Cow Green wild brown trout fishery is the highest, large lake in England; set beneath Great Dun Fell among semi-alpine pasture and designated a European Wilderness Area nature reserve. The lake is close to the source of the River Tees on the borders of Cumbria, Durham and Northumberland. Abounding with wild brown trout, the water is peat-stained and very exposed to the high Pennine winds. From mid-May until the end of September we choose relatively calm days to visit this lake, walking along many miles of shoreline, exploring its points and hidden bays.

Huge catches of 6" to 12" fish are likely here, often into three figures through a June or July day, and significantly larger brown trout will feature in most days' sport. With a shore perimeter of over 10 miles, Cow Green is the grail of large English lake trout fisheries, yet is relatively unknown. It's not like the rest of England up here. An almost treeless wilderness of rocky outcrops, peat and heather; the home of red grouse, wagtails and harriers, and a botanical remnant of old-England, the blue spring gentian. It is a lonely place, as much Europe's fly-fishing frontier as is south-eastern Poland or western Ireland.

Solitary fishermen can feel very ill-at-ease up here; better to walk out in pairs or threes and savour together the wildlife and desolate scenery of this spiritually-moving place, and to experience the dashing trout attacking and snatching your flies right up in the surf of the gravel beaches. Lower down the remote Tees valley are Grassholme and Selset, two more lakes in the Tees high-Pennine chain. Selset is populated with wild trout, and like Cow Green, can yield undreamt of sport to small black dry flies so close to the shore-side boulders.

A day up here, in the Pennine wilderness, stays in the memory, in the soul, forever. There are wild trout, in Europe; but then there are wild Pennine trout. The two are not necessarily the same. When it's all done, you'll think back and not even question 'was it worth it?' Those images of desolate water-scape, and rock and heather, and dashing wild trout, will be etched in your mind's eye, indelibly. You'll see flyfishing differently, as we did. Contact us - below - and get ready.