AN INTRODUCTION TO FISHING IN THE COTSWOLDS
Following the announcement that fishing can continue during the current lockdown, our angling expert Stuart Croft introduces you the magical world of angling in the Cotswolds.
What more gentlemanly pursuit could there be in the Cotswold countryside than fishing?
Whether it be for the majestic salmon, the living jewel that is a rainbow or brown trout (brownie), the “lady of the steam”, the grayling, the hard fighting carp or the predatory pike, a bad day of fishing is still better than a good day at the office! If people concentrated on what is really important in life there would be a shortage of fishing rods. The sporting gentleman’s calendar should revolve not just around the Six Nations, the Gold Cup, the British Grand Prix and the Open Championship. If it’s spring it must be trout, if it’s summer, tench, if it’s autumn, pike and if it’s winter, grayling. What’s more, setting yourself up with the basic kit will probably cost less than a ticket to any of the above sporting events. You’ll need a rod and reel, landing net and mat, some floats and leads, or lures, or flies, depending on your choice of method, and a license. If you don’t have a friend or uncle out there that is an angler and willing to teach you, the Cotswolds are home to many excellent coaches. A day’s fishing at an organised venue costs between £10 a day and £50 a day, except for some very elite venues which are more expensive.
Norman Maclean sums up the devotion to the angling arts in the opening lines of his novel, A River Runs Through It. “ In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in western Montana, and our father was a Presbyterian minister and a fly fisherman who tied his own flies and taught others. He told us about Christ's disciples being fishermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and I did, that all first-class fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fishermen and that John, the favourite, was a dry-fly fisherman”.
Fishing is nature’s remedy for the stresses of modern life. It is known to promote mental health and wellbeing from youth to old age. In “The Natural Childhood”, Dr William Bird is quoted as saying “Angling offers a very intense connection with nature, that runs much deeper than most forms of contact. So, getting people involved has many benefits. “It is often the first experience of being close to nature and so can form an important link to environmental awareness”. There is no greater gift that we can give our children. “Children who don’t connect with nature before the age of 12 are less likely as adults to connect with nature. They therefore lose out on the resilience nature provides when you’re really stressed”. Fishing also provides opportunities for ‘active ageing’ and, magically, provides a bridge between generations, as grandfather teaches grandson.
If you are unconvinced by the current public obsession with “mindfulness”, the same benefits of being wholly present in the moment will come to you on the riverbank as you study the surface of the water for signs of movement, or focus, undistracted, on your float, waiting for it to slide under the surface, as time passes unnoticed. If you seek an escape, imagining and analysing the hidden world beneath the mirrored surface of the lake will provide it.
Also, as sports go, fishing is about as COVID safe as you can get.
The Cotswolds are an angler’s paradise, blessed as we are with the rivers Coln, Windrush and Frome, stocked with brownies and grayling, the Severn with its salmon (yes salmon in the Cotswolds), chub, pike and perch, or the Cotswold water park at South Cerney with its gravel pits stocked with carp and tench. Horseshoe Lake on the borders of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire boasts a carp record of 38lb. At The Watersmeet Country Inn in Hartpury,
the barman will bring your pint to you at your peg on the lake in the pub grounds and at Elton Carp and Catfish lakes in Newnham-on-Severn you can order a full English breakfast in a bun brought to your peg. Most fisheries will provide you with a bacon buttie and a mug of hot tea to warm you on a cold day.
Your choices are to take up fly fishing, course fishing or lure fishing. Fly fishing involves convincing a salmon, trout or grayling that a few twists of silk and feather around a hook represent a protein rich aquatic insect or small fish, worthy of the energy required to chase and capture it. This requires a little study of entomology to identify the natural food source available in a given body of water, and to enable you to imitate it. Course fishing involves the presentation of a juicy morsel suspended under a float or taken to the lake bottom with a lead weight. Lure fishing involves casting and retrieving an imitation of a small bait fish to attract a larger predator to attack. All of these are methods of doing one thing, getting a hook into the mouth of the fish. The vast majority of fishing is catch and release, the reward being a brief interaction with your quarry, a quick photograph, and stories to exaggerate in the pub with your buddies later that evening. Of course, if your quarry is trout, most will take one home for the pot.
I discovered fishing about seven years ago at the age of forty five so you are never too old to start, and it is a sport that can potentially see you out. For me, there is no greater enjoyment to be had out of doors. So if you are interested, get down to your local tackle shop, the owner is bound to be a friendly guy who will give you all of the advice you need to get started. He’ll tell you the equipment you need without ripping you off, the best venues, the various species to target and how, and point you in the direction of a coach or handy club. Take my advice and give it a try.
