Ullswater Fish and Fisheries

One of the landmarks a visitor to Ullswater will easily find is located in the middle of Pooley Bridge at the northern head of Ullswater as its waters are channelled down the river Eamont towards the Eden Valley. It is a Fish Cross erected by Barton Council in the Millennium year 2000 to commemorate a decision made one thousand years earlier in the reign of King John to establish a Fish Market in Pooley Bridge. King John was best known for the signature of the Magna Carta in June 1215, close to the end of his 17 year reign. The current Fish Cross is similar to one erected more or less in the same place several centuries ago, which was repaired by the Earl of Sussex in 1697 but removed in 1860 to allow more room for horse-drawn coaches to turn.

So there is no doubt that Ullswater has historically been an important site for fishing, supplying fish to markets over a very wide area. James Clarke’s 1787 ‘Survey of the Lakes’, gives accounts of the massive harvesting of the schelly – a rare fish nationally and now a protected fish – with 10-12,000 fish taken in an average net haul, with horses pulling carts containing 800 fish in baskets to markets as far as Manchester. Bucket loads of eels used to be pulled out of the lake near Pooley bridge. In the 1800s, there were 21 fishing companies surviving on the fisheries.

Ullswater used to be well stocked with brown trout, char, great lake trout, vendace (in Ullswater known as Schelly or Skelly), chub, perch and eels. In the mid 1770s char were very common, thriving in the Ullswater depths, and was the main fisheries target. However, both the char and great lake trout became virtually extinct by 1850 and the schelly had dramatically reduced in numbers. Major William Parkin, a Justice of the Peace, and celebrated local sportsman who had fishery rights over part of Ullswater tried to re-stock the char population by releasing 10,000 char fry into the lake in 1895 but the attempt failed. In the past most char had been caught with nets across the Narrows from Skelly Nab to Hallin End.

Record-breakers

Ullswater is still however well known for its Brown trout and it is considered one of the best fishing lakes in the Lake District, both in terms of quality and numbers.

There remain doubts about the nomenclature for the great lake trout, also known as the Great Grey Head, as quoted in the reference material. There are records of fishes weighing as much as 25 kg being caught at Goldrill Beck, initially named as Great Lake Trout. But it seems likely that they were not trout at all – they were probably confused with salmon. But even so, it is hard to conceive of fish of this size being speared with a gaff and pulled out of Ullswater.