Sounds like a great place ! Put up some pictures ! I want to fish trout on the rivers in the UK. Grandpa was from Scotland and i will visit one day and i would not miss wetting a line there ! I do love to fly fish, been at it many years and i believe its a genetic thing. haha ! Some of you should try this area out one day. They say it is what Montana was before it was "discovered". You could go a long while before meeting another man with a rod. I really like looking at pictures of your area's, i am amazed at the size of some of the fish i see ! Some of the Browns i see, the colors are nothing short of spectacular. The only thing i have a hard time getting my head around is actually paying to fish. How Can anybody possibly own water or the fish in it ? Don't want to ruffle any feathers but it just does not seem fair or just. I think someone screwed up bad long, long ago.

Think again! In such a crowded country as ours if waters were not owned and preserved then they would all be ruined. There would be hardly any trout but I suppose there would be hardly any anglers either in the end, as there would be no point in going fishing. Make the most of what you now have because, if your population of anglers grows, your waters will also be ruined unless someone takes ownership of them and puts the work in to protect them.

richard

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Who resides on the right bank of the Derbyshire Wye and is lulled to sleep each night by the mutterings of a weir, dreaming that "When the rivers and their inhabitants come first, we ALL win..."

The best advice I can offer is to set as your main target, finding a river that you can fish regularily - any half decent river will keep you busy for at least three seasons and maybe many more as you learn the basics of river fishing.
Preferably a river that does not restrict the use of methods.

Before you start listening to advice on drag free drifts, moving dries, french nymphing, nymphing, fishing wets, spiders, softhackles, emergers, etcc... start at the basics.

Trout eat food, and imitating that food will in the long term give you more success than fishing arbitrary flies and methods. Find out what fly life exists on your chosen river. Find out when the hatches are likely to occur. Find out how the trout react to the various hatches. A lot of research on the internet will provide a lot of information on this.

This excerpt is from a very old book and the advice contained is as good as it gets - any angler that follows this advice will save themselves years of pissing around.

From Cutliffes, Trout Fishing on Rapid Streams - book available at www. archive.org


From the habits of fish in small and rapid streams will we deduce our principles for founding our ideas of fishing these streams, and the more fully we comprehend this portion of our subject the more correct will our reasonings be, and the more fruitful our labours prove.---Let us endeavour then early to form sound and correct opinions of our subject; let us not be guided or governed by the dogmatical statements of one person or another, as to what method is most suitable to our field of operations, let us not be biased or limited in our attempts by the authoritative and often too positive assertions of others, but rather having formed our own notions on correct and just grounds, let us bring them early into practice and strive to steer a course as free and independent as the right knowledge of a subject demands; we shall then be better able to judge of what others say, to refute their errors, and profit by their experience and statements when they have been justly and reasonably considered.

another that is worth a read

American trout-stream insects : a guide to angling flies and other aquatic insects alluring to trout : Rhead, Louis, 1857-1926 : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

Next bit is doing some general reading on where trout can be found

Reading Rivers, Tracing Trout

Reading the Water | MidCurrent


Find an angler or several anglers on your chosen river that will spend a few hours with you - BUT do not accept anything he says as being FACT. Facts only are fact when you have proved them so for yourself. If you blindly accept what everyone says then you will spend many frustrating seasons, for in my experiece at least 60% of river anglers really do not have a clue and less than 5% really know their craft. The biggest difficulty is differentiating b..sh.it from reasonable advice.

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An la ag iascaireacht is an la go brea.

Hi Dougie

I fish Rivers and Small streams almost exclusively and I'm in the opposite boat to you trying to catch more on stillwaters, I actually find rivers alot easier than stillwaters but I suppose thats to do with more experience on rivers than on stillwaters.

The Number 1 element to succesful river trout fishing is firstly find the trout..!!!!

There are a number of good threads on this forum regarding reading rivers and where trout are to be found and they will stand you in good stead

for tackle wise

you wont go far wrong with a 5wt 8'6" - 9' Outfit with a floating line

I carry a large number of flies for my river fishing but I find Parachute style flies/klinkhammers will always produce..!!!!

also carry some weighted nymphs/bugs for fishing the deep pools.

add in some floatant/line degreasant/forceps and good polarised glasses and you will have a decent days fishing...!!!

The Wye and Usk Passport as some have already said provides some great fishing opportunities (Only wish I lived closer to make the most of it) go to their website and order the free guidebook..!!!

On a side note I hardly ever use a tapered leader of any kind and will often use a single strand of mono 6-9' in length, I find casting on small - medium streams rarely give you a chance to perfectly overhead cast and side casts/bow and arrow casts are more the norm couple this with the constant threat of of tangles in trees and bushes on small streams and tapered leaders becomes an expensive option...just my opinion..!!!!

Best Wishes

Thanks Otter and TheSaintlyone

Dougie