Lake Ullswater for Fishing

In our opinion, Ullswater is the jewel in the crown that we call 'The English Lake District.' Surrounded by stunning scenery, this beautiful lake is one of England’s best wild brown trout fisheries. The average size of the fish is 10 - 12 inches and the lake will produce sport throughout the season. Given the right conditions, mid-March to mid-June is the peak period with a light ripple and cloudy skies being the perfect combination for a good day's fishing. Early in the season the trout are predominately bottom feeders concentrating on food forms such as cased caddis and hoglouse but they are free rising and you will pull them to the surface with a team of flies fished either traditional loch style or pulled through the wave with floating or intermediate lines. There are very good hatches of buzzer from April onwards and small buzzer patterns or spiders on fine leaders can be very effective. Ullswater gets sporadic hatches of Mayfly (ephemera danica) from mid May and although this is nothing like the fantastic hatches of the Irish loughs, the trout turn on to them as numbers increase towards the end of the month and into June, offering great sport to mayfly imitations fished either wet or dry. Fishing the lake is free to Environment Agency licence holders, you can fish from the shore but this is slightly restrictive as much of the foreshore is private although there are a number of good areas off the A592 between Glenridding and Pooley Bridge (If wading please beware as there are steep drop offs quite close to the shoreline in many places), the best way to access the lake is from a boat, Jared Smith at St Patrick's Boat Landing, Glenridding, Tel. 01768 482393 has two fishing boats with engines for hire or guided fishing is available from ‘The Eden Angler’. Note: There is no bag limit on this lake – at John Norris we care about the fish and their future so therefore we would urge you to either practice catch and release or set yourself a sensible bag limit. Thanks to Geoff Johnstone ‘The Eden Angler’ for this article. If you’d like to share your own fishing tackle hints and tips, we’d love to hear from you. Why not email us at: flyfishingtips@johnnorris.co.uk.