Wilton Fly Fishing Club Water

Just over seven miles of the River Wylye, held by a club of no more than forty five members, and wild from end to end. There are no stocked fish here at all. The club is clear about the trade it is making: this is not mown banks and obliging stock fish, it is wild brown trout and grayling that have to be found, and that is what keeps members for thirty years and more.

Fishing is upstream with dry fly, emerger or nymph on barbless hooks, and the club treats that as a matter of tradition rather than a rule to be argued with. Members wade in chest waders as standard. The wading itself is easy enough, with few deep areas, but the fishing asks for stealth and reasonable casting. Most members take a few good trout on a visit, and many rate the grayling just as highly, which this river supports very well.

Mayflies carry on working into July, particularly in the evenings, but the day-to-day work falls to small olives, black midges, emergers, sedges in a range of sizes and weighted or bead-head nymphs to get down the water column. Fly boxes run from size 10 down to size 20 flying ants and gnats. The club employs a full-time river keeper and manages the habitat with a light touch, and it publishes reach notes to members each season. It does not publish its reach boundaries publicly, so the position shown here is approximate.