Devon
Barnstaple & District Angling Association
Membership £15–£50/yr. It controls 1 stretch of fishing.
About Barnstaple & District Angling Association
The Barnstaple and District Angling Association holds the first beat on the River Taw, which matters more than it sounds: every salmon and sea trout running the system passes through the association’s water before anyone upstream sees them. Large tides push fresh fish in through the season, and the nine holding pools on the Newbridge beat have produced salmon to 20lb in recent years, with the bigger sea trout running earlier.
It is also a good wild brown trout fishery when the water is low, on dry fly and nymph, which is the part most visitors overlook. The beat sits about three miles from Barnstaple on the A377, and the river is patrolled and protected by the Environment Agency.
Membership is genuinely cheap for game fishing of this kind, £50 a year for adults and £15 for juniors under 17, bought online, with no waiting list. The association also holds coarse fishing at Aller Lake near South Molton, and sells its members day tickets on subsidised private beats on the Upper Taw, the Lower Torridge and the Blackpool beat on the River Exe.
How fishing here works
Anyone can join. There is no waiting list, and membership is usually bought straight from the club.
Membership and waiting list
Membership
Membership £15–£50/yr
Waiting list
No waiting list. Adult membership is £50 a year and junior membership, for anglers under 17 on 1 January, is £15. The subscription runs the calendar year and still ends on 31 December whenever you join, so joining late in the season buys less than a full year. Applications and payment are online only, and membership is at the committee’s discretion. Every member needs a current Environment Agency rod licence. Members can also buy day tickets on subsidised private beats on the Upper Taw, the Lower Torridge and the Blackpool beat on the Exe.
Counties covered
Contact
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