The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Yes, you are right, that was the club that held the fishing rights at Wotton. Unfortunately Mrs Brunner became upset by the way some anglers treated both the lake and the surrounding land and decided to close the fishing down. Fortunately I was able to take over the fishing there and ran it on a syndicate basis so that some anglers were still able to enjoy the fishing and the beautiful surroundings. It is still being run on the same basis by John Mason who sometimes has a spare ticket or two at the beginning of each season.

When I was lucky enough to fish here found the Warrels easier to fish for Tench.

Yes, the Worrels was the better bank fishing water for tench. Most of the big tench bags were caught by boat anglers. The boards swim could be good on occasions and it was from that swim that I caught my first Wotton twenty pound pike. That was a Boxing Day pike a real traditional fish! However, the second one I caught was from the small punt I used to use when I was fishing the Sawmills.

I met many well know fishermen in the 50's 60's remember Fred well.Have a couple of pics will post them when I can find them.

Dallan47 wrote:I met many well know fishermen in the 50's 60's remember Fred well.Have a couple of pics will post them when I can find them.

Yes, when I took over the management of the fishery a few well known anglers bought permits to fish there. both Fred Taylor and Dick Walker had permits, though I can't remember them all now, it's all a long time ago now, I think I took over the fishery in 1972. By that time the huge bags of tench were not so common but the fishing was still very good. I particularly enjoyed the pike fishing there. I last fished at Wotton in 2004 when I went to the estate as a guest of John Mason who took over the management of the fishery when I came to Australia in 1977. It was fun to night fish from one of the old pontoons which John had pulled apart and rebuilt.

Just bought Fred Taylors Tench fishing book.Great read.I was lucky to meet him and a lot of well known anglers when as a youth was lucky to fish Wotton.Interesting as Fred mentions Halton Reservoir,now called Weston Turville.I from a very young age fished there from about 1955 to 65.Then only had Roach,Tench,Perch and Pike.

The Capability Brown series that Alan Titchmarsh made is on Youtube, and incldes the episode that features Wotton Underwood estate and the lakes.

The link to the episode below has over six minutes of footage of Wotton Underwood estate and lakes starting on the video at 6minutes .07seconds and ending about 12.35:

Thank you for posting the link, very interesting.

[img]Picture.Have with luck downloaded a photo that my father took in the 50's.Wooton with I think Fred Taylors punt.

I cant open it!