Istarted my fly fishing here forty years ago, it opened 10th of april back then
if you didnt get there before 3am you didnt get a place,sat under the stars waiting for it to get light many times.
I had a season permit there for over thirty years
first one cost me about 25quid very little traffic on the snake road as I remember. A man called li-purnell managed the water and he was very good
it fished well from the damn wall down to the iron bridge both sides and down the howden leg as far as fairholmes(bike hire centre now)good quality fish and free rising, good mayfly hatch about first week in june
It came to an end when I left England for the Isle of mull, it was brown trout fishing there with most fish half pound, if you didnt get thirty before lunch you were having a bad day, I found it boring
after a while and took up sea fishing but longed for the fighting qualities of a rutland rainbow, or a ladybower one for that matter. We came back to england a while ago and I went up to the bower for a 2009 rules book from the fishery office 35thousand fish going in it said price for a pensioner nine pound for four fish great value, But where are the anglers, saw only one bank angler in Rasberry bay and one boat down the howden leg trolling. whats happened? scenerys still the same.
Regards drifter

I've fished Ladybower three times over the past week and taken only one fish during that time.I spoke to two blokes yesterday evening at around 8:30 and they had'nt caught a fish between them in six and a half hours.I had a chat with another angler after packing up around 9:30 and he'd also blanked,he told me he used to be a regular season ticket holder but has not bothered renewing the last couple of years because it's been going downhill.Does anybody else have an opinion on this?