I was busy nattering so it came as no surprise when I realised that I had missed the turning. Dartmoor was to my right, its granite topped Tors contrasting against the young green ferns and heather. So it was an extra  mile or two further to drive across the moor, but it was worth it in the warm glow of the morning sunshine.

Joining the A30 just west of Okehampton, we turned left toward deepest Cornwall. The A30 is a pleasant road to drive when it is not clogged with holiday traffic, so should you be tempted to head down to Temple Fishery, joining the A30  from the M5 at Exeter will take you all the way.

Some familiar signposts indicated that Roadford reservoir on our right, through Launceston and onto Bodmin Moor.

Strange how easily forgotten are sensations and sights. Bodmin Moor is on lower ground than Dartmoor.  Although not many miles apart both of these moorland areas emanate a palpably spooky sensation for those that can feel it…. you will know that you are in the land of  the ancients. Stone circles, rock piles and Celtic Crosses mark the landscape as some of the oldest inhabited parts of our land. It is something almost spiritual, missed, not understood or appreciated by the “candyfloss” culture of the summertime holiday trade. I often think that anglers are a little more “tuned in” to these deep buried sensations than today’s “Mondeo Man”. Perhaps its something that the solitary aspect of fishing cultivates and gives back to us. On the other hand if you drive a Mondeo you might think its all a lot of b….ks!

Pass the turnings for the Jamaica Inn and Colliford Lake which although reputed to fish well on occasion, is a little too bleak for my taste. Just a little way up the road from Colliford is Dozmary Pool where King Arthur’s legendary sword Excalibur was snatched out of the air before sinking (to lush music) below the waves…at least that’s what that arch historian Walt Disney would have us believe.

Mallard Lake is an old and deep china clay pit, in fact it has the remains of an old Beam Engine Pump hidden amongst the trees for the Engineers and Industrial Historians in our ranks to appreciate. Apparently it was the first beam pump designed and built “in house” by English China Clay. 

The fishery that these old workings have bequeathed us is one where the paths through the low and stunted trees constantly remind us that you are after all in pixie country!

It is a fishery which has a head of very free rising fish in the more temperate times of the year when all manner of insect life is blown in off the moor and surrounding scrubland. As the sun goes down it is not at all unusual to see a virtual picket line of fish slurping terrestrials at the edge of the ripple.

At other times because of the water depth and relatively sheltered location, the water temperature can remain fairly constant. But when the temperature does alter, the fish will often be found hanging just above or below the thermocline caused by the variation in temperature between the surface water and the deep welling spring water. So bring your bag of fly lines, you might just get to use all of them in order to find the fish, be prepared to swap and change tactics and flies during the day. Go with your instinct, you are in the right part of the country for it.

Usually I fish buzzer virtually the season through, but I have got to say that this year I have had to pull more than I have done for years. After an hour or two on the buzzer, despite some sporadic signs of activity, it became very evident that the gold head mini zonker’s and Dawson’s Olive were going to get a swim, fished fairly slowly several feet down, which was just about manageable with a floating line in the conditions. Before long, fishery owner Julian Jones joined us with his rod. “It seems ages since we had an hour or two of sunshine like this” he commented. Someone must have been listening because within a half hour the light was gone, the rain clouds gathered ready to deliver another dousing, so we called it a day.

Over a pot of tea Julian spoke to us about his hopes and ambitions for the fishery, about the fishery competitions and his loyal and sometimes eccentric  band of regulars.  About his fly fishing for Bass and Pollack off the North Coast of Cornwall, but truth be told, that’s a story for another time, hopefully for when we can put our shorts back on and feel some warmth on our backs.

The top Lake is called Teal Lake and it is an any method fishery containing smaller fish than the fly only Mallard Lake. Having said that, some of the local anglers fly fish it on a regular basis because it is relatively lightly fished at those times when there are only a few holiday anglers around.

Contact Julian Jones. 01 208 821 730. Mobile 07787 704966.

Address: Temple Trout Fishery. Temple Road. Nr Bodmin. Cornwall. PL30 4HW.

Recommended flies.

Montana, Black Tadpole, Cats Whisker, Orange tadpole, marabou tailed Damsel, Dawson’s Olive, Buzzer, PTN,GRHE, Black and Peacock spider and its variations.

Daddies, Sedge, Black Gnat, Hoppers. Boobies(if you must!)

Temple Fisheries Industrial History.

The site has been known as Greenabarrow or Temple Pits since 1836 when China Clay was discovered on Bodmin Moor. By the 1870’s there were 19 working clay pits. In those early days the abstraction of the China clay was done by backbreaking manual labour. The China clay was air dried and then transported to the nearest port or railhead by horse and cart. The cart tracks were made from lengths of granite and can still be seen on the moor with the deep grooves cut in them from the passage of the iron shod wheels of the clay wagons.

In the late 1870’s the clay industry went into recession. When they re-opened years later the pits were modernised and used pipes to move the clay in a water based slurry. The clay was then dried at the railheads using coal fired furnaces.

At this time Temple was owned by a Frank Parkin who in 1912 had the Durfold or Gawns water wheel constructed on the Blisland stream. The 50 feet diameter Water Wheel drove flat or ram rods across three quarters of a mile of the moor and under the A30 road. Manufactured in Wales the water wheel was the second largest in the country, it is now in a Heritage Museum in Aberystwyth. The beam Pump lifted the clay which then ran by gravity down a pipeline to below Blisland.

If you explore the north side of Temple Fishery you can still see the remains of the pump and when you consider that it was driven by this massive water wheel best part of a mile away, you cannot help but wonder at the ingenuity and skill of the Victorian Engineers who built and maintained it all.