17 April 2025 FINAL UPDATE

REOPENING POSTPONED UNTIL MARCH 2026

The news we bring you isn't the news you hoped for. Sadly, you will have to miss your fishing days at Tanfield Lodge Lake for a longer time. Christopher had to make the very hard decision to keep the lake closed for 2025. He has still seen little activity from the fish and even asked a few very experienced anglers to give it a try. And it was a blank for all of them.

We could keep you (and ourselves!) waiting another week or two, hoping for improvement, but this would not make much sense. If there is no activity now, it can only mean there are not many fish left, OR the ones left are not fit enough to feed well and challenge your angling skills. In both cases, your fishing experience would not be what we want it to be, and a far cry from the good sport that made Tanfield Lodge Lake your beloved venue.

Tanfield Lodge Lake has a reputation for fish that have naturally grown up here in the lake and can be considered proper wild trout. We don't want to ruin that hard-earned reputation for top-quality fish and great sport by opening the Lake at any cost and serving you trout this season that have only just been put in. We looked at all options, but there is not much we can do. Whatever angle we look at it, we have to come to the conclusion that it will take time and skipping the 2025 season is inevitable.

Luckily, we opened earlier this year also a Facebook Page for Tanfield Lodge Lake, so we can keep in touch on Facebook, where you can comment and share your thoughts with fellow anglers! We hope you will still visit the website and the Facebook Page for updates on what happens next on the way to the recovery of our Lake's ecosystem.

Maybe you can even send us some pictures about last year's fishing experience at the lake (it's super easy if you click here to use our easy-upload form), so we can share pictures to remind us all of what will be waiting for us next year! We don't want you to forget us completely!

We want to thank all the regulars who contacted us in the meantime, eager to spend a fishing day at Tanfield Lodge Lake, and told us how much they miss their trips to The Lake. We promise to keep you in the loop over the summer months and hope we will see you all back in March next year, when we, as usual, will open on a Friday mid-March! Until then, we will miss you just as much as you are missing Tanfield Lodge Lake for your fishing days!

7 April 2025 UPDATE

FINALLY, WE KNOW MORE!

We finally received news from the tests by the Environment Agency and the lab results, and, although we are glad to know more, it's not all good news. We can now be certain that it was pollution of our water sources has caused harm to the fish in Tanfield Lodge Lake.

It's a positive outcome that there was no disease involved, because that would leave a risk that fish still carrying the disease could infect young fish and cause future flare-ups. But pollution as the cause doesn't make it any easier. It will be impossible to trace the source.

Tanfield Lodge Lake is filled with spring water from a number of natural springs that emerge through the limestone layers of this former quarry. It's the limestone-filtered springwater from deeper earth layers that fills the lake naturally and gives the lake its crystal clear water. But these earth layers stretch over a long distance through a large part of Yorkshire, especially into the higher ground where our water comes from. Our water can have travelled from anywhere, and the pollution can have its origin in areas that are further away and not demonstrably linked to Tanfield Lodge Lake. It's not as simple as when it's just one stream from a river that supplies the water, and you could follow the stream upward to track the source of pollution.

Therefore, the only thing we can do now is wait and see. We will keep testing the water in the coming weeks, and - just as important - we also need to see more activity that proves the fish are feeding well and feeling alright. At the moment, it's still too quiet at the lake. We are hoping that if things take a good turn in the coming week, an opening date just before the Easter weekend is still possible, or if that's too soon, then later in May.

If we do not see an improvement soon, then we will not shy away from a much longer break, possibly even skip the 2025 season if that's what it takes to let the complete ecosystem in and around the lake recover. We don't want to get to the situation where we buy mature fish every other week to let anglers catch just-stocked fish. That's not how Tanfield Lodge Lake works. It would not provide the natural kind of sport we want to offer. We need a healthy ecosystem where the fish can feed on the abundant insect life of our lake to grow and mature right here, so they develop their natural behaviour. That is not only offering a more natural sport, but it's also the only way to keep it sustainable at the lower price point that we want to maintain.
We hope you have the patience to keep following the developments at Tanfield Lodge Lake on this page. Keep an eye on this space and/or our Facebook Page for further updates and to read the reactions from your fellow anglers.

21 March 2025 UPDATE

A LITTLE MORE PATIENCE

Last week, we informed you that we had to postpone the opening of the 2025 fly fishing season at Tanfield Lodge Lake (planned for Friday the 14th) because some of our fish were not as fit as they should be. (You can read all the details in the previous post here on this page.)

We are glad we can say that things are looking better already, but if you had hoped to get out to Tanfield Lodge Lake this weekend, we have to ask you for a little more patience.

Even though things have improved quickly, we don't want to open for fishing before the fish have had more time to regain their full strength and all our stock is fighting fit again. That's not only a matter of fair sportsmanship and giving you value for money, but first of all, we want to find out what exactly made some of the fish look unwell last week.

The Environment Agency visited to take water samples shortly after we reported there seemed to be a problem. However, the tests performed on the water samples didn't clarify why some of the fish were unwell. So earlier this week, the Environment Agency came out again, this time with a 6-man team, and spent a full day catching and examining a large number of fish of various sizes and taking samples for further lab testing.

Today we learned that we will need a little more patience to hear the outcome of their research. Some of the tests involve cultures, and apparently, that will take more time. All we can do now is wait for the lab results. Please check back here by the end of next week. Hopefully, we know more by then.

9 March 2025 IMPORTANT UPDATE

TANFIELD LODGE LAKE POSTPONES SEASON'S OPENING

We are very sorry to tell you that we have just decided to postpone the opening of the 2025 fly fishing season at Tanfield Lodge Lake, probably by a few weeks. So please ignore the date we originally mentioned in our previous message, posted 4 weeks ago.

As you all know, we pride ourselves on offering only the very best of fly fishing and have earned a reputation for the top quality of our fish. But at the moment, we are not as happy as we should be about the condition of our fish. This could be due to a recent pollution incident, which affected our main spring water supply. This is still being investigated with the help of the Environment Agency, and we hope their conclusions can shed light on what happened.

We know this is not the news you were waiting for, now that you were just getting ready for your first trip of the season to West Tanfield to catch the big ones that have been left to grow in peace all winter. However, the environmental integrity of our lake and the well-being of our fish come first, even if it means pushing back the opening day for the 2025 fly fishing season by a few weeks. We want to offer our fish plenty of time to fully recover from this brief incident and be sure they are fighting fit before you have a go at them. So keep an eye on this space and/or our Facebook Page for further updates and hopefully we can publish a new Opening Date soon.

26 January 2025, a message from Christopher

Now the days are lengthening, it’s time to start thinking about fishing again. Whilst jotting down these few lines the Lake is covered with a sheet of ice, which at least keeps our friendly local Cormorants at bay. And a number of trees have blown across the paths, courtesy of our latest storm offering from Ireland. Might have to persuade the grumpy old git who manages the place to get off his butt and do some work!

We have even, tho’ it goes against the grain, asked our Fishery lot to put some fish in!! That’s the good news, (hurrah I hear you cheering. But don’t get too excited, I haven’t got any more generous than in previous years 😊).

The bad news is that I had to retire to bed for a few days to recover from the shock when he told me what the fish will cost this year. Something to do with ‘Grow the Economy’ and ‘Starting with a clean sheet’ and ‘Sorting out the mess we inherited’. Not sure I quite understood it but seem to have heard something like that a fair bit nowadays.

So to the bad news… a DAY TICKET for 2025 will be £25.00 for 3 FISH. Junior and evening tickets will stay the same.
Look forward to catching up with you all again,
Tight Lines,

Christopher Bourne-Arton