Ullswater

[rourke7719]

Hi everyone,

 

Quite often myself and some of my family head up to ullswater for a bit of camping and some fishing. Trouble is the fishing doesn't seem to go to well and small trout and perch in small numbers are the best we've managed.

 

Has anyone got any tips on how to improve our catches ready for our next visit? We tend to go up there between June and Oct.

[chris mc]

never had any luck on this water fished many of club matches on there as well.

[snotty]

Well thanks, at least that explains why my sons annual fishing trip to this water only ever results in small trout and perch...

[noodle996]

ullswater has a high lead (i think its lead ) content in the water hence many fish types dont thrive in there

[Steve Walker]

I used to be pestered by minnows on there. Best solution was to use them as bait for the trout and perch.

 

There are concerns about heavy metal contamination of Ullswater from a history of lead mining in the catchment, but I'm not aware of it having had any effect on the fish population. The big concern is that it's mostly locked harmlessly in the lake sediments, but that changes in the oxygenation of the lake's lower waters caused by increasing fertilisation of the lake may lead to the release of these toxic substances into the water column.

 

The set of species surviving in it is more likely to be restricted by the nutrient-poor status of the lake, altitude, geographic isolation and glacial history, I think.

Edited January 10, 2008 by Steve Walker

[Rob Ward]

The only time I've ever done well on Ullswater was at last light, fishing a waggler with maggots on the drop - keep spraying maggots around the float. I had a nice bag of brownies of around a pound.

 

I used to see people night fishing from the shore, I'm presuming for Eels because I don't know what else there is in there that would feed through the night?

 

The Char fishing is meant to be quite good but you'd have to find the deeper water and get a small spinner down deep.

 

No Pike as far as I'm aware which is strange for Lakeland.

[Anderoo]

I love Ullswater. I haven't coarse fished there but I've had loads of fun catching the small brownies on the fly, especially at mayfly time. I hire a boat and drift down the wind near the shore.

 

There used to be a diving website, where divers at Ullswater took photos of the fish they'd seen. I can't remember what it was called, but if you do some googling you might find it. I seem to remember that around Pooley Bridge and where the steamers launch from were good areas for bigger perch, and that the fish come steadily closer to the shore as the light goes.

 

Hope that helps!

[Houghton]

I used to be pestered by minnows on there. Best solution was to use them as bait for the trout and perch.

 

I haven't fished there - but a bloke from my works has. He too says that there were many Minnows present but they were easy to catch in the shallows, by simply netting them. Using them as bait produced many good quality Perch.

In any case if fishing isn't too great you can't knock the surroundings.

[noodle996]

I used to be pestered by minnows on there. Best solution was to use them as bait for the trout and perch.

 

I haven't fished there - but a bloke from my works has. He too says that there were many Minnows present but they were easy to catch in the shallows, by simply netting them. Using them as bait produced many good quality Perch.

In any case if fishing isn't too great you can't knock the surroundings.

 

 

 

unortunatly using minnows as bait up there is now illegal pike are in there but few and far between,

an old NRA book i have says that they are making a comeback after pollution wiped them out trout perch etc apparently survived by being able to survive in some of the streams in the catchment that were not affected by the lead poisoning presumably