time this was a large peat field with an old steel works on site seems hard to imagine and when you think that this magnificent fishery was the vision of one man and his wife, then and only then you can start to imagine why Vince and his family are as well loved as they are within the fishing world. With some of the largest carp fishing in Wales and most of the Uk, specimen weights in all popular course fish, with 6 lakes to choose from and conditions to suit all you can see why it remains a firm favourite in everyones hearts and why they keep coming back time and time again. So dont be shy, come and visit us, we can assure you that you will come back, year after year as many people do. With stunning views and excellent on site accomadation available all are catered for at White Springs.
White Springs -Overhead View
Place mouse over lakes and click for more info.

The Speciman Lake | The New Match Lake | The Pleasure Lake | The Pit Lake | The Old Canal | The New Canal