-
You need to be a registered member of Barbel Fishing World to post on these forums. Some of the forums are hidden from non-members. Please refer to the instructions on the ‘Register’ page for details of how to join the new incarnation of BFW...
Coarse Fishing on Windermere
- Thread starter Ian Crook
- Start date
Simon Haggis
Senior Member
Ian, this from a chap who knows what he's talking about on carp forum:
Windermere - not Lake Windermere - its like calling it Lake Winderlake - has been my local pond for well over 25 years now. Its a glacial water that is it is the result of the scouring of glaciers during the last ice age. In its natural state is is a water of poor nutrition. Its indigenous species are all (well predatory for start) sub arctic by nature. Charr, Trout, Pike, Perch and Minnow with eels (although sadly very rare now) being the main visitor. There are runs of both Salmon and Sea Trout. Proof that it is akin to an arctic water is the fact that it contains Charr and also the Charr's main predator, Ferox Trout - one of the species I target. However Roach have been present in the water for many years, in fact ever since the Perch netting program in the 1940's (where Perch were netted by the ton and canned for food under the brand name Perchines) where Roach were also caught although it was never understood where they had actually come from nor how loang they had actually been there and were probably escapees from nearby tarns.
With the rise in tourism throughout the area the inadequacies of the sewerage system and the lack of interest of various controlling water authorities became apparent. Much raw sewerage was released into the Windermere system (this includes Grasmere and Rydal but it all ends up in Windermere) thus enriching the water. Much like Bassenthwaite in the north lakes this was to the detriment of the lakes indigenous species. The Charr suffered enormously and the south basin Charr (Windermere is made up of two basins - north and south - the south basin Charr were bigger) particularly had a hard time with deoxygenation through increasing nitrate levels. Back in the 80s a Nitrate scrubber was planned for the Tower Wood Treatment plant and this along with improvements to the whole system within the whole catchment area improved the quality of the water allowing the Charr to cling on. However the writing was on the wall and Windermere's character has been changing dramatically over the past 15 years. The biggest problem I believe has been the increase in temperature. Along with the increasing enrichment of the water the weedbeds are now huge in places. Where milfoil once grew are now enormous beds of elodea . When this dies it lays down huge areas of of decaying vegetation which boosts the enrichment of the water. All waters are born to die .... Windermere is advancing along that road fairly quickly.
With the lake changing away from its arctic past it is becoming more and more conducive to cyprinids. Consequently the Roach shoals are now huge. Where once you would see a few Roach sometimes at the mouth of the Brathay they are now all over the lake. The sight of them in the morning and evening can be an amazing sight. Once it would be trout and charr dimpling the surface - now it is the Roach. This is forcing a shift also on the diet of the pike and the pike these days seem more akin to southern fish than the torpedoes that used to inhabit the place when the Trout, Charr and Perch were the main food source.
Other strange things have occured. Windermere was once famous for it reeds. There would be reedlined shores all over the place. Reeds are now rare. Grassholme used to be surrounded by reeds ..... now its just a tree sticking out of the water. The numbers of brown trout has declined and now Windermere can now no longer be classed as a first class water for wild brown trout fishing where once it was probably the best in England.
Carp .... yes there are carp in there, probably escapees from a local water nearby. These tend to hole up in one tiny area and can be fed with bread at times. There is nothing to substantiate that carp or any other species allegedly released in the past by pike anglers have established themselves.
Things to consider. Windermere is primarily very deep. The weedline on there is at about 16ft (below this there is no weed growth) so the areas available for a bottom grubbing cyprinid are pretty limited considering the food it would need would be in that first 16ft of water. As Windermere is glacial formed it means the sides are very steep so 16ft of water to the edge of the weedline is often ony a few yards out. This means that only a very small proportion of the lake would really be available for the carp to inhabit (perhaps this is why the carp there already haven't spread) and as luck would have it most of these areas are out of reach of the shore angler. Carp will cope quite happily with deep water - you can catch them from over 30ft down on some waters on the Furness Peninsular after all but they won't be there if there isn't any food. Below the weedline on Windermere is just grey and pink creamy clay (residue of granite).
