Chalkstream Fly Fishing in Dorset

Fishing Breaks offer the widest selection of the very best chalk stream brown trout dry fly & nymph fishing in the county of Dorset.

Our rivers | Your guide | Places to stay | Fishing advice & flies | Maps

Thomas Hardy made Dorset his own where the two main rivers of the county interweave through the pages of his Wessex novels, with Tess of the D’Urbervilles buried on the banks of the Frome.

The Frome & the Piddle are remarkable success stories in the preservation of our chalkstreams. A small group of locals were at the forefront of the drive to protect & improve trout streams more than two decades ago, so that we are now at the point where the entire Piddle system is an all wild, catch & release river.

It is a great county to fish & visit, with the amazing Jurassic Coast, mighty Iron Age castles, chocolate box villages like Shaftesbury and Corfe Castle and the boastful Cerne Abbas Giant.

Our rivers

		River Allen Wimborne St Giles Truly the most peaceful fishing you’ll ever find.
		River Frome Wrackleford The best managed fishing on the whole of the Frome.
		River Piddle Bere Regis This is the ultimate wild trout river; amazing fly hatches.

Your fishing guide - Tony King

Tony divides his time between his river keeping work, guiding and taking his boat out along the Dorset coast for sea bass on the fly.

“On my rivers you fish the water, rather than the fish which are often devilishly hard to spot. The best method is to get below a run between the weed & work the water with delicately presented dries, on the lightest of tippets. That said, when the hatches come on (we have a fantastic Grannom hatch in April) the river boils & it is just a case of getting the right fly in the right place for a bumper day.”

If you want more advice from Tony, email him at tony@fishingbreaks.com. All diary & booking enquiries should be made direct to Fishing Breaks.

NB Like our other Guides, Tony is out on the river all day during the height of the season, so sometimes he doesn’t get to check his emails as often as he would like.

Places to stay and visit

Top luxury hotel & spa: Summer Lodge, Evershot

Top country pub: Brace of Pheasants, Plush

Top gastro pub: Museum Inn, Farnham

Top place to visit: Lulworth Cove & Jurassic Coast

Top place to rent: Wrackleford Estate Shooting Box

> View the full Fishing Breaks accommodation guide

Fishing advice & flies

Dorset opens first of all the chalkstreams on April 1st, with some cracking early season fishing and a good Mayfly from mid-May.

Top Dorest flies:

April Grannom  (16)		May French Partridge (10)		June Black Gnat (16) GRHE (16-18)
July Elk Hair Caddis (14) PTN (16-18)		August Light Hendrikson (16-18)		September Pale Water Spinner (16)

Recommended outfit: 7.5-8.5ft rod, of 3-5wt. Floating line. Tippet to 2lb/6x. All flies barbless or de barbed. Waders are required at Bere Regis. Useful, but not essential at Wimborne St. Giles & Wrackleford.

Maps

Click to enlarge.

County map		County overview

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