• About Us



    Belleau Bridge Trout Farm was established in 1975 supplying live fish for restocking reservoirs, waterways and rivers for anglers. In the last two years Belleau Smokery was formed to run alongside the live fish business. The smokery is a dream come true for Simon Harrop, the 3rd generation fish farmer and whilst it has been 3 years in the making it was only started in October 2008. Our aim is to produce the finest smoked food.


    If you are looking for the most delicious trout from a source you can trust then you have found us. Here at Belleau Bridge Trout Farm we are blessed with fresh mineral spring water that feeds our hatchery and river system.





    You are what you eat…. It’s not just true for us; the same goes for trout; if they feed off muddy waters then guess what? They can taste earthy and unpleasant, if they swim in clear spring water, feed off fresh watercress and freshwater shrimp and crustaceans then it is not rocket science to suggest that the taste is vastly superior.

    We supply farmers markets, farm shops, hotels and restaurants and our fresh fish are in great demand at Grimsby Docks where we supply many of the wholesalers. The demand for our freshly filleted trout grows annually. We have been running the trout farm for over 35 years and are naturally very proud of our achievements. We hope you will appreciate and enjoy our products as much as our existing customers.

    Don’t worry if you can’t reach a local farm shop or farmer’s market; you will soon be able to buy our delicious range of products online.




  • Our Farm




    The trout farm begins at The Hatchery at Belleau, it is rather unique as it has a gravity fed water system starting with the natural mineral spring pond filtering the water directly into the troughs of tiny pink trout eggs. These eggs are all manually cared for, we hand pick them over to make sure any empty or dead shells are discarded to avoid contamination to the others.

    Once the eggs are hatched they are moved progressively into larger tanks and raceways that are all spring fed. They are then transferred into the earth dug ponds which are situated on two sites between Belleau and Claythorpe; at these sites we have 16 ponds which are about the length of a tennis court and half the width. The fish are placed in the ponds, graded by size to ensure they have the space to grow and are hand fed the correct balance of food which is supplemented by our lovely watercress and the natural flora of the river and spring system.








    Once the fish are up to size - it takes approximately 14-15 months for a trout to grow to over one and half pounds in weight, that is a whole lot of love and care! - they are again graded by hand and transported in oxygen filled tanks for live delivery to the fishing lake or river.


    For our smokery we use they exact same fish in various sizes and these are taken to our processing room on the farm where they are prepared for smoking or packed in ice for sending out to the markets, shops and wholesalers.








  • Simon & Ginny Harrop



    Simon was born and bred on the fish farm; this is a lifelong passion for him. Creating the smokery and using the fish farm to its fullest potential brings about a vision he has held for many years. Not only does Simon enjoy his fish farming work – his favourite pastime is salmon fishing; if he is not at the riverside at home he is alongside a salmon river in his free time!


    Armed with a business and catering degree from Leeds (what feels like a long time ago!) Ginny is able to put many of those skills into practice, particularly microbiology, food technology and cooking in great quantities! Most of Ginny’s working life has been in marketing and PR so the enormity of setting up the business is a little less daunting with a few feathers to the bow.



  • Tom & Emma Harrop

    You will often see Tom and Emma at the markets and shows with us; they are our biggest advocates and our best salespeople. Emma’s favourite product is “between the cold smoke and the fishcakes”, for Tom it’s “definitely the pate.” It’s one for the plate and one for the mouth when Tom is making the sample plate up!