Just doing a bit of speculating really, but how's the fishing within, let's say, 40 minutes' drive of Stratford-upon-Avon? I really don't know the area at all, so I'm not entirely sure where to start looking. A bit of googling suggests that there's no shortage of quality coarse river fishing, but what's the deal troutwise?

Big problem, John. The Bull at Fairford has a day ticket stretch on the Colne but other than that, as far as I know, there just isn't anything.

http://www.thebullhotelfairford.co.uk/

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Roy

There are a couple of other hotels at varying costs that I am led to believe have rights to this river but the man, and no disrespect to Roy intended, to speak to is Andy Grey who knows the area very well. Andy is a forum member but he is a busy boy maybe worth a PM and if you do please send him my regards.

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[COLOR="Blue"]"A fish seen is a fish nearly caught"[/COLOR]

Accessible river trouting within 40 minutes of Stratford is a bit thin on the ground and almost entirely to the south and west. You might just get to the Welsh Marches and get on the Upper Lugg, Teme or their tribs. The excellent Monnow is probably just beyond this.

There is good fishing in the Cotswolds on the Windrush, Leach, Evenlode, Dikler, Eye and of course the Coln (not Colne - that's a different river). Apart from the Coln there are limited opportunities on these. There is some club water on the Windrush but the day ticket opportunities are really on the Coln. The Bull has already been mentioned and tickets always used to be available from the Swan at Bibury but you will inevitably be fishing in front of a crowd of tourists and the river is full of escapee rainbows.

With stillwaters there are far more options and possibly the best of these is Lechlade with two pools including possibly the best big trout water in the UK, they also have Bushyleaze which provides excellent fishing for less mammoth fish. They also have a short stretch of the Leach with some challenging wild browns. For larger waters Draycote is also within range.

There have been several recent threads on the Coln if you do a search and these might be of help.

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“There is no more lovely country than Monmouthshire in early spring. Nowhere do the larks sing quite so passionately, as if somehow inspired by the Welsh themselves. There is a blackbird on every thorn and a cock chaffinch, a twink as they call him there, on every bush...... It moved me profoundly. I had been spared to see another spring, and I thank God for it.”

Oliver Kite
“A Spring Day on the Usk”
A Fisherman’s Diary

Living locally I can tell you that there is no river fly fishing near. The river Teme is about 40 minutes drive and you can buy day tickets for the Birmingham Angling Association at local tackle shops (Stuarts Angling in SOA), cost £5. Their website shows water available. About 1 hour away near Leominster the Wye and Usk foundation have a lot of beats on the River Arrow, and the river Lugg. Again check their website.

Regards
Mell

Not a lot of major trout fishing on rivers, I'm afraid, though I have heard reports of the odd one caught on the Arrow and the Stour, and many years ago there were trout in the Avon above Warwick.

The nearest day-ticket river venue is on the Windrush at Burford (about 45 mins - details at the Orvis shop, or join the Burford Angling Club). Otherwise the Warwickshire Fly-Fishers www.warwickshireflyfishers.co.uk have a project on the river Swift, near Leicestershire, The Cotswold Fly-Fishers have (fairly exclusive) fishing down towards Oxford, and there used to be a syndicate that stocked part of the river Blythe at Packington.

Best bet is westwards to the borders where, apart from the Teme, Usk and Wye etc., the Gamefishers Club www.gamefishersclub.org.uk have some good fishing.

There's a stillwater near Evesham www.lencheslakes.co.uk for bread-and-butter fishing, and a sydicate water just north of Stratford. Heathcote www.heathcotelake.co.uk is near, if you like that sort of thing, Packington www.packingtonestate.net/fisheries_main.html isn't too far away, and Draycote is definately worth the journey.

I personally drive the two hours to the SDAC rivers near Salisbury www.salisburydistrictac.co.uk, but the waiting list is currently about eight years.

So, all in all, I'd recommend the Gamefishers.

Regards,

Doc

Ah, right, I had wondered whether that might be the case. I should really have made clear though that this is a mooted new domestic arrangement, so I'd probably be more interested in club waters than day tickets. Sorry about that. Based on nothing more substantial than my preconceptions, I suspect that I might find the Welsh rivers rather more to my taste than the English chalkstreams, but it's intriguing to have that possibility open too.

Mell pointed me towards the BAA, which certainly looks like it would be able to satisfy most of my coarse fishing needs, so that would be a good start. And then I guess I'd just have to resign myself to getting in the car for trouting. This would take a bit of getting used to, I suspect. At present, I've got wild trout fishing – and plenty of it – pretty much under my nose and I really would miss that.

At the moment, this is all entirely speculative what-if sort of stuff which I suspect will all come to nought, but I just wanted to get the lie of the land anyway.

Thanks, all.

Not trout ,but if you lash out £30 on a Baa ticket there is acess to some salmon on various bits of the Severn.
Its not bad for £30 a season

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Andy Wren
Winter grayling taking a year off !
Claret not just a great dubbing colour!

If you are aiming at club fishing including coarse fishing then you ought to consider the Prince Albert AS, there's a waiting list of about two years but they have much of the decent Severn plus some water on the Teme and Wye and plenty of other coarse and game fishing from the Border Esk on the Scottish border, the Lake District, into North Wales, down to West Wales and across the Peaks including on the Eden, Cumbrian Esk, Lune, Ribble, Dove, Dane, Trent, Welsh Dee, Towy, Teifi, Conwy, Vrynwy, Dovey, Mawddach and Dysynni as well as some of the Cheshire/Shropshire meres. Great value for £100 per annum. Their website gives some information on the some 200 waters that they have plenty of which will be within 40 minutes.

For trout and grayling it's probably the Gamefishers that offers you the best option (several forum members are in it) or the Burford AA stretch on the Windrush which I recall from a recent thread is about £70 p.a. There's also Midland Flyfishers but I think they're more expensive and harder to get into.

I would personally make the drive West and use the WUF Passport Scheme to fish the fabulous Monnow, Usk, and Wye (plus tribs). If you base yourself to the south west of Stratford, between there and Evesham, you could make most of the WUF Monnow beats in just over the hour.

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“There is no more lovely country than Monmouthshire in early spring. Nowhere do the larks sing quite so passionately, as if somehow inspired by the Welsh themselves. There is a blackbird on every thorn and a cock chaffinch, a twink as they call him there, on every bush...... It moved me profoundly. I had been spared to see another spring, and I thank God for it.”

Oliver Kite
“A Spring Day on the Usk”
A Fisherman’s Diary

Hmm, with a handful of club memberships, it sounds like I could probably sort myself out with some decent fishing then. Shame none of it would be that close to home, but I suppose I'm rather spoilt in that respect at the moment.