Windermere - not Lake Windermere - its like calling it Lake Winderlake - has been my local pond for well over 25 years now. Its a glacial water that is it is the result of the scouring of glaciers during the last ice age. In its natural state is is a water of poor nutrition. Its indigenous species are all (well predatory for start) sub arctic by nature. Charr, Trout, Pike, Perch and Minnow with eels (although sadly very rare now) being the main visitor. There are runs of both Salmon and Sea Trout. Proof that it is akin to an arctic water is the fact that it contains Charr and also the Charr's main predator, Ferox Trout - one of the species I target. However Roach have been present in the water for many years, in fact ever since the Perch netting program in the 1940's (where Perch were netted by the ton and canned for food under the brand name Perchines) where Roach were also caught although it was never understood where they had actually come from nor how loang they had actually been there and were probably escapees from nearby tarns.
With the rise in tourism throughout the area the inadequacies of the sewerage system and the lack of interest of various controlling water authorities became apparent. Much raw sewerage was released into the Windermere system (this includes Grasmere and Rydal but it all ends up in Windermere) thus enriching the water. Much like Bassenthwaite in the north lakes this was to the detriment of the lakes indigenous species. The Charr suffered enormously and the south basin Charr (Windermere is made up of two basins - north and south - the south basin Charr were bigger) particularly had a hard time with deoxygenation through increasing nitrate levels. Back in the 80s a Nitrate scrubber was planned for the Tower Wood Treatment plant and this along with improvements to the whole system within the whole catchment area improved the quality of the water allowing the Charr to cling on. However the writing was on the wall and Windermere's character has been changing dramatically over the past 15 years. The biggest problem I believe has been the increase in temperature. Along with the increasing enrichment of the water the weedbeds are now huge in places. Where milfoil once grew are now enormous beds of elodea . When this dies it lays down huge areas of of decaying vegetation which boosts the enrichment of the water. All waters are born to die .... Windermere is advancing along that road fairly quickly.
With the lake changing away from its arctic past it is becoming more and more conducive to cyprinids. Consequently the Roach shoals are now huge. Where once you would see a few Roach sometimes at the mouth of the Brathay they are now all over the lake. The sight of them in the morning and evening can be an amazing sight. Once it would be trout and charr dimpling the surface - now it is the Roach. This is forcing a shift also on the diet of the pike and the pike these days seem more akin to southern fish than the torpedoes that used to inhabit the place when the Trout, Charr and Perch were the main food source.
Other strange things have occured. Windermere was once famous for it reeds. There would be reedlined shores all over the place. Reeds are now rare. Grassholme used to be surrounded by reeds ..... now its just a tree sticking out of the water. The numbers of brown trout has declined and now Windermere can now no longer be classed as a first class water for wild brown trout fishing where once it was probably the best in England.
Carp .... yes there are carp in there, probably escapees from a local water nearby. These tend to hole up in one tiny area and can be fed with bread at times. There is nothing to substantiate that carp or any other species allegedly released in the past by pike anglers have established themselves.
Things to consider. Windermere is primarily very deep. The weedline on there is at about 16ft (below this there is no weed growth) so the areas available for a bottom grubbing cyprinid are pretty limited considering the food it would need would be in that first 16ft of water. As Windermere is glacial formed it means the sides are very steep so 16ft of water to the edge of the weedline is often ony a few yards out. This means that only a very small proportion of the lake would really be available for the carp to inhabit (perhaps this is why the carp there already haven't spread) and as luck would have it most of these areas are out of reach of the shore angler. Carp will cope quite happily with deep water - you can catch them from over 30ft down on some waters on the Furness Peninsular after all but they won't be there if there isn't any food. Below the weedline on Windermere is just grey and pink creamy clay (residue of granite).
Peter Littleworth
Senior Member
Ian, hunt out the Admiralty chart for Windermere, get your sounder fired up, go hunt, remember the rules though, only sea deadbaits and lures, no course fish baits live or dead(even if caught there!!!) Enjoy.
peter
peter