It wasn't his intention, but Capability Brown has immeasurably added to the pleasure I derive from fishing, for it is he who was the architect and populariser of the estate lakes that form my favourite fishing environment . Don't get me wrong, I don't exclusively fish estate lakes, and none of my biggest fish have come from them, but there's something indefinably magical about a 250 year old lake of an acre or two set in the grounds of a stately home. It's been said that Brown's intention was to "improve on nature", and while I don't for one moment think that he manged to do that (you can't out-create the Creator!) I love the intimacy of fishing small estate lakes.
Three such lakes (all of which I'll decline to name!) have a special place in my affections; the small pond that has featured in a number of these posts in which I currently fish in the summer for crucians (and where last month I blanked while fishing for perch!), an estate lake in the South East that I lure fished for pike with my brother when in my late 20's - summer piking with topwater plugs and shallow divers and loads of compliant jacks, and a charming little lake I fished with my son for a couple of years either for small wild carp of 2 - 3 pounds or for hoardes of voracious little roach and rudd.
I enjoy and am fascinated by fish-inhabited water of all kinds; big wild gravel pits, small meandering rivers, canals and even the much maligned commercials, but, to my mind, there's nothing to beat a nicely matured estate lake, and so I propose a toast to Capability Brown and all his landscaping successors!
My son, a couple of years ago, with a catch of small roach and rudd from an estate lake
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