Fly Fishing

Hi Guido7, welcome on Expat-blog!

I have found some websites on Fly fishing in England :

goflyfishinguk.com/
flyfishing-directory.co.uk/England.aspx

I wish you good luck and i hope other members will give you info about rules and regulations, and advice you some good places to go for fly fishing.

All the best,
Christine

Thanks much!

Hi Guido7, I am an expat from Washington State and a avid fly fisher. You will be in for a bit of a shock on what you will find here. I was. The best place to find out about the rod license is at this link.
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/ho … 31497.aspx
This will give you the info you need on the rod license ( that is what they call a fishing license here. You don't have to buy a license for each rod. Unless you fish with more than three rods at a time then you have to buy a second license. They do more spin cast and bait cast over here. They call it coarse fishing.
Now for the shocker. Not only do you have buy the license but you also have to pay to play. Each river, lake and stream is owned by someone. You will have to pay them to access the water. Depending on where you fish this could be as low as £20 per fish on lakes and as high as £200 per day on rivers. Yes really. Rivers are usually three fish. No catch and release on any of the areas I have been. Once you have hit you limit then you are done. You can't float the rivers. This is considered trespassing and the owner of the river or lake can take your gear. Most rivers and lakes are bank fishing only, no wading.  Your best bet is to google fly fishing UK to get more info.
The good news is that the rivers and lakes are stocked. The trout is good and abundant. They are fishery hatched but then released to the wild to pick up the nice flavours. There are some fighters as well although everybody here is more about catching the biggest fish rather than the sport of catching the fish.
In short, if you are coming here to fish for a vacation expect to drop some coin. If you were planning on moving here to live and fish then stay where you are. The economy is bad, the people aren't the friendliest and the country is overcrowded. Imagine putting 60 million people into a land mass that is 50 thousand square miles (roughly the size of Louisiana which has about 4 million people) and have everyone of them try to get away for the weekend.

Thanks Texan. I guess I'll have to give this some more serious thought. Fly fishing to me is more than a sport, it's a lifestyle. It's what I do. Thanks for all the info anyway.

Guide