The facilities are good with both on-site toilets, hand-wash basins and a café, which has an extensive takeaway and a sit down menu at affordable prices.

Paul, the fishery manager is a qualified PAA coach and is using the knowledge he gained while studying fishery management at Hampshire College of Agriculture, to build a good fishery at Beaver.

There are eight lakes on the complex with an astonishing range of fish, catering for every style of angling, from tiddler-bashing with the whip, to catfish and big carp fishing. There are carp to 28lb, with sweetcorn being the going bait at the moment, popped up with a bit of yellow rig foam.

Catfish up to 30lb are in two of the lakes and with grass carp and pike to well over the 20lb mark and with the odd starlet, you have plenty of options.

The Match and Pleasure lakes fish well and are stocked with some stunning ghost mirrors plus orfe, golden tench, green tench, normal carp, roach, bream, perch, rudd, chub and barble.

Day tickets are £7 for one rod and £10 for two, and a 24-hour ticket is available for £15 with reductions for long-stay anglers. Paul also sells syndicate tickets for £100 - days only - and £150 for days and nights.

The Match and Pleasure lakes respond to all tactics, with floating crust taking very large bags during the summer especially when the small carp feed on the surface. The specimen lakes, Tuscany and Snipe, have a minimum of 10lb line, size 10 hook and a strictly over 18 policy.

Carp, cats, grassies and the odd starlet all fall to conventional boiley tactics. If cats are your thing, half a tin of luncheon meat fished in the margins on Tuscany has repeatedly produced the goods.

The lakes are well worth a try, but decide whether to join or not early, as ten trips equals a whole year's ticket and the fishing there is consistent enough to leave you wanting more. I recently took in a session on Snipe Lake, taking three carp of 18lb, 16lb and 12lb on single baits cast to the island.

Crystal Palace Angling Club is looking for junior members. If you are interested please contact me at Wickham House, 1 High Street, West Wickham, Kent, BR4 OLP, for further details. The club offers a match-fishing schedule travelling by coach to some top venues.

The club has a very forward-thinking attitude towards young anglers and subsidises the juniors on these trips. The club also represents Bromley in the Heathrow Games at junior level, with the opportunity to fish against teams from the other London Boroughs.

While on the subject of Crystal Palace, I have heard a rumour that the boating lake is to be closed for angling.

The lake is famed for the national newspaper story of a 27lb pike which attacked a park-keeper in waders during the early 80s, who was convinced that only the quick action of a couple of mates saved him from being dragged to a watery grave!