Queen Elizabeth II Country Park Lake

Fancy a bigger bit of water rather than a compact commercial pond? Queen Elizabeth II Country Park Lake in Ashington gives you approximately 40 acres to think about. It’s a Wansbeck and Cramlington Angling Club water, set within a country park, with day-ticket access for visiting anglers. There’s just one lake here, so the choice is about which sort of fishing you fancy, not which pool to book.

• 1 lake: Queen Elizabeth II Country Park Lake
• Fish: carp, bream, roach, rudd, crucian, tench, pike, perch
• Tickets from: Senior day ticket — published price dated 1 January 2021; check current charge — £8
• Find it: Ashington · NE63 9AS

Based on how each lake is set up — not a ranking.

Fancy a bigger bit of water rather than a compact commercial pond? Queen Elizabeth II Country Park Lake in Ashington gives you approximately 40 acres to think about. It’s a Wansbeck and Cramlington Angling Club water, set within a country park, with day-ticket access for visiting anglers. There’s just one lake here, so the choice is about which sort of fishing you fancy, not which pool to book.

The species mix gives it plenty of appeal. Club stocking reports confirm carp, bream, roach, rudd and crucian carp, while catch reports also confirm mirror carp and tench. Pike and perch feature in the lake’s specific fishing rules too. That makes this worth a look whether your interest is mixed coarse fishing, carp or predators. Just don’t mistake a varied species list for a promise of getting bagged up.

Getting the ticket sorted comes before getting a line wet. The club lists McDermott’s at 112 Station Road, Ashington, plus Billy’s in North Shields and Frasers in Gateshead when trading. Lakeside Hotel no longer sells tickets, so don’t build your trip around picking one up there. The published prices are dated 1 January 2021; check the current charge and outlet arrangements before travelling. Club membership includes QEII and seven other waters, with online applications offered.

Your ticket also decides how long you can stay. Day-ticket fishing is dawn to dusk only; members can night fish subject to the club’s night-fishing rules. Junior night anglers need a senior member alongside them. Predator plans need a calendar check as well: fishing for pike and perch is prohibited from 1 April through 30 September. That’s a firm seasonal restriction, not simply a suggestion about when they might be on the munch.

There’s a car park at the country park, surfaced paths around the lake and grass paths on its eastern side. Handy for planning your way round, but those paths aren’t a promise of vehicle access to your swim. Lakeside vehicle access is restricted to disabled blue-badge/key holders under club conditions. The park postcode is NE63 9AS, and the club gives the lake coordinates as 55.19629, -1.55194. Canoeing and windsurfing share the water, so this isn’t an anglers-only setting.

Before packing, give the tackle rules a proper once-over. Carp and pike anglers need a minimum 36-inch landing net, an unhooking mat and line of at least 15 lb breaking strain. Bait boats and fishing from watercraft are prohibited, as are livebait, coarse-fish deadbaits and nuts. The hotel frontage between the ramp and right-hand fence is out of bounds too. Get those basics bob on and there’s less faff when you arrive.

Good background reading. Most of it is a few years old, so treat it as a starting point and ask on the day.

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• Our read

  Checked Sept '26 — “QEII is a proper big-water option in Ashington: roughly 40 acres with mixed coarse fishing and seasonal predator fishing. Day tickets are available, while club membership opens up night fishing under the club’s rules.”

This is our own summary of recurring public feedback and the venue details we checked, not a copied customer review or a promise you’ll catch. Feedback changes, so we keep it separate from the Tackle Index score.