Freshwater Fly Fishing

Freshwater Fly Fishing in England

IF YOU ARE TRAVELLING TO THE UK, allow us to arrange your fly fishing here as a long weekend, a day or two within your vacation or we can prepare an itinerary, bursting at the seams with world class chalk stream fly fishing for the duration of your stay.

The chalk stream is a unique habitat only found in the UK, northern France and New Zealand.  The tradition of our fly fishing history runs as deep as the chalk geology itself.  Our Hampshire rivers are the birthplace of the modern sport and offer some of the finest upstream dry fly and nymph fishing in the world today. 

Stay in an English country manor hotel or at the beautiful Peat Spade Inn.  We’ll arrange to collect you from the airport and ensure you are comfortably settled in at your accommodation.  Our guides will meet you at the hotel prior to fishing, returning from the river for lunch or dinner if you like.

Please see our recommended accommodation.

Incorporate local sites of interest into your stay such as:  Stonehenge, Winchester Cathedral, The City of Salisbury, The New Forest, and The Southampton Boat Show.  Our experienced guides can help with recommendations away from the river as well.

Come and experience the quintessential sporting challenge in the home of fly fishing – the Hampshire chalk streams.  Please contact to discuss any aspects of your trip.

International Freshwater Fly Fishing

HAVE YOU PROMISED YOURSELF THE FISHING TRIP OF A LIFETIME?  Have you found choosing from the multitude of overseas fishing trips available a little daunting? 

Upstream dryfly offer accompanied freshwater fly fishing trips to selected worldwide destinations – we offer literally the finest fly fishing our planet has to offer.  Please also see our saltwater trips. 

Using our extensive personal experience of the international fly fishing arena, we have hand picked a very select group of lodges, outfitters and international agents that offer simply the best fly fishing in the world.  Forming collaborations with these specialists we can be sure to guide you towards the trip that fulfils your expectations completely.  Whether you’re a veteran looking for your next challenge, a first time traveller or wanting to take the family somewhere everyone can have a great time – allow us to help you plan your perfect holiday.

The following is an excerpt from Howard’s recent article published in the Trout and Salmon Magazine:

Have you ever taken an Atlantic salmon on a dry fly?  I was told by a salmon fishing guide in Newfoundland that 80% of Newfoundland salmon landed are caught on the dry fly.  Principally on the bomber and various ‘bugs’ as all of these spun deer hair patterns are known locally.  Bombers are so popular in Canada’s most easterly provinces that in Newfoundland and Labrador one sees them for sale in gas stations, corner shops and drug stores!

Joe, my guide, tied on a small bomber or bug as he called it and pointed to a seam in the dark peaty water.  I cast upstream but the fly landed with a bit of a splat.  He patiently explained to flick the wrist up at the end of the cast to parachute the fly onto the water.  “The fly landing naturally stimulates the salmon to take”, he said.  He was dead right, third cast rose a fish just like a brownie taking a sedge at home.  That silver bar left the water as I struck and torpedoed downstream making my reel sing.  Joe tailed this cracking silver grilse of about five pounds – my first salmon on a dry fly.  It doesn’t get any better…..

Oh yes it does…..We moved to just below the falls and I flicked the bomber upstream into the pool’s eddies, a fish rose and I struck.  It felt different, diving deep and giving those horrible thumping headshakes that often prelude a slack line and stream of expletives.  As Joe landed the fish for me he yelled “sea trout”.  It was a beautifully coloured sea run brook trout of about three pounds – another first for me.  I didn’t even realise brook trout ran to the salt and again, taken on the dry.  We took a total of nine salmon and three sea run brookies that day before we had to hike back down the valley with enough daylight to spare.

Please play this short movie clip of a 25lb Atlantic salmon taking a bomber on the Lower Humber River – Newfoundland. 
Click here to play >