Hi everyone,

this is my first post here so i'll quickly introduce myself, I've recently moved from devon to wales. I re-started fly-fishing last year after not having fished for about a decade (from early teens to late twenties), before that i fished a fair bit having been taught by my grandfather.

I've been looking at where i could fish close to where i'm living, the only places i can find close enough for after work excursions are small streams which i can't find any info on (despite hours of googling), apart from that there are trout in them. one is in national trust land, although its not designated as one of the NT fisheries on their website. Two run through non-descript woodland with footpaths, no private signs, no no fishing sides, and one (unfortunately the most promising) runs through private land and farm land.

What are peoples takes on getting permission to fish in these little streams? Obviously the one that runs through farmland, i'll have to try and find out about and ask the farmer (and maybe even the private land owners) very nicely and see what they say. I'm not sure whether just to fish the other ones and see what happens or else how i find out about possibilites of fishing them. I'm a bit worried to ask someone who'd never considered the streams being fished, have them say no, and spoil the fun of other people who have been discretely fishing them for ages! I'm not expecting to catch much (although I hope to be surprised), its more about the process for me.

Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. thanks!

p.s vagueness on location in case the streams are someones secret gems, coming from a surfing background the importance of secrecy is ingrained!!

Hi Ferral and welcome to the forums fella...

In my opinion, do the right thing and ask permission. Could save you a lot of bother in the long run.

Woz

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ask around , and if need be offer to make a token payment , and if its a farmer dont forget a bottle of something at christmas

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WHEN YOU LEAVE THE RIVER, TAKE NOTHING, AND LEAVE ONLY FOOTPRINT'S!!!

THA CAN TELL A YORKSHIREMAN ,BUT THA CAN'T TELL HIM MUCH !!

Visit the local pub, let it be known that you enjoy fishing. After a suitable number of excursions you'll have found out how to poach the streams - politely avoid invitations to participate - discover whether the fishing's good, who owns the water and be sure it was miles better twenty years ago.

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Musha rig um du rum da

If you are anywhere near The Wye or Usk you'll find that most of the streams are now under the control of the Wye and Usk Foundation as far as fishing permission goes.

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That wouldn't happen with a Pridex

cheers all,

to start i hope i wasnt coming across as wanting to poach, i just couldnt find info, but maybe i need to dig deeper!

I'm in swansea area and i've looked at the pontardawe and swansea angling soc, tawe and tributaries and pontardulais and district angling association but neither have the little streams i was interested in.

I'll just have to try and hunt out the landowners and see what they say.

WHat about the national trust in particular? does anyone have experience with asking them about fishing streams in their area that dont come under their current fishing lists?

cheers all,

to start i hope i wasnt coming across as wanting to poach, i just couldnt find info, but maybe i need to dig deeper!

I'm in swansea area and i've looked at the pontardawe and swansea angling soc, tawe and tributaries and pontardulais and district angling association but neither have the little streams i was interested in.

I'll just have to try and hunt out the landowners and see what they say.

WHat about the national trust in particular? does anyone have experience with asking them about fishing streams in their area that dont come under their current fishing lists?

Hi ferral, you certainly don't come accross as a poacher, no worries. Just preparing you for the average fishing discussion in a rural Welsh pub which does tend to focus on the less refined angling technique.

If you're in the Swansea area oldbull may well know the streams concerned, he's from the area, try sending him a personal message.

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Musha rig um du rum da

re access to National Trust owned streams. Track down the manager of the property via the National Trust local office and ask him. One response I had was 'never been asked and never thought anyone would want to fish it.... go ahead!'

Local tackle shops are generally a good place to start. You might ned to make a token purchase to get the conversation going a bit but there always my first port of call when looking for fishing in a new part of the world (apart from this wonderful forum of course!).

Good Luck

Andy

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GAIC Single Handed Casting Instructor

http://www.andygreyfishing.com/