The bride and I just got back from Italy, Greece, and Turkey. A fine and wonderful trip, but sadly included no fishing experiences. Our next trip is as soon as we get enough frequent flier points to cover airfare for two (probably in about 3 - 6 months) and then I then will set the itinerary. We’ve agreed on Britain and Ireland as destinations. Of course my thoughts immediately turned to English chalk streams and Irish salmon rivers, but have never been involved in either type of fishing.
This posting starts my research. Any suggestions on guides, finances, best time to go, equipment, etc.?
Anyone’s thoughts or suggestions would be deeply appreciated.
Cool trip! the Irish tourist board have all the info you could ever want on fishing in Ireland, just google them. Oh yes, they have some great sea run trout fishing as well.
As for English chalk streams, most of the water is private and very expensive, there are however a few inns and hotels that can get you day ticket waters on some stretches of some chalk streams. Again you are probably best to find out all about it on the net, try a google on “Day tickets” and any of the stream names ie: the Itchen, Hampshire avon, Test etc.
Hope this of some help.
By the way if you realy want to fish the chalk streams you may want to try some of the fishing clubs on the web as well, sometimes they can arange a days fishing for guests.
All the best.
Mike.
The UK is a fantastic place to fish IF you are willing to pay the BIG$$$. Fishing there is outrageously expensive as it is in Ireland, Scotland and Iceland. If your pocketbook is big enough, you should be able to get on some nice water.
I was lucky enough to fish the Test last year but it was during the offseason and was because I had a “connection.”
There really is no “public” waters there to speak of. Most of the decent to good stuff is owned or leased by clubs who restrict access or control it for a high price.
Jeff - AKA Dr. Fish
If it has fins and swims than I must chase it!
Bill, 3 to 6 months time puts you near to or right in the closed season for trout fishing. grayling are a possibility at that time of year and this type of fishing if usually a lot cheaper. Depending where you are going there is salmon fishing, but most rivers close from November to February. This is a good site to look at for salmon fishing.
[url=http://www.fishtweed.co.uk:946a2]http://www.fishtweed.co.uk[/url:946a2]
It might be worth holding fire until the season started in earnest April/May next year. Some of the best fishing is then.
If you have served time in the military, day tickets can be bought (very cheap for UK) for the 6 mile stretch of the Hampshire Avon owned by Service Dry Fly Fishing Association.
I would suggest:
[url=http://www.Davywotton.com:45ddb]www.Davywotton.com[/url:45ddb]
Davy’s from Wales and his email is on the bottom of his website. He is good about answering any questions you might have. Also you can try:
[url=http://www.flyfishingarkansas.com:45ddb]www.flyfishingarkansas.com[/url:45ddb]
He frequents this board and you might register and ask him a few questions on it.
“The UK is a fantastic place to fish IF you are willing to pay the BIG$$$”
Its certainly true that many places can be very expensive especially on stretches of the test and itchen in southern england, but if you do a little research it can work out cheaper.
For example one of the links I had earlier has day tickets to the river avon in Durrington, very near where Frank Sawyer was riverkeeper and on the same river for 5 pounds. Thats a lovely river very chalkstream like in nature. I’ve fished other stretches of that river but not that particular stretch. That same site represents a club with access to about 5 or 6 rivers in the area and 2 lakes all for about $220 a year, but then again you’d have to wait a few years (3 probably) to get off the waiting list.
to get some good hints to perhaps less expensive fishing.
One good place is the river dart in Devon/Cornwall on the Prince of Wales duchy of cornwall estate where day tickets are pretty reasonable I’m told for miles of fishing.
Bill, I’ve been stationed here in England for 2 1/2 years now and have fished a little and learned a lot. I would recommend the River Dove in Derbyshire as it is the historic river from Izaak Walton’s “The Complete Angler.” By staying at this really nice hotel you can get a day ticket on the river… [url=http://www.izaakwaltonhotel.com/index.html:117e2]http://www.izaakwaltonhotel.com/index.html[/url:117e2]
Your wife will love the hotel and scenery and you’ll love the fishing. I fished there this past week and was really happy with the hotel and the fishing. I caught two browns and couldn?t hook about a half dozen. I saw a grayling in one stretch that I thought was a dolphin it was so big. From London the hotel would be a little over a three hour drive. Remember neither of these islands is very big… you can drive from London to Edinburgh in about 8 hours.
Like the other guys said, fishing the Test or the Ichen can be expensive. If you have the dough (the exchange rate for the pound to dollar is nearly 2 to 1 and it?s about ?100 for one day on the Test during the mayfly hatch) fishing a chalk stream is worth it. It is traditional English fly-fishing and can be truly amazing (and they’re about 10 miles from Stonehenge). The weather, as you probably know can be very iffy. Keep in mind whenever you visit that it will probably rain and be a little cool. If it doesn?t it?ll we be enjoyable. My dad visited from Texas last July and welcomed the reprieve from the daily 100* heat; it was about 70-75 here.
Don?t forget to look into fishing Scotland as well. The Scottish are very hospitable, the scenery is amazing, and there are some venerable rivers such as the Spey and the Tweed. [url=http://www.fishsalmon.co.uk:117e2]http://www.fishsalmon.co.uk[/url:117e2]
I really like the idea of an interactive map with all that information. It’s like the myspace of fishing information. Unfortunately it isn’t complete. If it were it’d be an amazing tool. Still is useful though…
Do you have any interest in North Country flies? the Yorkshire and Scottish spiders and soft hackles? If so consider the River Wharfe and the River Ure in the norht east of England. I’ll never get there but I’d love too. The place is rich in history as well as providing wonderful fishing for trout and grayling - grayling later in the season. Try googling the names of the rivers, Bolton Abbey or Pennine rivers.
I’m jealous.
:!: Bill if you are still following this post, check out the new report in the “reports board” for Ireland, it includes a couple of usefull links.
All the best.
Mike.
