Ullswater is widely regarded as the most beautiful of all the lakes in the English Lake District. The fishing is best here in drifting boats from mid-March until mid-June. The duckfly hatches can be spectacular, bringing shoals of wild brown trout to feeding frenzy on these distinctive grey-black buzzer pupae. Early in the year, during calm weather, we fish with teams of nymphs, angled to the drifting boat and retrieved slowly. In windy conditions we revert to the traditional loch-style approach with teams of small spiders and wet flies, sometimes with a small, dark dry fly on the top dropper to hang in the waves...

In May the Lake Olives make an appearance, followed by the Green Drake Mayfly (ephemera danica). Surface sport with imitations of the nymphs or dry duns of these species can be thrilling. The Ullswater brown trout can often be demanding, but always rewarding. The lake rests beneath spectacular Helvelyn, at the western extreme of the Eden system at the top of the River Eamont; it's fish are utterly wild, typical of the trout of the entire Eden system. There is also a chance of the capture of a schelly, a rare salmonid whitefish, which is found in very few lakes other than Ullswater.

South-east across the fells of Martindale Common and dramatic High Street lies Haweswater, mysteriously hidden in a deep, spectacular valley, at the head of which nest Golden Eagles. Here we have shore-side fishing with small north-country spider and loch patterns of flies, hard walking over the steeply-carved banks, and the chance of dry fly when the wild brownies, and the real possibility of utterly wild char, move to a summer windfall of heather flies. Haweswater is out of the ordinary, like no other lake anywhere. It's fishing, too, while enigmatic, is unforgettable. You are unlikely to catch numbers of large brown trout; but you may catch a few trout like this, as wild as anything in nature.