Whether it be for the majestic salmon, the living jewel that is a rainbow or brown trout (brownie), the “lady of the steam”, the grayling, the hard fighting carp or the predatory pike, a bad day of fishing is still better than a good day at the office! If people concentrated on what is really important in life there would be a shortage of fishing rods. The sporting gentleman’s calendar should revolve not just around the Six Nations, the Gold Cup, the British Grand Prix and the Open Championship. If it’s spring it must be trout, if it’s summer, tench, if it’s autumn, pike and if it’s winter, grayling. What’s more, setting yourself up with the basic kit will probably cost less than a ticket to any of the above sporting events. You’ll need a rod and reel, landing net and mat, some floats and leads, or lures, or flies, depending on your choice of method, and a license. If you don’t have a friend or uncle out there that is an angler and willing to teach you, the Cotswolds are home to many excellent coaches. A day’s fishing at an organised venue costs between £10 a day and £50 a day, except for some very elite venues which are more expensive.
Norman Maclean sums up the devotion to the angling arts in the opening lines of his novel, A River Runs Through It. “ In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in western Montana, and our father was a Presbyterian minister and a fly fisherman who tied his own flies and taught others. He told us about Christ's disciples being fishermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and I did, that all first-class fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fishermen and that John, the favourite, was a dry-fly fisherman”.
Fishing is nature’s remedy for the stresses of modern life. It is known to promote mental health and wellbeing from youth to old age. In “The Natural Childhood”, Dr William Bird is quoted as saying “Angling offers a very intense connection with nature, that runs much deeper than most forms of contact. So, getting people involved has many benefits. “It is often the first experience of being close to nature and so can form an important link to environmental awareness”. There is no greater gift that we can give our children. “Children who don’t connect with nature before the age of 12 are less likely as adults to connect with nature. They therefore lose out on the resilience nature provides when you’re really stressed”. Fishing also provides opportunities for ‘active ageing’ and, magically, provides a bridge between generations, as grandfather teaches grandson.
If you are unconvinced by the current public obsession with “mindfulness”, the same benefits of being wholly present in the moment will come to you on the riverbank as you study the surface of the water for signs of movement, or focus, undistracted, on your float, waiting for it to slide under the surface, as time passes unnoticed. If you seek an escape, imagining and analysing the hidden world beneath the mirrored surface of the lake will provide it.
Also, as sports go, fishing is about as COVID safe as you can get.
The Cotswolds are an angler’s paradise, blessed as we are with the rivers Coln, Windrush and Frome, stocked with brownies and grayling, the Severn with its salmon (yes salmon in the Cotswolds), chub, pike and perch, or the Cotswold water park at South Cerney with its gravel pits stocked with carp and tench. Horseshoe Lake on the borders of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire boasts a carp record of 38lb. At The Watersmeet Country Inn in Hartpury,
the barman will bring your pint to you at your peg on the lake in the pub grounds and at Elton Carp and Catfish lakes in Newnham-on-Severn you can order a full English breakfast in a bun brought to your peg. Most fisheries will provide you with a bacon buttie and a mug of hot tea to warm you on a cold day.
Your choices are to take up fly fishing, course fishing or lure fishing. Fly fishing involves convincing a salmon, trout or grayling that a few twists of silk and feather around a hook represent a protein rich aquatic insect or small fish, worthy of the energy required to chase and capture it. This requires a little study of entomology to identify the natural food source available in a given body of water, and to enable you to imitate it. Course fishing involves the presentation of a juicy morsel suspended under a float or taken to the lake bottom with a lead weight. Lure fishing involves casting and retrieving an imitation of a small bait fish to attract a larger predator to attack. All of these are methods of doing one thing, getting a hook into the mouth of the fish. The vast majority of fishing is catch and release, the reward being a brief interaction with your quarry, a quick photograph, and stories to exaggerate in the pub with your buddies later that evening. Of course, if your quarry is trout, most will take one home for the pot.
I discovered fishing about seven years ago at the age of forty five so you are never too old to start, and it is a sport that can potentially see you out. For me, there is no greater enjoyment to be had out of doors. So if you are interested, get down to your local tackle shop, the owner is bound to be a friendly guy who will give you all of the advice you need to get started. He’ll tell you the equipment you need without ripping you off, the best venues, the various species to target and how, and point you in the direction of a coach or handy club. Take my advice and give it a try.
As with all other forms of exercise, under current national lockdown rules fishing can only be done with one other person at a distance of two metres or more. It should also be done locally, meaning within the town, village or part of the city where you live. Please adhere to all the rules.
