BUSY DAYS 2024: on Sunday the 31st of March, Sunday the 18th of August, and Saturday the 7th of September, we have clubs visiting Tanfield Lake.
On these days, our regular visitors are welcome too, but we like to give you a heads-up that on these days, it will be busier than usual.
Christopher Bourne-Arton
After last year’s dry summer with low water levels everywhere it was inevitable, I suppose, that we would have a wet winter - but THAT wet? The Lake seems to have resisted the temptation to join up with the river so with luck our odd resident fish might still be hanging around waiting to give some sport again this year. Still no increase on last year’s prices (worried that Ron might not be able to afford his cruising if we put it up), with the same catch limits. See you in sunny Spring.
Christopher Bourne-Arton
We have a few days in this season’s diary where The Lake will not be available during normal operating hours or access will be limited.
On Tuesday 16 May and Wednesday 17 May, the Lake will be closed until 2 pm.
You are welcome from 2 pm, and evening tickets will be valid from 2 pm on these days 😊!
Our yearly Clay Shoot (supporting various charities) will take place at The Lake on Saturday the 5th of August.
On Saturday the 5th of August, The Lake will be closed for fishing.
On Friday the 4th there will be limited access due to set-up activities.
We hope for your understanding and please contact us at cwbatanfieldlodge@btinternet.com if you need more details.
And another picture for our blog, this decent brown trout caught by regular Trevor Sedgwick. He told us this trout was caught just to the left of the tree near the peninsula. So now you know where to find it 😊, as this beauty was returned to water. But only after it had its picture taken!
Decent Brown Trout caught by regular Trevor, returned to water.
Regular Fred Rule’s recent bag. A 7 lbs caught on a size 16 black buzzer, 5 lbs on a March Brown and this year’s 2.5 lbs on a blood worm.
Who said rainbows don’t overwinter!!
Caught in March! Who said rainbows don’t overwinter?
Yes, it is getting near to that time again, so the Lake will open on Friday 17 th March.
In view of everyone’s straitened circumstance, and to do our bit to curtail the cost of living crisis, we will be holding our prices for yet another year.
However, in order to be able to afford to add a couple of fish to the three remaining residents, we have decided to reduce the bag limits to:
- Three fish for day tickets.
- One fish for junior and evening tickets.
Trust this doesn’t drive you to MacFisheries instead of coming to see us.😊
Christopher Bourne-Arton
We are now closed for what has been a difficult season for fishing with the extreme temperatures making life unpleasant for the fish and hard for the fishermen. Fortunately, our fish survived well in the deeper parts of the lake which has the benefit of good spring water, and once the weather broke this showed some great sport in the back end.
We hope to be open again next March - watch this site for dates - when the 5/6 fish you seem to have missed this year will be happy to see you again. Who knows you might even catch them this time!
Happy Christmas to you all.
Christopher Bourne-Arton
We are happy to report that after an intensive investigation by both the Environment Agency and their scientific colleagues at CEFAS no underlying problems have been identified for the difficulties we have had. The Lake is now fishing well with fish rising freely in the evenings, and seemingly as lively as usual. Let’s hope this was a one-off and we have a great season from now on.
WELCOME BACK!
Christopher Bourne-Arton
UPDATE 26 MARCH
Whilst we still remain closed the news is slightly more encouraging. We have had a visit of scientists from CEFAS who have ruled out any serious disease occurrence. We await their full report but the early signs are that we have suffered from a ‘weather related’ naturally occurring incident. If this is the case only time will cure it, so I’m afraid we will have to be patient. We will re-open as soon as possible but will not do so until we are confident that all the fish are fully recovered.
Please check back for updates here on the website and hopefully we have reopening news soon!
UPDATE 24 MARCH
We are glad to inform you that the first laboratory results of the water samples show that the water quality is as excellent as always. "Perfectly clear" is the lab verdict. And the person in charge added that it's actually identical to drinking water quality. That's very reassuring but doesn't explain why we nevertheless have a small number of fish that are clearly not healthy. We will keep the premises closed until we get to the bottom of that. Please check back soon!
NEWS BULLETIN 22 MARCH
We regret to inform you that we are closing the Lake with immediate effect and until further notice. This is because we are unhappy with the condition of the fish which may be due to disease or pollution. We are very sorry that we can’t welcome you until we have fully investigated this matter and come to a conclusion.
Please keep the link to our website at hand and check regularly for more news. We will let you know as soon as we are back to normal and ready to reopen. Our apologies if you have to postpone your plans to visit us, but we hope that we will see you again soon!
Christopher Bourne-Arton
I am reliably informed that we have finished with winter now, tho’ I have to say I for one hardly noticed it.
It must have been the driest on record, hardly needed the welly boots at all, so we will now no doubt have the great joy of a cold and very wet Spring to look forward to!
However the Lake still seems to have some water in it so I might even break the habits of a lifetime and stock it. So I suppose we will have to think about opening up for the season again…
How about Friday 18th March?? It being that sort of year it almost bound to snow that day.
Anyway, hope you all enjoyed Christmas and are ready, refreshed and raring to go for another fishing season, see you round the bank.
Christopher Bourne-Arton