The people in this region relied predominantly on hunting aurochs, red deer, roe deer and boar, and fishing for roach, eels and pike.
The lake is well used by local fishermen who fish for carp, perch and roach.
The reservoir - known by many locals and fishermen as "The Ressy" - is stocked with a wide variety of coarse fish, most notably; Carp, Tench, Bream, Roach, Rudd and Ide among others.
The lakes are fed from two different water streams and are the habitat for different species of fish comprising carp, bream, crucian, roach and golden tench.
The reservoir supports several varieties of fish – rainbow trout, bream, roach, pike and perch.
Fish is abundant in the dams, including carp, rudd, roach barbel, perch, zander and many others; the mountain streams are rich in trout.
The river meanders its way along, mainly through farmland, providing excellent river fishing for pike, roach, and perch.
Currently, it is a popular angling site thanks to a considerable population of fresh water fish such as carps, eels, perchs and roach fish.
The Sutton Mill Dam is one of the most popular angling locations in St Helens containing roach, bream, gudgeon and carp and the East Sutton Angling Club hosts popular summer contests for young anglers.
The larger lake has two islands and is inhabited by several large carps, bream and tench fishes as well as a large amount of skimmer breams, roaches and perches.
Common fishes are Perch, Roach, and Silver Bream, with bigger variations in population for Carp bream, Northern pike, Tench, Bleak, Ruffle, and Zander (notwithstanding attempts to introduce the latter).
Signal crayfish and Trout have been introduced in the stream, of which the former succeeded in establishing while Roach is believed to be unfavourable to the latter.
48 forms (species and infraspecific taxa) of fish have been encountered in the lake, including roach, carp bream, zander, European perch, ruffe, endemic variety of smelt, two varieties of Coregonus albula (vendace), eight varieties of Coregonus lavaretus, a number of other Salmonidae as well as, albeit rarely, endangered European sea sturgeon.