River Frome, Dorset, England
April 17, 2000
Ed Kelleher from Pacific Grove , Ca

General Comments
Shortly before going to England on business, I discovered that I would have two Saturdays and a Sunday off. I posted a request for info about FF in the South of England on the VFS International Board, and the VFS Main BB. I got one posted response from Maestro, pointing me to Fishing The Breaks, a guide and beat outfit that has beats on many of the major chalk streams in Southwest England, including the Test and the Itchen. The other reply was an e-mail, offering to put me in touch with a member of a private fishing club in the Southwest of England. Both of those contacts worked out. My hosts were gracious in the extreme, and the fishing reports follow.

Recall that in England essentially all river water (at least) is private, and buying a fishing license does not give you a right to fish. It even says so on the license. Someone owns the fishing rights, and you must have their permission to fish the water.

The first trip was on Sunday, 2 April, on the Maiden Newton beat of the River Frome, just northwest of Dorchester (England, not Mass). The Frome is a classic chalk stream, running through wet meadows, with barbed wire fences to keep the cows off most of the bank.

Saturday the 1st was opening day on that river. My guide was Simon Ward, a river keeper, author, and as patient a guide as I have ever had the good luck to fish with. The weather was cool, pretty cloudy, and occasionally spitting rain. We arrived at the stream about 10:30, in a little mist of rain, and there were BWO on the water, and trout rising. I rigged up, and started with a size 16 standard BWO. Those fish were fussy. If the fly did not drift within two or three inches of where the fish was lying, they just ignored it. If the fish wasn’t rising, he just ignored the fly. The barbed wire fence never missed a chance to grab the fly.

My casting simply was not up to the requirements, so we spent a couple of hours working on that. I did manage to raise about half a dozen fish before the day was done, and hook three, but landed none. I had three firsts that day: First time to fish an English chalk stream; First time to fish the same physical fly all day (that same 16 BWO, the fish loved it); and the First time I have gone out with a guide and gotten skunked. Let’s be clear about that part - that was all my shortcomings, not Simon’s.

At least twice, when I had finally gotten a fish to rise to the BWO, and missed, Simon observed that that sure was a pretty good fly. (not stated: especially compared to the caster) I recommend him and that beat without reservation.

The second weekend, I had the opportunity to fish the River Frome again, this time on the waters of the Dorchester Fishing Club through the good auspices of the Honorary Secretary, Mr John Grindle. The Dorchester Fishing Club has been in existence since 1877, with mostly the same beats, and same rules.

One fly, upstream, dry or nymph. Period. Other rules followed. When John and I got to the stream there was a grannom hatch in progress (sure looked like caddis to me). We geared up, each with our own caddis imitation - both # 16. Mine was a standard elk hair caddis, John’s was a little fancier - had an interesting ‘puff’ of light olive antron like stuff under the wing, but no palmered hackle. I think the fish were a little less fussy that day, because I caught two browns, one about eleven inches, one about nine inches in the first hour. Then the hatch sort of petered out, although we had little bursts off and on throughout the day. John also caught two fish - he had several others on, but I think he was shaking them off his line to keep me from feeling bad.

He was a most genial host, and when he next comes to the States, he has a place to stay. He even brought along a lunch for two, with sandwiches, hot coffee(!!), potato chips (crisps), cake and fruit. We spent a lot of time just walking the river, looking for rising fish, and taking turns casting to them.

We met several other members, including the River Keeper, John Aplin, Rod Crane, just back from fishing new Zealand, the Chairman of the Club, and a few others. All were most cordial. Rod described a recent catch of a seventeen and a half inch brown that he had been pursuing for several years, and had finally landed.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable day. We parted at about 3:30, because John had guests coming for dinner (another member of the club, whom I also met).

I am hard put to describe how welcome both John and Simon made me feel. I would go back in a minute, hopefully after improving my casting an order of magnitude or two.

The Dorchester Fishing Club does sell day tickets for their water, pretty reasonable. A day ticket gives you permission to fish the Club water for one day. I think the cost is twenty pounds ($32.00 roughly), although available only on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, according to the rules. John the river keeper also runs a Fly Shop in Dorchester and is (I believe) the approved source of day tickets. The revenue is used to improve the habitat. 

Thanks for a great time, Maestro, Pat, John and Simon. 
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