Barn Elms Trout Fishery - Berkshire
Date: 23/10/2010

I visited this fishery earlier on in the summer as its only 20 minutes or so from my girlfriends house.

On both visits i found the fishing surprisingly challenging, which is great as I like having my fishing skills tested.

As previously the water was crystal clear! So clear that would be able to see the fish, if there were any in there.

This could be a fantastic fishery, its got a great lodge and fantastic water quality, however there are 3 things letting it down;

1:Stocking – There are fish in there (though stocking isn’t very generous), however they only seem to be in one of the lakes (there are 4 interconnected lakes) on both my visits i have bagged up however it wasn’t easy (which i enjoyed) but i think the difficult fishing will put many off, certainly a beginner.

2:Weed – the weed is out of control and makes some parts of the lakes unfishable! They really need to get this cut as its going to ruin the fishing otherwise. On the flip side all this aquatic weed makes perfect habitat for subsurface invertebrates and fly life meaning the fish become naturalised very quickly (thus favouring the immative fly fishing approach)

3: Motorway – the M4 is so close, when the wind is in the wrong direction is rather loud!

Summary:
Could be a lovely fishery, it just needs some weed cutting and some clever stocking.
I enjoyed both my trips, however many anglers wouldn’t.