Without wishing to start a raging debate, and this is a genuine question, given the opportunity which county would you relocate to, to satisfy your fly fishing craving?

We will be relocating from Oxfordshire in the next few years (when house prices and the ecomony sort themselves out) to an area of the country yet to be decided. Our main criteria are:

• near (ish) the sea
• commuting distance to a large town/city
• the most abundant flyfishing available

As the wife is not too bothered where we go, i thought i would start sowing the seeds early.

Scotland seems an obvious choice but is probably a bit too far away from the family. Any others?

Any thoughts?

Devon.

Beautiful Countryside,Great beaches and superb fishing.

SWFF,Salmon and Seatrout along with all the wild Brown trout fishing you could want.
Plenty of smaller waters or larger waters for stocked fishing to.

Easy to get to most places in the Country.

Exeter, Plymouth,Taunton and Bristol all easy to get to for retail fix.

WCB

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http://devonschoolofflyfishing.com/ The BEST Fly fishing tuition guiding in Devon

http://funkyflytying.co.uk

All the more reason to go to Scotland That's my plan for the future (if they'll have me ) ...................birdsnest

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Fear not if I steal from your side, as of yore, from paradise streams to fish Teifi once more.
BN based in Wolverhampton

Go south; Cornwall or Devon? Or even better head west in to Wales, has some of the best fishing in this country; and the prettiest unspoiled coastline you'll ever see!

yorkshire with the superb rivers wharfe , ure , swale etc etc

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CHEERS SID
FTM

"if my answers frighten you , don't ask scary questions".........Jules Winnfield

It very much depends on the sort of fly fishing you like to do rpp123456....

Also depends on how big a town or city you wish to be near.

Oxfordshire obviously is not near the sea but has some great fishing (Farmoor is a place I fish often) and it central to many of the midlands resevoirs. Not much for Rivers though and you will have to cast a long way for salwater

If you want to be near the sea then geographically you are moving away from most big resevoirs and the best of the rivers. Most Resevoirs tend to be inland (with the exception of lochs) and most river estuaries are not much use for fly fishing unless you are targeting saltwater. Yorkshire and Derbyshire has a good combination of both but not near the coast.

My first choice would probably be Scotland though.

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Tight Lines
JD

Familiarity breeds contempt - and children......

Anywhere near Bristol. You have the Wye and it's tribs, the Bristol Waters, the moors of Devon to the south and the chalk rivers going east. What more could a boy want?
Rod.

Lovely County..wasted on the locals

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Roy

Does mean some traveling though......

Chew and Blagdon are not really near the sea and the severn estuary is a mudflat until at least Minehead......

Wye, Usk and Monow are all good rivers but a good hour to get to anything tidy...

He needs to let us know what type of fly fishing he wants to do to be honest as this would certainly influence my decision.

Saltwater - South Coast (probably Chichester way)
Rivers Trout and Grayling - Porbably Yorkshire or Derbyshire (Hampshire would be nice but could not afford to fish on the rivers for more than once every season)
Rivers Sewin (Sea Trout)- Wales (Towy and Teifi)
Salmon - Scotland
Stillwater Wild trout - Scotland
Stillwater rainbow trout - Oxforshire

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Tight Lines
JD

Familiarity breeds contempt - and children......

Difficult one.

I was born and bred in Hampshire, and love the county and its chalkstreams and stillwaters (If i had the cash to fish them) but i also love salmon and would love some good salmon fishing nearby (on the fly, i think the Hampshire rivers are more suited to bait) A nice house on the junction pool on Tweed would be nice though, thanks.