The official visitor website for Keswick

The lovely Lake District market town of Keswick is one of the best places in the area for tourists (and residents, too!) because it’s packed full of fantastic activities and things to do - both indoors and outdoors.

There are lots of things to do in, on, and around our rivers, tarns, and lakes, and fishing is a really popular activity here.

If fishing is something you’d like to try your hand at when you visit us, we’ve written this guide to tell you everything you need to know, including where you can go fishing, the breeds of fish you’ll find, and the rules and regulations of fishing in our waters.

Places for Fishing in Keswick

These are the places that you can fish in and around Keswick.

Bassenthwaite Lake

This is the lake to go to if you want to fish for pike. However, there are also dace, eels, brown trout, and perch in these waters, and salmon fishing is sometimes done by Ouse bridge. If you have your own boat that isn’t powered, you can launch it onto Bassenthwaite lake for fishing if you have a boat permit.

Buttermere

In these waters, you can expect to find perch, pike, char, and trout. You can’t take a powercraft onto Buttermere, and there’s a 10 craft limit for windsurfers, canoes, dinghies, and rowing boats.

Crummock Water

Much like Buttermere, you can fish your perch, pike, char, and trout at Crummock Water, and there’s a 10 craft limit for surfers, dinghies, rowing boats, and canoes. You can’t take a power craft onto Crummock Water, but from July, you’ll also be able to fish for salmon and sea trout.

Loweswater

Brown trout fishing is permissible on this lake with a bag limit of 3. There is also other coarse fishing with pike and perch in Loweswater. There are no launching facilities but you can launch your own small boats (under 4 meters) including canoes. There is a restriction on the lake of four craft at any one time.

Derwentwater

In Derwentwater, you can fish for roach, pike, perch, and trout. Using dead or alive freshwater fish as bait at any time is not allowed here, and you can’t use maggots as bait between 15th March and 15th June.

On this water, you can launch your own boat without permission, or hire one, but you must stick to the 10 mph speed limit.

River Greta and Derwent

You can only fly fish at River Greta and Derwent and in the waters are brown trout and sometimes sea trout and salmon.

Fishing Responsibly

We really want you to enjoy your time fishing in Keswick, but please stick to our regulations - they’re there to keep both you and our waters safe.

1. To fish in any of our rivers, lakes and tarns, you’ll need an Environment Agency fishing rod licence. You can get one from the Post office or online here.
2. The Keswick Tourist Information Centre (TIC) sells day, week, and season fishing permits for Bassenthwaite Lake and rowing boat tickets with permission for 1 person to fish for a day or a season, as well as salmon fishing permits for a day or a season.
3. If you want to fish from the shore of Derwentwater, please get a day, week or season ticket from Keswick TIC.
4. To fish from a boat on Derwentwater, please get the required permit from Keswick TIC.
5. If you want to fish from the shores of rivers Greta and Derwent for trout or salmon, please get your day ticket from Keswick TIC, or your weekly ticket if you’re just fishing for trout.
6. You can get your required permits for canoes, sailing dinghies, sailboats, rowing boats, and kayaks for Bassenthwaite Lake at Keswick TIC.
7. You can’t get your permits in advance - you’ll need to buy them in person from Keswick TIC.
8. The no boating zones are there for a reason. They’re usually there to protect breeding spots or sites for over-wintering birds, so please respect our no boating zones.
9. If you’re canoeing from River Derwent, please pass through the no boating zone quickly and quietly and keep along the east shore as much as possible. You can leave the lake at Peel Wyke or Blackstock Point.
10. Fishing and boating permits for Buttermere, Crummock Water and Loweswater are available from the National Trust. Day permits can be purchased from the car park machine at the National Trust car park in Buttermere (sat nav CA13 9UZ) - please note this machine only takes coins. For an annual permit please call the North Lakes office on 017687 74649.

Thank you for taking the time to read about the fishing opportunities in Keswick. Look around our website to read all about the other wonderful activities in and around Keswick, as well as accommodation, and places for food and drink.