Fly fishing & conserving the chalk streams

We fish and look after more than 20 miles of water among the chalk streams of Hampshire and Wiltshire in Southern England.

One of the world’s oldest fly fishing clubs, we focus on trout and grayling on the Itchen, Anton, Upper Test, Avon and Wylye.

While much of our river fishing is catch and release for wild fish, we have some productive stocked beats and five lakes stocked with rainbows.

Our rivers offer a mix of wading and bank fishing, and we use traditional methods, casting barbless flies upstream to observed feeding fish. From October to December we switch to grayling fishing, when upstream nymphing is permitted, while our lakes are open all year round.

All our fishing is in beautiful but sensitive environments – either Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Special Areas of Conservation or both – and our Wylye fishing is also in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. In managing these waters we aim to preserve their natural beauty and to provide habitats where the natural recruitment of wild fish can take place.

But the Society is about more than world-class fly fishing – explore our website further to see how…

A long tradition

There’s much more to the Society than casting a fly – find out here.

Managing Fisheries

A 21st-century approach to conservation and enhancement based on deep experience of the chalk stream environment and leading-edge techniques

Joining The Society

Find out more about membership and order an information pack here

New Society review

Developing & maintaining world class chalk stream fishing

In the 19th century, Society members collected the ova that first took brown trout “down under,” and in 1878, we drafted the Act that introduced the close season for coarse fish. Since then, we have been involved in all aspects of fisheries management, researching everything from electro-fishing and stocking to the current focus on rewilding – and we have developed our fisheries according to what we have learned.

Explore this subject – important to fishers and fishery owners alike – in our new review.
Download a copy here.
Ask a question or make a comment: email the fisheries team.

One of the world’s oldest angling clubs, employing traditional fly fishing techniques on the chalk streams of southern England