Fly Fishing in Sussex

Most of the lakes sell tickets by the number of fish, and nearly all are fly only with no catch and release. Chalk Springs sits on old watercress beds on the edge of Arundel: £50 for 2 fish, £60 for 3 or £70 for 4, single fly, every fish kept. Brick Farm Lakes at Herstmonceux is four lakes totalling around 6 acres: £40, £48 or £55 for 2, 3 or 4 fish, with extra fish at £14. Lakedown at Burwash has four lakes and about 20 acres. Two fish is £40 as a half day in April, May, June, September and October, and 3, 4 or 5 fish is £50, £60 or £70. It is open Wednesday to Sunday. Chalybeate Springs is a lake of just over 2 acres in Eridge Park, near Tunbridge Wells: £35, £40 or £45 for 2, 3 or 4 fish, and brown trout go back.

Two are different. North Brook Fish Farm, at West Ashling outside Chichester, has one private fly lake with room for three rods. It is £25 a rod plus £2 for every pound of fish caught, with no bag limit, and booking ahead is essential, best done by telephone. At Duncton Mill, near Petworth, the lake open to non-members is Birch, sold as a quota: £55 for 3 fish or £80 for 5. A quota lasts six months, you come back until it is caught, and fishing is catch and take only.

For bigger water there are two reservoirs. Powdermill, 56 acres near Sedlescombe, is leased by Hastings Fly Fishers Club, which sells non-members £60 for 6 fish, £80 in peak season, or £40 for a half day and 3 fish. Boats are £10 a day, wild brown trout must be returned, and the club does not allow snakes, boobies or lures longer than 3 inches. Bewl Water, 800 acres on the Kent border near Lamberhurst, is bank fly only at £27.50 for catch and release, £32.50 for two trout or £37.50 for eight. A boat is booked on top, £32.50 for one person and £50 for two or three, and from a boat any method is allowed.

The Western Rother is the one river with a day ticket. Cowdray Estate sells about three miles near Midhurst at £45 from dawn till dusk, for brown trout, with a day ticket season of 3 April to 30 September. Downstream, Leconfield Fly Fishing Club has three miles near Petworth with wild brown trout and a run of sea trout, for members only, fly only, through the Estate Office. Petworth and Bognor Angling Club holds stretches from Coultershaw to Fittleworth. It is a coarse club first, but lists brown trout, grayling and sea trout, and membership is limited. Sea trout fishing needs the appropriate Environment Agency licence.

On the Sussex Ouse, Ouse Angling Preservation Society has about six miles from the Anchor Inn to the Hamsey Cut for sea trout, from 1 May to 31 October, all returned. The annual permit is £145 for ages 19 to 64, £115 from state pension age and £55 for ages 14 to 18, with a £25 administration fee if you do not already hold one. The Barcombe Mills pool is a further £20 a rod a day, booked in advance, for permit holders only. On the upper Medway and the Eridge Stream, Dorset Arms Angling Club has stretches at Hartfield and Withyham, with membership at £48 for adults, and Crowborough and District Anglers Association has about a mile of the Eridge Stream, where it asks for catch and release.

It suits an angler after a day on a stocked Sussex lake or a chance at a big sea trout, and one prepared to join a club for the rest.