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CHEAP FISHING

Our November 1999 contribution from Jon Beer

Two things happened recently that opened my eyes somewhat. The first thing was a first for me: I fished for the first time on a stocked Midlands reservoir. It was Pitsford, just north of Northampton. I shared a boat with my friend Philip who does this sort of thing a lot. The boat and the ticket cost us £20 each. That opened my eyes a bit for a start.

The second thing was a conversation I had with a group of reservoir fishermen. I had been asked to talk to them about river fishing in Britain and I took along loads of slides of the places I have fished over the years. Trout streams do run through the nicer bits of the country and, what with the fields and the trees and the dimpling trout and so forth these places do look a picture. They look a lot better than Pitsford Reservoir, at any rate. And so, to my mind, do the trout. Most of the trout in those pictures - and in the streams - were wild and looked it, ranging from buttery, spotty things to dark, silvery things with every variation in between. And a full set of fins.

And then one of the reservoir fishermen said something that startled me. He said it was all very well me banging on about wild fish in these beautiful rivers: he said he was an ordinary working bloke and couldn't afford to fish those fancy rivers. I was stunned. I went back to the beginning of those slides and went through each fishery they had seen. On the first stream and on several others along the way the fishing is free. A day-ticket on most of the rivers cost less than £5 a day and, in that collection of the rivers I had fished, only one cost more than the day-ticket and boat-share on Pitsford Reservoir. That one was the River Wylye, one of the most precious and prestigious little chalkstreams in the country. A day ticket the Sutton Veny water of the Wylye cost £35.

Let's start at the lower end of the market - FREE.

There are two sorts of free fishing. One is the sort that for some reason or other - some ancient edict declared by a beneficent lord in an alcoholic weak moment - a bit of fishing, often through the middle of a village, is free for anyone to fish. They are dotted all over the country. The last mile of the River Otter above the estuary at Budleigh Salteron is one of these. There are brown trout and sea trout here but not nearly as many as the plump mullet that forage up from the tide and get pointed out as trout by helpful dog-walkers.

The other sort of free is what you get if you ask someone nicely. These are better: often very good and I am not about to tell you any I know because that is not part of the deal when a genial owner gives permission.

Besides, there are plenty of waters that are almost free. Here are one or two. I cannot guarantee the prices now but they were accurate when I last fished them, all within the last few seasons.

The Llanidloes and District Angling Association has about 20 miles of fishing on the Upper Severn, Clywedog and Dulas. I caught my best fish of the season on the Clywedog which, as a compensation water from the lake above, was in full swing during a prolonged drough. The permit for these waters cost £3.50. Available from Mr Gough, The Travellers Rest Restaurant, Llanidloes as well as from the two newsagents in the town.

Another Severn tributary, the River Rhiew, dances and swings through the picture-booky village of Berriew. The Berriew Angling Club has about 2 miles of fishing on the river from the main Welshpool-Newtown road, through the village and up into the fields beyond. Tickets are £10.

Does that seem a lot for a day's fishing on lovely little rivers? Those last two prices were for season tickets.

Day tickets for under a tenner - or under a fiver - are easy. The place to start looking is in Where to Fish, published every two years by Thomas Harmsworth Publishing (next one is due in 2000). This is a far-from-perfect guide to every fishing water in Britain. It is not much point moaning about the quality of the air when it is all there is to breathe: much of the information in Where to Fish is poor, out of date, or just downright incorrect but it is all we have. It is a great place to start looking. There are phone numbers there and prices and it is always worth checking before you go in case whoever owns it or sells the tickets has died. And wherever you go - ask.

We were on a back road from the River Petteril (tributary of the Eden) to the River Derwent (the Cumbrian one) when we crossed a bridge. We got out to look as fishermen do. We were looking down are a lovely river that wasn't there. That is, it was mentioned in Where to Fish : they had missed out a whole river. The River Caldew was a little stunner. We went into the post office in the village of Dalston and bought day tickets for the stretch we had seen from the bridge. They cost £1 - or £2 for a week. And in a perfect pool beneath a bridge I caught my best trout of that season.

If you have your own information to add please drop us a line.

Jon Beer contributes regularly to publications including Trout & Salmon and The Telegraph. If you have any comments, do not hesitate to get in touch or use the message board.