CHALKSTREAM FISHING – 5 BEATS TO VISIT THIS SUMMER

, It’s a unique skill. It requires casting perfection – your leader must land like gossamer on the water’s surface – and fly presentation has to be impeccable. One mistake and it’s game over. It requires stealth, on hands and knees if necessary. And an encyclopaedic knowledge of palaeopteras is a plus for when match the hatch tactics are the riddle of the river.

But, without getting too bogged down in the nitty-gritty of this artistry, a day spent on a chalkstream is a day truly well spent – gin clear waters, and an abundance of the most enticing flora and fauna in every which direction. And that moment a wily trout flicks its tail and rises towards your dry fly: unbeatable. You can’t fathom the buzz until witnessing it first hand. Here are five of the best places at which to take the delicate plunge this summer…

WHERWELL PRIORY – RIVER TEST, HAMPSHIRE, Get that feel for owning your own private country estate with the grand house and the stunning river running through it.

WIMBORNE ST GILES – RIVER ALLEN, DORSET, Unspoilt and unchanging, this gem of a Wessex river is the epitome of wild trout fishing where the only disturbance is a ruminating cow staring over the fence.

MOTTISFONT ABBEY – RIVER TEST, HAMPSHIRE, Fish the historic Oakley beat: the home of fly fishing. Casting a fly on this beat is the equivalent to getting a game on Wimbledon’s centre court.

MULBERRY WHIN – DRIFFIELD BECK, YORKSHIRE, The most northerly chalkstream on the planet and every bit as good as its southern counterparts, often described at the ‘Itchen of the North’.

NETHER WALLOP MILL – STOCKBRIDGE, HAMPSHIRE, On the banks of the burbling Wallop Brook with a trout lake stacked with fish, this is a fantastic place to learn how to fly fish.

Contact Simon Cooper at www.fishingbreaks.co.uk