Our History

The Guash Fishing Club was formed in 1921 by Major Bailey, the estate manager of Burghley Estate through whose land the river flowed. For 70 or more years the Guash was the only river the club fished but in 1996 the club acquired fishing on the River Welland and has 2 beats on the river at Harringworth and Uffington. In total the club has access to over 16 miles of mostly double bank fishing. There are now over 125 members all dedicated to river fishing and the challenges that it offers.

The River Guash or Gwash or Guash (the u is an ancient spelling) is a small limestone trout stream that runs in the valley from Braunston-in-Rutland to where it joins the Welland just downstream of Stamford.

Since the early 70s Rutland Water has intercepted the river and it flows into the lake at its western end and is released at Empingham. However, the release from Rutland is constant so while we don’t always get winter floods and we have a constant flow in the summer. In addition the North Brook joins the river at Empingham and is a good spawning tributory.

The Guash is exceptionally clean and the stream scores very highly on the Environment Agency aquatic invertebrate assessments. Brown trout are the dominant fish species but there are grayling dace and chub lower down the river with the occasional rainbow escapee. Catch and release is encouraged throughout the length of the Guash. The Club stopped stocking trout in 2002 and this has led to an increase in the size of the wild fish and fish of 1lb are not uncommon and recently a 3lb fish was taken. The fish are free rising and there is a good hatch of Mayfly and other ephemeroptera through the season. The fishing is challenging though owing to the wildness of the fish, often in shallow water with bank-side trees and bushes willing to grab your fly before the fish does. With the aid of the Environment Agency the club has made major award-winning improvements to several sections of the river and the Club continues this work when funding support is available.

See James Birch's article on our history in more detail in News & Events.

Where winding Gwash whirls round its wildest scene,
On this romantic bend I sit me down;
On that side view the meadow’s smoothing green,
Edg’d with the peeping hamlet’s checquering brown;
Here the steep bank, as dropping headlong down;
While glides the stream a silver streak between,
As glide the shaded clouds along the sky,
Bright’ning and deep’ning, losing as they’re seen,
In light and shade: to where old willows lean,
Thus their broad shadow runs the river by,
With tree and bush replete, a wilder’d scene,
And moss and ivy speckling on my eye.
Oh, thus while musing wild, I’m doubly blest,
My woes unheeding, and my heart at rest.

The River Gwash by John Clare