Angling Times visit to Little Utopia – Fred’s Lake

Fred Bradbury had every angler’s dream. He had a small lake and a little stretch of river at the bottom of his garden. Fred and his close friend Tom worked wonders on his lake and river. Between them they turned the place into a small piece of angler’s heaven.

Fred lived in a chocolate box cottage situated between Broadchalke  and Bowerchalke, on the Shaftsbury side of Salisbury in Wiltshire. The two men had decided to retire from their homes near London and spend their later lives in the countryside. 

Both were in their early seventies but I think that Tom was the older of the two. Fred also gave quite a bit of his time to the Salisbury and District Angling Club as a committee member. Being a committee member myself, that is how I came to meet him. He had spent the most of his angling life fishing the River Thames and its tributaries.

He told me once that he enjoyed the small club atmosphere in those earlier days. He enlightened me on their inter club days out when the anglers would take their families with them and make it a day out with a fishing match, followed by a picnic. Each club would organise the little picnics and a short 3 hour match, playing host to the visiting club. In those days they had size limits for fish caught. Any fish caught would be measured against a ruler and if it failed to be longer in length than the minimum size for that species the angler could not count it in his bag. Under size fish had to be returned to the water immediately. It was no good going bleak bashing in those days as they did not count and considered a nuisance fish.

 If your fish was oversize it was considered to be a “goer” and counted in your overall weight in the match. All efforts were concentrated in catching “goers”.

Both Fred and Tom were very like-able blokes and were what I would call “Real Gents”. They never had a bad word to say about anybody except for the normal fishing banter and taking p*** like we all did to each other on lots of occasions. They were fun to be around and were very knowledgeable regarding fishing stuff. They were always willing to pass that knowledge on to young anglers and to make them feel at home.

Fred’s lake was fairly small, about the size of two thirds of a football pitch. One of the things that made it a bit special was the fact that it was spring fed. The springs themselves were situated at the bottom of the lawn behind the cottage and ran immediately into the lake at the top end. The water ran through the length of the lake and then flowed out into a small stream at the bottom. The stream then fed into the river which Fred had the fishing rights to. 

At its shallowest the lake was about 4 feet in depth and at its deepest was about 6 feet. If you were to stand at the bottom of the lawn with your back to the cottage you would see a small island about 6 rod lengths out from your nearside bank and around 60 feet to your left. The island was a magnet for fish and if you could drop a float or a leger close to it you were almost guaranteed to catch fish.

Fred and Tom had gone to a great deal of trouble to provide cover and havens for the fish around the island. They had planted reeds at one end of the island and lots of little cut in bays like a jigsaw puzzle piece around the rest of the island. There were trees and the odd overhanging bush to provide shadow for the fish on really sunny calm days. As well as the normal flag iris type reeds they had dotted here and there, a thinner type of mace reed along the island edges. Each of the swims around the lake are named after Grand National winners.

A lot of thought went in to their stocking policy. Fred would not stock bream in the lake because he knew they would inter breed with other species and cause hybridism amongst the fish population. 

The species of fish he stocked were the normal green tench, golden tench, Golden Orfe, carp, roach, rudd and perch. The largest population were tench, rudd and roach. The other species were lower in numbers, but it was nice not knowing what you might hook into next. Being spring fed the lake tended to be cooler than normal in the Summer and slightly warmer than normal in the Winter.

This led to good bags of fish all the year round. Without a doubt this venue was my all time favourite and I loved it dearly. I was invited by Fred, along with the rest of the Salisbury Committee to fish the lake. After that match, Fred gave me, John Stephenson and Brian Duckett, permission to fish there whenever we liked. This was with the proviso that we informed him when we were coming. Over the next few years that worked out very well for us.

My favourite swim was fishing from the far side over towards the end of the island alongside the reed bed. Using a waggler to drop my sweetcorn bait close to the reeds I could catch tench after tench. With the depth being shallow, each time I hooked a fish it would take off like a rocket into the middle of the lake. The fish were always in pristine condition and I am sure that was because of the quality of the spring water ensuring there was plenty of oxygen and food in the lake. It was truly marvelous fishing in superb surroundings. I mean, how many anglers get to fish in their own private lake at the bottom of their garden. It doesn't get any better than this.

The other favourite swim I enjoyed was fishing alongside the island off the lawn on the cottage side of the lake. My mates and I would fish with floating bread tight to the island in one of the little bays. There can be no better a method of fishing than seeing your quarry slowly approach your floating bread and sucking it in. This would be followed by a smooth sweeping strike of the rod and “ Fish On!!”. 

                                            A 14 Year old Editor at Fred Bradbury's

                                                   Carp on floating crust

How about watching a big pair of rubbery lips appearing below your bait and then the sound of a slurp, followed by the piece of bread disappearing below the surface. The feeling of the rod tightening up on whatever is on the other end and then the powerful surge of something big on the end of your line as it seeks freedom. That feeling has never left me and is what has made me an angler for life. Over 40 years later it is still with me, although sadly Fred’s Lake is not.

Fred would only allow traditional baits to be used in the early days. Baits such as bread, worms, sweetcorn, maggots and casters were the order of the day. Everything was simple then. Most anglers caught fish on these baits before meat, boilies and the like, were used in other places to artificially increase the size of the fish.  The pure spring water was all that was needed to help the fish to grow well and kept them in pristine condition. Give me a Fred’s lake caught fish against any other type of reared fish any time, no contest!

One Autumn day I had an invite from Fred to fish the lake and he had invited an Angling Times columnist along with photographer to record the day for the newspaper. They wanted to do a spread on his water and take a few photographs of us fishing and our catches. On arrival I opened the door to the kitchen and there was Fred, serving breakfast to his guests. I could see that he had his hands full, so I went for a walk round the lake. The day went well and we all caught fish. 

I had my photo taken landing a fish and when one of the Angling Times people landed a splendid golden orfe I promptly did the same. The photographer asked us to hold the two bright orange specimens facing each other in a kissing pose, that is the fish, not the anglers, he took the snap and said he was going to entitle it “Kissing Orfe”.  

I did however, point out that out of the two fish, mine was the biggest, in true angler style. Both the fish were around the 3 lb mark. If their offspring were around now, would they be british records? You never know, they could have been record breakers as the species of golden orfe were not plentiful in those days, maybe they are now.

I often think what the fishing might be like at Fred’s Lake nowadays. I wonder what the size of the tench are now?  A 4 lb tench was a big fish then but these days they often get caught at double figures.

 I am sure that the property and the lake belong to someone else these days. A short while ago I was told that a syndicate held the fishing rights. One thing is for sure is that they will never feel the same as I do knowing the history behind it and knowing the original owners. They will never know the magic that we enjoyed in the early days and what a pleasure and privilege it was to fish with Fred and Tom.