Welcome to Richworth Linear Fisheries

All our waters are open for 24-hour fishing, we do however lock all the gates at night for your own security. From March 1st until September 30th all gates will be locked at 9pm and opened again by 8am. From October 1st until February 28th all gates will be locked at 6pm and opened again by 8am. If you arrive during lock up times you must wait in the main Hardwick car park which is across the B4449 road opposite the main entrance to our office. Do not park in front of or block any of the main locked gates or you may be asked to leave the site. Use the 24 hour Hardwick car park as instructed. We have a security company on call throughout the night for any medical emergency, contact details for R&R Frontline Security can be found on all the notice boards around the fishery. Please also see the security section below.

We have two custom made swims for wheelchair disabled anglers and their helpers, one of these is on Oxlease and the other on Brasenose One. Both swims contain disabled toilets and are suitable for erecting a bivvy. Many other swims are also suitable for the disabled especially on Oxlease and Brasenose.

Not all the swims and banks are easily accessible on some of our other lakes and in the past Linear has always done its best to help disabled anglers if they have problems getting to or leaving these swims. This help remains in place but will only be available when we have the use of 4X4 vehicles, which is not always seven days of the week. If you think you are going to have problems moving yourself or your tackle about on the fishery then an advance phone call to our Head Bailiff will tell you if we are able to help at the times you wish to start or leave.

There are seven day ticket waters at Linear Oxford and there is no limit to the time anglers can spend on them. Although referred to as the day ticket waters these lakes can be fished throughout the day and night and for any period of time. Tickets are available from the Linear Bailiffs who patrol the waters regularly. It is permitted to start fishing and pay the bailiff when he visits your swim. Fishing on all these waters is open to everyone, all the year round. The tickets are transferable and anglers can move between waters on the same ticket. There is no drinking water on site but water can be obtained from our Head Bailiff if he is not too busy and you have a water container. Alternatively water can be obtained from the nearby grocers shop in the village of Stanton Harcourt, along with provisions.

• Brasenose One
• Brasenose Two
• Hardwick Lake and Smiths Pool
• Hunts Corner Lake
• Manor Farm Lake
• Oxlease Lake
• St Johns Lake

Linear has five stock ponds where they grow on carp from fry to high singles or low doubles. In addition there is a 12 acre lake that is kept heavily stocked for growing on carp beyond these sizes. Linear has been enjoying some excellent results from the stock ponds and in the past fish of just 1lb in weight have gained as much as 7lb in nine months of controlled feeding. In addition to the stock ponds there is also a fish house where lesser numbers of selected carp are being reared in more controlled conditions.

Depending on size any fish moved from these stock ponds are either transferred directly to the fishing lakes or into the large stock lake for on-growing to even bigger sizes. 2009 proved a very successful year with over 1,000 carp being stocked out to main day ticket and syndicate lakes, these fish were predominately from the fisheries own stock ponds along with a few from V.S. and Heather Fisheries. These recent introductions along with the existing stocking and all the fish we currently have growing-on should see the fishing just get better and better at the complex!!

Linear has a shower and toilet block between St Johns and Manor Farm Lakes. There are also two parking areas between these waters. The shower and toilet block will be open between the hours of 9am and 5pm.

Because of the continuing spate of crimes throughout the country Linear take the precaution of locking anglers and their vehicles in at night for their own security. During British Summer Time from March 1st until October 1st all gates will be locked at 9pm and opened again by 8am. During the remainder of the year they will be locked at 6pm and opened again by 8am. If you arrive during lock up times you must wait in the main Hardwick car park which is across the B4449 road opposite the main entrance to our office and which is also the car park for Hardwick Lake. Do not park in front of or block any of the main locked gates or you may be asked to leave the site. Use the 24 hour Hardwick Car park as instructed.

At present there are no plans to keep the Hardwick car park locked at night but the pedestrian entrance to Hardwick Lake will be locked. Please remember that if you are fishing Hardwick your car should be left in this car park. Although locking our gates at night could be an inconvenience for some, Linear believe that the security and safety of visiting anglers should be their highest priority and for this reason they will continue to use the services of a security company who will lock up and patrol at night. For Brasenose Lakes cars belonging to early arrivals can be parked in the Hardwick/Smiths Pool car park [mentioned above] until the gates are unlocked.

During lock down if anyone has a medical emergency and needs to leave there will be a number to ring direct to the security company, although we must stress that this number should only be called in the case of a medical emergency.

Our website has a page for top stories and another for latest catches. Both pages contain photographs and are intended as a more up to date extension of our Gallery Pages. If you want to get on the Latest Catches page or you have a good story for our Top Stories section, and have a photograph of your fish taken with a suitable digital camera, all you have to do is hand your sim card to our bailiff with all the details. If possible he will add your photo to our website and then return your card with possibly a print out of your catch. We can only offer this service between Monday and Friday but you can also email your photographs and stories directly to our Fishery Officer, Chris Blunt, at: chris.blunt2005@btconnect.com (All pictures sent in should be JPEG files which are attached to your email).

Linear Oxford has gained its reputation as a quality carp venue but, as we say every year, the other species are being neglected. All of the waters contain some superb tench and double figure specimens have been caught from many different waters. Double figure bream have been caught from Hardwick Lake/Smiths Pool, Manor Farm and St. Johns but of the three Hardwick/Smiths Pool holds the largest head of bream. St. Johns also holds some very big catfish for the UK and a number of large fish have been caught from the water! Most of the lakes can provide excellent pike fishing and you will see in the pages of this website that we plan to run our own pike matches during 2010 and 2011. Whatever you fish for you will be welcome on our waters and we look forward to seeing you there.

We are continuously being asked about the best methods and baits to use on our waters especially by newcomers to the sport and those who have never visited our waters before. Generally the methods and baits that work are those used on most gravel pits throughout the UK, although it can be said that you should find things easier at the Linear Fisheries than you would elsewhere, because in general our lakes are more densley stocked than your average day-ticket gravel pit. To help answer some of these questions we have produced a new, free Linear Fisheries DVD, which is full of advice and tips from two of the country’s leading anglers who regularly fish our waters.