Hi, Jamie here at the Wilde Trout Journal. Thank you very much for tuning in. This is a brand new podcast hosted by me, Jamie Pankhurst.
And as you’re about to find out, I’ve got absolutely no idea what I’m doing. So, you’re in good hands. Thanks very much for joining us.
Strap in, welcome aboard. And let’s see how long I can keep you on the hook. So you can probably hear the river in the background.
This is the Burbling Bourne Rivulet. And I am at Hurstbourne Tarrant, which is one of those beautiful chocolate box Hampshire villages here in the North Wessex Downs.
It’s one of those quintessential English storybook places with red brick thatched cottages and a towering church spire that overlooks the valley. So that should put you more or less where I’m stood. It really is a very special looking place.
And the river here, as I’ve said, is that famous tributary to the River Test. It flows all the way from Hurstbourne Tarrant through St. Marybourne and Hurstbourne Priors, equally beautiful villages in their own right.
And it spills out into the test between Tufton and Long Parish.
And it’s not that many miles downstream from where I’m stood that the great author Harry Plunkett Green would once have cast his fly when he was writing Where the Bright Waters Meet, which is, of course, a very apt description of the river today.
The river is indeed flowing fast and full and clear, and those gravels are bright and clean, and the sun is glistening off them, and it just looks absolutely magical. Finally, some spring weather has arrived here, and the sun is beaming down on us.
It really feels warm. There’s not a cloud in the sky, and everything’s starting to look a bit greener. There’s green in the hedgerows.
The black thorn is blossoming. The daffodils are checkering the roadside, and it’s really starting to look very colourful. So it’s really filling me with enthusiasm for the season ahead.
I really want this podcast to be much more than just who I am and what I do and why I do it, but just to give you an idea.
My name is Jamie Hayes-Pankhurst, and I’m a fishing guide on the Hampshire Chalkstreams, River Itching, River Test, of course, but also the little known gems of Wiltshire and Dorset as well. And so I’ve got one of those jobs that isn’t really a job.
I’m very fortunate to be able to take people from all over the world out onto the rivers to enjoy these amazing places.
And one of the things that always amazes me, it’s a question I always ask when I’m with a client, is what’s your fly fishing destination 101? You know, where would you go if you could only pick one place in the world?
And a lot of these people come from places like the United States, Canada, Alaska, New Zealand, Norway, Denmark, all these places that we as Brits would look out on and think these are the bucket list locations to wet a fly.
But actually the people that live out there, I’ve guided them and I think many of the other local guides in the area would agree, all these people want to do is visit Hampshire and our very own Chalk Rivers right under our noses are some of the most
highly revered prestigious waters anywhere in the world. So we’re so lucky to have these right on our doorstep. So that’s a bit about what I do, guiding, river keeping, fishing agency work here in Hampshire and across the southern Chalk Rivers.
But more than that, I’d like this podcast to be about everybody, the community of fly fisherman and fly fisher woman that are out there in the UK and beyond.
I’d like it to be somewhere where we can invite some brilliant guests to talk about all the brilliant work that they do for the rivers in the area across England, Wales, Scotland and beyond.
And of course, ask some of the big questions that we all want the answers to. So that’s my sort of aspiration for this podcast. I’d like it to be something of a platform for, or a voice rather, for fly fishing and the wider fly fishing community.
So welcome to the Wilde Trout Journal. This is going to be a bit of a kind of a short introduction to what this podcast might look like in the next few weeks and months. Do please subscribe if you get a moment.
I think you’d have to hit the bell notification icon, and it means that our analytics look a little bit better, but we might show a little bit higher up in your feed so you can find us that little bit easier when we release a new episode.
We’re hoping to release new episodes once every week. I know that’s quite ambitious, but we’re thinking maybe keep them quite short, quite dynamic. We’d like to be able to join people in session on the river, get down in the waders.
I’ve got these clever little microphones that clip onto your chest pack so you can actually talk while you’re walking along. It’s what I’m recording this on now.
So we’re hoping to kind of have some really dynamic podcasts with lots of different people in lots of different places around the country and just kind of really make it a relaxed, chilled out, kind of talkative place where we can record some really
interesting conversations. And so that’s what this podcast is going to be about. If you’re listening to us in the car, at work, at home, you can download the podcasts from all the usual places, Apple Podcast app, Spotify, those sorts of things.
And you should be able to access us on the move, offline, once you’ve downloaded them.
So if you’ve got any ideas for who you’d like us to interview on the podcast, or anybody in particular you’d really like to hear from, or perhaps there’s somebody that you know very well who you feel would be a good voice for us to have on board,
then do let us know and we would be absolutely delighted to have a chat and see if we can do something. So thanks very much for listening. That’s all we’ve got time for today.
The next episode will be out next Friday and every Friday thereafter, so look out for those. Don’t forget to hit the bell icon if you can. It would be really useful.
It helps us keep track of where we are and how many people are listening. And I’m looking forward to the next episode. Thanks very much for tuning in and I’ll speak to you next time.
