Brook Farm Fishery Membership Details

The essential ingredient of Brook Farm is the crystal-clear water, the profusion of insect life and the totally unspoilt environment; you will not even hear a car or an aeroplane in the distance. In order to maintain this perfect tranquility, we restrict our impact upon the Fishery by limiting the Syndicate Membership to just 10 Rods. We do not offer Day Tickets.

Members

Members have any-day access 9a.m. to dusk, except Sunday, which is maintenance day. In practice, the usual attendance is 0 – 2 Rods per day, and only very occasionally will there be more.

The two Lakes were formed by the present owner in 1984 by damming the valley in two positions. They are now as natural a part of the landscape as the folds of the valley itself. The Top Lake is about one acre, and is mostly deep water between 8 and 12 feet. The larger Bottom Lake is approaching three acres, and offers various depths, with shelves, bars and deeper holes, up to perhaps 8 feet, while the average depth will be 4 to 6 feet. Both lakes are surrounded by Yellow Iris and small stands of Alder trees.

Our Style of Fishing is dictated by the quality of the water and insect life, which lends itself to close-range sight-fishing, in a similar manner to Chalk Stream Fishing, using mainly Dry Fly, small Nymphs and Buzzers. We do not fish with Lures of any kind. Rods of 8’ 6” to 9’, combined with floating line weights of 4 – 6 are ideal.

Catch & Release has been our preferred method of fishing for many years and, provided that our Rules in this regard are followed, we have not experienced the slightest problem. We ask our Members how many Trout they would like to take each Season, so that we can stock accordingly. Some Members prefer to take none at all, and some like maybe six or ten to take home. We also restrict our fish caught and released to six per day.

We stock both Brown and Rainbow Trout, and all Brownies are returned on every occasion. The stocking size is currently in the range of two pounds up to about ten pounds, with a good spread of middle-sized fish.

Fishing Guests. Members may bring a Fishing Guest up to 3 times per Season but they should be pre-booked so we can avoid too many guests on the lakes in one day.  It is generally felt that non-fishing guests would affect the atmosphere of the Fishery for the other fishers.