Ladybower Fishing

[hushpower]

Has anybody fished ladybower this season ? and how did you do?

[yates]

Never fished there but our club is fishing it on 27th April, no reports as to how it's fishing yet. If i get some info i'll let you know

[yates]

Fished Ladybower last weekend on a club outing. We had a great day. Despite having all four seasons in one day the fishing was spot on. Loads of fish caught, loads of pulls, takes and lost fish. Most fish came to lures- Orange fritz, cats whiskers and woofters. The odd one to black buzzer and hares ear. It was my first visit to the venue and i was very impressed. It was always somewhere had we had been told to avoid but now it is under new management the place has improved immensly(the opinion of the locals), definately worth a visit. The only downside at this moment is that the fish are hugging the shortline and if you boat fish you have to cast towards the bank.

Edited April 29, 2013 by yates

[hushpower]

Great news thanks for the info,having acouple of days up there when am off next week

[UKPoacher]

I fished Ladybower for over thirty years and during that time it got progressively worse. Once the lady, Sue I think she was called died, the place went to ruin. It was her family that had been keepers there for around three generations. You could turn up at 2pm, the starting time of the evening tickets and find nobody at the office. He would turn up out of the pub when he wanted. The fish were stocked in a poor condition with hardly any tails, it got so bad that you could drive past on a weekend and the majority of the boats were still tied up. When I first started fishing there you had to book a boat weeks in advance. The other problem was that it was strictly a 4 fish limit, rising to 6 fish later in the season, and everything over a certain size had to be killed. Sometimes, after a recent stocking you could have 4 fish in 6 casts and be forced to come in and buy another ticket. Barbless hooks and a tip ring disgorger were favoured methods of not bagging up too quickly

 

It was a shame as the water offers so much. For example, you can bank fish the other two reservoirs on the day ticket if you ask. But the keeper made it so difficult barely anyone bothered. Those two reservoirs, Howden and Derwent have never been stocked. They contain trout that made their way down the streams that feed the reservoirs and so are possibly the largest natural brown trout fisheries in England.

 

As for fish hugging the bank on Ladybower, it has always been so. When you look at the topography the banks shelve so steeply that a good cast from the bank can put the flies over 40 feet of water depth and there isn't much fly life down there. And there is almost always a wind that drives the hatching flies onto the lee shore. What I did find though is that over the deeper water, 108 feet at the middle, there are a lot of big trout sitting above the thermocline. Most days I fished this was around 25 - 30 feet down. The way I fished was to motor to the upwind side of the reservoir and drift back casting in front of the boat with a Hi-Density shooting head line and heavy fly, letting the line and fly sink while drifting over it and then retrieving from behind the boat. That method took some good sized brownies.

 

I'm pleased to hear that there are new management. I wish them all the best.