Stones Fishing Lakes Website Design
ABOUT THE LAKES
Stones Fisheries on the Isle of Sheppey in Swale, Kent is a hidden gem. Having been mis-managed previously it had pretty much dropped off the map; however about a year and a half ago it was rescued by the original family who dug the lakes. Much work has been carried out to bring the lakes back to their former glory, of which now they offer some real competitive sport.
The record for one of their match lakes was taken only two weeks ago with a bag of 312lb worth of Carp averaging 3-6lb and some silverfish. The Specimen Lake holds Carp up to 40lb and the Predator Lake boast Catfish to 45lb as well as Pike over 20lb and even a Sturgeon.
This project has been a labour of love, with our CEO fish mad this was certainly a project to remember. To bring the lakes into the forefront of the industry Dan the owner wanted visitors to be able to buy their tickets and bait online before attending the venue, this would allow him to be able to get the bait in they need for their trips and get an idea of how many people will be visiting the next day.
CALL TO ACTIONS
With every website it is important to have a set of Call to Actions, the main things that you want people to do within your website, for the Fishery there were a few things that they wanted to emphasise:
- QUALITY BAIT RANGE – Stones Fishery offer a variety of high quality bait that isn’t easily available locally such as DNA, Crafty Catcher and Bait-Tech. At the moment the Call to Action allows them to purchase online through the shop and collect at the lakes, as things progress Dan would like to be able to offer delivery.
- SPECIMEN HUNTERS – Many anglers will travel hundreds of miles to catch a specimen, this call to action lists some of the species and sizes available with a call to action to purchase a day ticket.
- WELL STOCKED LAKES – With the lakes now restocked this call to action links anglers to the lakes page where they can find more out about the lakes, stocking and best fishing methods.
- MATCH FISHING – One of the biggest incomes during the winter periods is regular match fishing, without this many venues suffer to earn enough money. Therefore it is imperative to push the match fishing for both club and open matches.
- SUMMER SPORT – This is just a general slider that will change seasonally to show autumnal colours, frost and spring flowers.
HEADER AND FOOTERS
In every header there is contact information, links to social media, a search bar and a checkout basket. In every Footer there are additional links to legal pages, a Column on Recently Viewed Products to entice the viewer to make a purchase, a Basket and a Live Link to Instagram.
HOMEPAGE DESIGN
The main things people search for on a fishery website are “how much are day tickets?”, “What are the Fishery Rules” and “What Lakes do you have?”. The homepage has been laid out firstly with links to the Lakes page, then a list of available day tickets, prices, times and a link to purchase tickets. It is then followed by a Call to Action to buy bait and tackle, has the Fishery Rules listed for easy access with some testimonials to the side and finally another call to action about Match Fishing.
LAKES PAGE
On the lakes page each lake has a picture and a map for identification, it has information including the species in the lake, the sizes of the fish, best methods for catching and any additional lake specific rules. At the bottom of the page we have also added a map so that visitors can easily identify which lake is which.
SHOP
For the shop we have photographed the products so that they have a very clean look on a white background. The shop can be searched several ways including a Search Bar, Filter By Category and Filter By Price. In the backend you can manage stock levels, track popular products, set sales prices and promotions and a host of other features that are really powerful.
OTHER PAGES
The website has several other common pages such as a catch gallery, contact page with direct link into Google Maps, FAQ’s and others. Go have a look around at www.stonesfisheries.co.uk or even better still go fishing!