County guide · Chalk streams
Fly Fishing in Yorkshire
47 bookable beats 8 rivers 11 fisheries Day rod £11–£145
Source: Bolton Abbey Estate
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37 beats sell day tickets
You can book a day rod without joining a club or syndicate.
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A typical day is £15
From £11 to £145, across 21 beats with published day rates.
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Trout season 25 Mar – 30 Sep
Each beat sets its own dates, and every listing carries them.
About fly fishing in Yorkshire
Fly fishing in Yorkshire on FishingBeats, at least on what's currently bookable, comes down to one river and one beat: Driffield Beck, over in the East Riding, about as far from the Dales as you can get and still call yourself Yorkshire water. The county's reputation is built on rain-fed freestone rivers, the Wharfe, Ure, Swale and Nidd chief among them, and on the soft-hackled wet flies of the North Country spider tradition set down in T E Pritt's Yorkshire Trout Flies back in 1885. Driffield Beck has nothing to do with any of that. It's a chalk stream, and a genuine one, rising off the Wolds chalk at the eastern edge of a county otherwise known for entirely different water.
It rises as a spring at Elmswell, in the foothills of the Yorkshire Wolds, and runs a shade over ten miles before it's done, changing its name as it goes: Elmswell Beck first, then Driffield Beck through the town itself, then West Beck below Driffield, before it joins the Driffield Navigation at Emmotland and becomes the River Hull. Natural England's citation for the River Hull Headwaters SSSI calls it the most northerly chalk stream system in Britain, and it has the pedigree to match the description: The Field was praising it as far back as 1870, and J W Hills, who wrote A Summer on the Test, thought the Beck very like the Itchen. It even has its own fly, the Driffield Dun, which looks not unlike a Greenwell's Glory.
One thing worth packing around: there's no mayfly hatch here, whatever your instincts say about chalk streams in early summer. What these becks are known for instead is the hawthorn, which comes off in late April and into May, and the local answer through the rest of the season is small flies, fished delicately, sometimes down to a size 26. Trout run April to September, with grayling picking up through the winter.
The one beat currently listed is Mulberry Whin, at Skerne, let by Fishing Breaks since 2012 on water that's been farmed by the same family since 1940 and is now into its fourth generation. It's over a mile of double bank split into five beats, and you choose which to fish on arrival; wading is an option on Beats 4 and 5 only. Fishing is for wild brown trout and grayling, topped up with Yorkshire-reared browns over 3lb, on a ticket that runs one to five rods, no dogs, with a take-home limit of two fish rather than catch-and-release. Day rods are £95 in April, £145 from May to the end of June, and £100 from July to the end of September.
November on the water
Grayling proper
Trout fishing is finished and the winter fishery has started. Grayling are wild fish here, never stocked, and they feed well through the cold. Prices drop sharply once the trout season closes.
- Season
- Both seasons closed
- Typical day rod
- £15
- from 16 priced beats
Four ways into Yorkshire
Most people arrive here with one of these four questions. Pick the one that sounds like yours.
Where to fly fish in Yorkshire
Every beat and fishery we list in the county, plotted against the boundary. Click a river to read what that stretch is like.
Fly fishing rivers in Yorkshire
Every river we list in Yorkshire, busiest first.
What a day actually costs in Yorkshire
Compare with other riversTypical, lowest and highest full-day rod, from 21 beats with published day rates. Half-day and evening tickets are left out rather than doubled up.
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A full day in Yorkshire is cheapest in April at around £14 and dearest in January at around £15, with rates across the year running from £11 to £145.
| Month | Cheapest | Typical | Dearest | Beats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | £11 | £15 | £80 | 16 |
| February | £11 | £15 | £80 | 16 |
| March | £11 | £15 | £80 | 20 |
| April | £11 | £14 | £95 | 16 |
| May | £11 | £14 | £145 | 16 |
| June | £11 | £15 | £145 | 21 |
| July | £11 | £15 | £100 | 21 |
| August | £11 | £15 | £100 | 21 |
| September | £11 | £15 | £100 | 21 |
| October | £11 | £15 | £80 | 16 |
| November | £11 | £15 | £80 | 16 |
| December | £11 | £15 | £80 | 16 |
Day ticket fly fishing in Yorkshire
Browse all 47 beatsDay tickets and permits on Yorkshire's rivers. Each listing includes pricing, species, and booking details.
