Briantspuddle Beat

Briantspuddle Beat runs for about 1 mile of the River Piddle, two miles downstream of Tolpuddle, where the river gathers a little more size. It's a long, attractive beat and a favourite with the regular rods, running through and around water meadows whose old hatches and sluices are still visible along this stretch, in Dorset.

A Wild Trout Trust advisory visit in April 2022 found the beat showing the classic character of a chalk stream in good health: an intact gravel bed, good gradient, and beds of water crowfoot over clean gravel substrate. A thick marginal fringe lines both banks, and a mosaic of riparian trees, mostly ash, casts dappled shade across the water. Parts of the reach were straightened historically and lack sinuosity as a result, but a deep pool below a set of hatches holds some of the beat's largest fish, and long, shallow gravel runs are where salmon have been known to cut redds.

Brown Trout, Grayling make up the fishing here, mostly wild with a few stocked trout, and the same April grannom hatch as the rest of the river. Fishing is lightly keepered and strictly catch and release, ten fish a day maximum, barbless hooks or barbs pinched down. Day tickets start from £60 during the main season.