Fontburn Reservoir

Fontburn Reservoir gives you approximately 86 acres of water near Rothbury, Northumberland. That’s a proper reservoir setting, not a little commercial pool. Rainbow trout and roach are the advertised targets, so there are two quite different days out on offer here. You can pick a trout permit or keep things coarse, but getting the right ticket matters: the methods, tackle rules and fish-retention arrangements aren’t interchangeable.

• 1 lake: Fontburn Reservoir
• Fish: trout, roach
• Tickets from: Full-day eight-fish trout permit — £31
• Find it: Rothbury · NE61 4PL

Based on how each lake is set up — not a ranking.

Fontburn Reservoir gives you approximately 86 acres of water near Rothbury, Northumberland. That’s a proper reservoir setting, not a little commercial pool. Rainbow trout and roach are the advertised targets, so there are two quite different days out on offer here. You can pick a trout permit or keep things coarse, but getting the right ticket matters: the methods, tackle rules and fish-retention arrangements aren’t interchangeable.

For trout anglers, fly, bait and spinning are available, with trout supplied by the on-site fish farm. There’s a choice of five-fish and eight-fish full-day permits, plus a fly/spinning sporting option with optional retention of two fish. The big thing to get straight before tackling up is how you want to fish. Bait-caught stocked rainbows must be retained, so bait fishing isn’t a catch-and-release option. Once your permit’s retained-fish limit is reached, that’s your fishing finished.

Fancy the roach instead? There’s a separate coarse permit, and loose feeding and groundbaiting are allowed. It’s a one-rod ticket, with barbless single hooks no larger than size 14 and no spinning. All coarse fish go back unharmed, and you can’t retain trout on that permit. Those are useful boundaries to have sorted before packing the tackle bag. This is an advertised roach option alongside the trout fishing, rather than a confirmed mixed-species commercial with a long list of targets.

The reservoir’s mean depth is approximately 9.6 metres. That gives you a sense of the water’s overall scale, but it isn’t a depth reading for your chosen swim or the margins. There’s an accessible fishing platform on the north shore, too. For the drive, use the official sat-nav postcode, NE61 4PL. Coordinates identifying the reservoir aren’t its entrance, so following a pin to the water itself could mean unnecessary faff before you’ve even unpacked.

There are some handy family arrangements. Up to two under-17s can fish free with a paying parent or guardian, sharing the trout catch limit. A separate under-17 day permit covers two fish, and eligible adult trout permits offer a paid second-rod option for the same angler. Parking is included with fishing permits. Book online ahead, buy by telephone, or get a permit from the visitor centre on the day.

One thing worth a quick call is the finish time. The fishing webpage, 2026 guide and park page give different closing hours, all limited by sunset. Don’t build your trip around the latest one without checking. The advertised 2026 opening date was 7 March, but the fishing webpage gives no trout-season closing date. Bring the required Environment Agency rod licence from age 12, sign in and out, and log your catches. Get those bits bob on and you can concentrate on the fishing.

Good background reading. Most of it is a few years old, so treat it as a starting point and ask on the day.

Videos linked by the fishery

• Our read

  Checked Sept '26 — “Fontburn is a proper-sized reservoir near Rothbury, with rainbow trout and roach on the menu. There’s day-ticket coarse fishing alongside fly, bait and spinning for trout, plus an accessible platform on the north shore.”

This is our own summary of recurring public feedback and the venue details we checked, not a copied customer review or a promise you’ll catch. Feedback changes, so we keep it separate from the Tackle Index score.