TRM Fishing Report (Special UK Edition)
Continuing images of SWMBO’s exciting shopping holiday to Britain…
Directly across the road from the Swan Hotel – see last report – on the River Coln is the Bibury trout farm.
But this is more than just a trout farm.
In addition to the usual souvenir shop offering everything from wines to milk and trout sales and Devonshire teas, they have a “catch your own” fishery for budding anglers.
Prices are 3.75 pounds (per trout?) for 12 years and over, 2.50 pounds for 11 years and under. This makes trout fishing affordable but is very similar like the Kids’ days at the Tongariro National Trout Centre. Everyone under 16 must be supervised and are not allowed to kill fish. Very PC.
From notice boards visitors can learn about Rainbow and Brown trout life cycle and feed the trout – similar to the Tongariro National Trout Centre – in an English garden setting.
Bibury is one of Britain’s oldest, and most attractive trout farms founded in 1902 by the famous naturalist Arthur Severn. It covers 15 acres (6 hectares) in one of the most beautiful valleys in the Cotswalds.
The crystal clear waters of the Bibury Spring provide the essential pure water required to run the hatchery which spawns up to 6 million trout every year.
The location is a popular tourist destination with the Arlington Mill and famous Arlington Row in an idyllic historic Cotswald village setting. The nearby Arlington Row – photo below – was purchased by the National Trust in 1929 to preserve as a classic example of early weavers’ cottages. Henry Ford certainly thought Arlington Row was an icon of England. He tried to buy the entire row of houses so that he could include them in Greenfield Village, his history theme park.
You can see the attraction. This picturesque row of cottages with higgledy-piggledy tiles on their low roofs, cheerful window-boxes, deep-set windows and sloping gables, mellowing grey local stone and a gentle stream full of rainbow trout winding past, is a vision of rural England past. It was originally built as a wool store and converted to residential use in the 17th century. I believe the trout were bigger then too.
Meanwhile back on the Tongariro…
TRM Correspondence:
We received two emails checking to see if Dave’s big brown jack really came out of the Hydro as the photo does not fit…
TRM’s reply: Ooohhhh you Tonga fishos are soooo suspicious! Yes he definitely caught it and landed it in the Hydro. A lot of big browns have been taken at the head of the pool in the last few weeks but this was opposite the Mangawhitiwhiti Stream. Dave almost lost it when it swam across to the far side and it took ages to dislodge from a lie against the bank. It took about 25-30 minutes to land. Dave is an experienced Salmon angler so had more experience than most in playing these bigger fish with patience. The photo from his wife’s camera does not show the Hydro Pool. OK?
SWMBO also received a phone call from a fisho with a pronounced posh pommie accent wanting to book 100 metres of river below the road bridge…