I love fishing chalkstreams and have had a few memorable (and sometimes expensive) days on them. I've fished beats on the Kennet, Lambourn, Coln, Test, Itchen, Wilts. Avon, Wylye, Anton, Dever and Bourne. (OK they're not all classic chalkstreams but you get my drift).
My first chalk stream day was in 1973 on the Itchen for wild browns and then a couple of years later I was happy to catch stockie browns on the Test at Longparish. It was the Test, it was dry fly and the experience of being on its hallowed banks was more important than the provenance of the trout.
Then I fished the Test at Bossington and Testwood and was catching browns but also some rainbows that I was less happy about but they were big and in some cases took some deceiving so not all bad.
My eyes were finally opened at Denford on the Kennet where the typical catch was a 1lb 8oz stockie rainbow with ragged fins and I realised that I could get better rainbows for far less money on virtually any good small stillwater or reservoir. On my last day there I ignored the rainbows and concentrated on trying to find the browns amongst the far more numerous rainbows but realised that it was a parody of chalkstream fishing despite the lovely surroundings.
I had some truly lovely days, including a day on the famous Sawyer/Kite water at Netheravon, which I had to myself, and other memorable Avon days at Salterton and Chisenbury.
Even the stocked browns started to disappoint and things came to a head with the capture of a 25" brown (stockie) at Wherwell that, despite being my largest trout to dry fly, was a very poor fish and instead of being delighted I found myself quite unimpressed.
All these issues eventually put me off many chalkstream beats and now I'm hopefully a bit more mature in my expectations I still love the chalkstreams but value the unstocked beats and look for the fish in the most difficult lies as these days a 14" WBT that required a good cast and presentation means far more to me than any big stockie.
In truth the market for chalkstream fishing is more geared to anglers with bigger wallets than fishing ability, and to get return visits the anglers need to massage their egos with big trout, that are not too challenging to catch. This wallet over fishing ability scenario is also true of many salmon beats.
However, I don't mind manicured banks and at my age a few seats and a comfortable hut make a pleasant day better.
