Fishing in the Northern Lake District

I took a break to do some fishing in the Lakes, (in between entertaining the wife!) Success was mixed and I'm not going to make excuses for my shortfalls in catch numbers but they were small and the few fish that did take I lost mostly. It was however very refreshing to fish some different spots and I enjoyed exploring new ideas and places with some pleasant surprises. I managed to cover Ullswater, the river Eamont, the Eden and Small water tarn.

Stoneflies, feeding fish in the early dawn light.

The lake can change in seconds from a eerily serene calm to white horses in the time it take to change your fly. 

Olive spinners coming of Ullswater in the evening.

 First stop was Ullswater. I got up at dawn on several mornings to fish the lake to be greeted with some rising fish in the shallows of the bay. After some looking round I could see Stoneflies falling from the trees and landing on the water only to be gorged on by waiting trout. I managed to get a few takes on F-flys which seemed to be the closest imitation I had.

Small Water Tarn, (Hawswater down below).

Crystal clear water showed the deep drop offs very well where the depths plummet from a few feet to nearly 100ft!

The second day we took a trip up to Small Water tarn which lies above the Hawswater Reservoir. The scenery was absolutely stunning and the weather was very kind. Fish were rising all over the tarn just as we decided to push on up the pass I discovered that the fish were feeding on the thousands of Iron Blue Duns/Spinners coming of the water in droves. I have never seen so much fly activity and at such an altitude made a fantastic site.

Beautiful Iron Blue spinner.

   Absolutely K******d. It was quite a steep trek but still only an hour or so from the carpark.

Olive Duns also hatching off the tran.

Was that a rise? The rising fish were just outside my casting range on the drop off.  (note to self  , learn how to cast further or take a pair of waders next time).

A windy river Eden.

The Eden near Eden Lacy was hard to fish with the gusty downstream wind and eventually I gave up on Dry fly changing to Czech  nymphing which produced far more takes and a nice Grayling.