Mini fly fish-in at Ellerdine LakesPictures by Paul Howarth Four of us had an impromptu mini fly fish-in last Friday at Ellerdine Lakes in Shropshire. It was almost a repeat of the one we had last winter – minus the snow.
When I started off from home the outside temperature was 41 F (sorry, I’m still in old money) and when I got to the cafe it was 37 F, and you could clearly see they’d had more ground frost and mist than we’d had in the Stoke on Trent area. It was a good old fashioned misty, frosty autumn morning. It was cold right enough at that time, but not too bad, and I’d debated with myself about wearing my thermals, in the end deciding against it as the forecast was for it to get a lot warmer and you do move around a lot when fly fishing. If I’d been having a day’s static fishing for barbel or chub then the thermals would probably have been worn. Wendy was showing off her thermals in the cafe and looking smug because she thought she’d made the right decision. Right at that time she had… Each of us bought a £ 15.00 sporting ticket on arrival at the fishery and we all went off to fish the pool that used to hold all the big fish (all the stock were 6lb-plus) and cost more for the privilege. Now though, all the pools are stocked equally, with fish from about 2lb to 20lb, so the website says, although I suppose you never know when the biggest ones have been caught or if and when they’ve been replaced.
The friendly atmosphere of Ellerdine is tangible because the owner and management of the fishery are chatty and friendly, always willing to tell you what fly is catching and offer any other advice should you want it. The people I’ve met there over the years have always been open about what they’ve caught and what fly they’ve caught on. That’s most often the case on most fly waters but it just seems especially so on Ellerdine. Add to that a decent little tackle shop, clean toilet, disabled facilities and a big static caravan where at certain times of day you can buy bacon and sausage butties, etc, plus help yourself to free tea and coffee all day long as many times as you like, and it’s a nice place to spend a day as you roam round all four lakes, occasionally popping into the caravan for a brew and a chat and just to catch up with what everyone is catching.
Wendy, steam coming from her ears, was huffing and puffing about how f****** hot it was and muttering something about “these f****** thermals are shite in this weather. I’m going back to the car to get this f****** fleece off. Where are me fags? I’m ‘aving’ a brew while I’m there as well. Are yer cummin’ for one yer old git?” She’s always sweet talking me and chatting me up. The fishing was hard from there. We all had a few pulls on different flies. Adrian had another fish and Paul ended up with two. Wendy blanked and I just had the one, but we might have done better had we not spent so much time in the caravan supping tea and coffee – well, what do you expect when it’s free? But I was having an enjoyable and relaxing day and was quite happy to let the world go by.
Good day though, relaxing and pleasant, and no doubt we’ll be doing it again before too long. |
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