Wild Fishing Britain

Discover 700 spectacular, secluded and affordable angling destinations in Britain’s first-ever comprehensive fishing guide. From tranquil rivers to wild, rugged coastlines, immerse yourself in the thrill of fishing for wild brown trout beneath Snowdon or casting for sea trout under the looming drama of Slioch. Find hidden gems, including free access to renowned chalk streams and the finest night-fishing.

Featuring dazzling photography, detailed maps and precise coordinates, this Wild Fishing guidebook offers vivid descriptions and insightful commentary, whether you’re a seasoned fly-fisher travelling to new waters or an armchair angler seeking inspiration.

New from the award-winning Wild Guide series, this pioneering book celebrates native species, breathtaking landscapes and locations that needn’t cost the earth, with a detour to some of our finest fishing inns along the way. Inside discover:

• The most scenic fishing spots in England, Scotland and Wales
• Remote lakes and lochs with stunning hiking trails
• Top spots for coarse fly-fishing
• Hidden waters for pike and wild carp

and also

• Wild rivers ideal for trotting enthusiasts
• Britain’s best fishing inns for refreshment and tall tales
• Urban wild fishing in the heart of Britain’s bustling towns
• Untamed rugged beaches and sea-fishing classics

Kevin Adams is a lifelong angler and outdoorsman and has been exploring Britain’s waterways for 20 years. A former publisher he launched one of the first-ever fishing apps. Jill Adams is an art director and photographer, an avid wild swimmer and walker.

What is Wild Fishing

A pike! It must have been a pike. On my third ever cast as a young boy, I was reeling in a worm when something exploded around my feet – the violent surge of the attack flooding my wellingtons with river water. Sitting on the bank by the Old Bridge in Hereford, emptying my boots and lamenting the loss of my tackle, my angling journey began. It eventually took me to America, where you can roam the vast country and fish almost anywhere with just a local fishing licence. That scale of freedom doesn’t exist here in the UK, and this book sets to redress that in part.

We define Wild Fishing as fishing for native species in beautiful, remote surroundings. Many of these spots are free or at least very inexpensive. With growing ecological awareness there is increasing resistance to the costly practice of stocking rivers with fish. It’s surely far better to fish for non-invasive species. Stocking started about 200 years ago when rainbow trout were shipped over from the US, but we suggest that apart from in limited areas around the Home Counties, this practice should stop.

Catch-and-release fishing once seemed a ridiculous practice – Why catch a fish and let it go? Now, firmly established among game anglers, it’s widely accepted that a game fish is far too valuable to be caught only once. As Lee Wulff said, “The finest gift you can give to any fisherman is to put a good fish back, and who knows if the fish that you caught isn’t someone else’s gift to you?” Of course, coarse anglers have long practised catch-and-release, leading the way for their game-fishing counterparts.

Many skilled game anglers, accustomed to fishing for stocked trout on manicured banks, are now seeking out wild fishing at much more reasonable prices. It may involve harder work and smaller returns, but the satisfaction is far greater.

Wild Fishing doesn’t just mean trout. The Lady of the Stream, the grayling, once dismissed as a nuisance during trout fishing, is now rapidly gaining in popularity with anglers keen to target a fish that actually belongs in our native rivers. The grayling is also becoming a ‘gateway fish’: inspiring many to ask: why limit ourselves to just grayling on a fly? What about chub, carp, roach, and, of course, pike? A pike is surely one of the most exciting fish to have on the other end of your rod.

In the past, all caught pike were killed to preserve precious game stocks, but no longer. Pike in clear waters are just as visually exciting to fish for as any brown trout. Cast your fly past a bed of reeds and watch as a pike ambushes it with a swirl and a splash. The entire tranquillity of the river is shattered as the battle begins.

The River Wye is one of the UK’s premier coarse fishing rivers, though it was once famous for its salmon. My uncle told me that in the 1970s, his beat on the Wye earned more income from salmon than his entire farm. Those days are long gone, but other opportunities are rising. Barbel fishing is fast becoming popular and why not? It’s a beautiful fish that responds well to a fly and fights as hard as any salmon.

There’s a noticeable shift among anglers away from landscaped riverbanks and expensive fishing enclaves stocked with non-native, overgrown species. This practice is starting to feel outmoded, ecologically ignorant and wasteful in its extravagance. In our new dynamic landscape, Wild Fishing is emerging as a testament to the angling community’s awakening awareness about the need to conserve, protect, and restore our aquatic ecosystems.

These wild, natural species can be fished for without the excessive environmental and financial burden that stocked fish and landscaped riverbanks entail. We hope our book, which showcases 700 native fishing spots in the UK, will help promote this new approach to an ancient pastime.

We’re aiming to not only share these favourite spots, but also hopefully inspire a shift towards a modern way of fishing that reflects how we can live today. We hope it serves as a helpful guide, encouraging you to explore our wildernesses – carpe diem (and no, that doesn’t mean
‘fish of the day’).

Kevin Adams