River Wharfe
Barden
On enquiry
River Wharfe
Beamsley
£80 per rod
River Wharfe
Bolton Bridge
£80 per rod
River Wharfe
Cavendish
£80 per rod
River Wharfe
Priory
£80 per rod
River Wharfe
Strid
£80 per rod
Driffield Beck
Mulberry Whin
£95 per rod 1–5 rods
River Tees
High Coniscliffe
On enquiry 3 rods
River Swale
Marske Waters
£12.50 per rod
River Swale
Round Howe and Green Bridge
£12.50 per rod
Washburn Valley Fishery
Thruscross Reservoir
£25 per rod
Fish species in Yorkshire
What the beats above hold, and where else in England you can fish for the same species.
Three different kinds of operator, and most visitors want the first. A fishery or estate owns the water and sells you a day on it. A club or syndicate holds water for its members, sometimes with day tickets alongside. A guide or agent sells days on water somebody else owns, and often comes with you.
Fisheries and estate waters in Yorkshire
Fishery operators taking bookings on Yorkshire's rivers. Each listing covers tickets, accommodation, and equipment hire where available.
River Wharfe
Bolton Abbey Estate Fishing
£80 per rod 6 beats
Kilnsey Park Fly Fishery
from £23 per half day 1 beat
Helwith Bridge Fly Fishery
from £15 per evening 1 beat
Low Osgoodby Grange Fly Fishing
from £15 per half day 1 beat
North Yorkshire Water Park Fisheries
from £16 per half day 1 beat
Malham Tarn Fishery
£25 per rod 1 beat
Maran Lakes
from £15 per half day 1 beat
The Coniston Fishery
from £20 per half day 1 beat
Washburn Valley Fishery
£25 per rod 3 beats
Leighton Fly Fishing
On enquiry 1 beat
River Ure
Swinton Estate
On enquiry 2 beats
Clubs and syndicates in Yorkshire
Membership bodies holding water in Yorkshire. Some sell day tickets alongside membership, others are members-only, and a few run a waiting list.
Club · County Durham, Yorkshire
Darlington Anglers Club
£15–£80/yr 6 stretches
Club · Yorkshire
Nidderdale Angling Club
£95/yr 9 stretches
Club · Yorkshire
Richmond & District Angling Society
On request 6 stretches
Association · Yorkshire
Addingham Angling Association
On request 1 stretch
Club · Yorkshire
Barnsley Trout Club
On request 1 stretch
Association · Yorkshire
Hawes and High Abbotside Angling Association
On request 1 stretch
Association · Yorkshire
Ilkley Angling Association
£25–£72/yr 2 stretches
Club · Yorkshire
Kilnsey Angling Club
£600/yr 2 stretches
Club · Yorkshire
Skipton Angling Association
On request 1 stretch
Fly fishing guides and booking agents in Yorkshire
Agents selling day tickets and guides running days on Yorkshire's beats.
Finding fly fishing near you in Yorkshire
The map above plots Yorkshire's beats and fisheries against the county boundary, so you can see roughly how far a stretch is rather than just its name on a list. Tap a marker for a quick read on price and species before you go further. If you're weighing this county against somewhere else, or want to see every day-ticket beat in the country at once, the full beat map covers all of them.
A day ticket is usually a half day or a full day on the water, so it's worth weighing the drive against how much fishing you'll actually get out of it. A longer trip makes more sense for a full day than for two or three hours in the afternoon.
For scale, the River Wharfe rises near Beckermonds, Langstrothdale, where Greenfield Beck meets Oughtershaw Beck, Yorkshire Dales, and the River Nidd rises near Nidd Head Spring on the slopes of Great Whernside, Nidderdale. Beats sit further downstream from there, not at the source itself. The map above is the more exact guide to which stretch is closest to you.
Fly fishing lessons and tuition in Yorkshire
FishingBeats doesn't list fly fishing schools or dedicated instructors: the agents and guides above are the ones selling day tickets and guided days on Yorkshire's beats. Some may be willing to teach alongside a day out even where it isn't sold as a separate product, so it's worth asking rather than assuming either way. That's a different thing from starting from scratch, though: a guided day generally assumes you can already cast, where a lesson teaches the cast itself, and most UK fly fishing lessons for that begin on a stillwater rather than a river. How tuition, guided days and courses fit together is covered on the agents page. Once you can put a fly out, easy beats rated for a first visit or beats where you can arrange a ghillie are a reasonable next step, and a few beginner-friendly beats to start on is worth reading before you book.
FAQ
Yorkshire fly fishing FAQs
The questions people ask before booking a day in Yorkshire, answered from what we actually list.
01Is all the fly fishing in Yorkshire private?
02What does a day's fly fishing cost in Yorkshire?
03When is the fly fishing season in Yorkshire?
04Which Yorkshire river should I fish first?
05Do I need a rod licence to fish in Yorkshire?
Worth a read
Fly fishing in other counties
Nearest first, measured from where Yorkshire's fishing actually is rather than from the county town.
£15 typical day
Day rods from £11 to £145
