Jamie Hayes-Pankhurst | Founder & Managing Director
Wilde Trout is a fly fishing travel and guiding specialist based in Hampshire, providing private and exclusive chalkstream fly fishing experiences to our guests from all around the world.
When you book with Wilde Trout, you will experience some of the finest chalkstreams in England, including the legendary River Test and the charming fly fishing village of Stockbridge at the the beating heart of quintessential rural Hampshire.
You can come accompanied by a friendly, knowledgeable and fully qualified fishing guide, equipped with expert local knowledge and all the tackle, equipment, and flies required to make the most of your chalkstream fly fishing adventure. No more snapped fly rods in the luggage hold, if you are travelling from overseas, or perhaps you just can’t bring your own equipment with you, you can hire one of our bespoke chalkstream tackle packs with all the essentials to get fly fishing on the chalkstreams.
And if you are planning on staying locally, we are curating a good food and accommodation guide, the Fork and Feather, with all the best country pubs and hotels to help you find the best places to eat and stay during your trip. When the fly hatches are heavy and the fishing is too good to leave the riverbank, we’ll even deliver a fresh riverside hamper straight to your fishing cabin door!
You can book all of this, and much more via our secure online booking system, but we like to maintain a very personable relationship with every client, so we hope you will feel that you can call or email us at any time for our honest and impartial advice, or just a jolly good excuse to chat about fishing!
Finally, we are passionate about chalkstream conservation and we proudly support organisations including the Wessex Rivers Trust, and the Wild Trout Trust in all the work they do to improve the chalkstreams for wild trout and wildlife. When you fish with us, you can rest assured that you are contributing directly to chalkstream conservation for generations to come.
Welcome to the Wilde Trout Family, we hope a special fishing trip is about to begin.
Like all good stories, mine starts way back in my childhood. Dad and I did the father and son fishing trips, for mackerel, bass, and flounder in the Exe estuary, and later for trout in the rivers and lakes all over Devon. I have never wanted for more or less, but deep down he has always been a sailor.
He built his first boat before he was 21, and has owned and sailed boats in the UK, France, Spain, and the Mediterranean ever since. Some of my earliest memories are peering over the guard rails to watch the porpoises tussling with each other under the bow, and perhaps the fondest of all is witnessing one of the great natural phenomenons of the world, planktonic bioluminescence, when a pod of dolphins put on a firework display while we crossed the inky black Biscay. We have long since crewed together on many occasions but the call to fly fishing and freshwater was never a silent voice.
As kids, my friends and I were utterly obsessed with the river Exe. Every day before and after school we would race the sun, rise or set, to the river on our bikes with fishing rods, tackle and bait wedged under our arms or balanced precariously over the handlebars. We fletched our own floats from goose quills and duck down; hoping to outwit a trout, grayling, dace or chub, and at the weekends we turned to den building in the woods or cycling to ponds, lakes and rivers further afield. We chased pike and perch along the canal tow paths and bouldered through the bournes of Exmoor for Sea Trout and Salmon. Within a 20 mile radius, we must have explored every patch of water on the map and more. It was the call of the wild, and it had us by the scruff of our necks.
Fishing for me has been like sailing to my father, it is who I am, but it wasn’t until I discovered our chalk rivers that I unearthed my lifelong ambition. For there is surely no greater connection with nature than to study a trout, to watch him as he feeds, and to trick him into taking your carefully presented fly. Then finally, to coax him to the riverbank, all the while immersed in nature at the most intimate level. And thus fishing, guiding and river keeping on these beautiful chalkstreams quickly became my first love.Â
Wilde Trout is the company I founded to protect and preserve these precious chalkstreams and make world class fly fishing available to everyone in the UK and abroad. The experience of our customers is our chief and obsessive focus and we pride ourselves on upholding the highest level of service with every client, so if I have a snippet of advice to any of our customers it is this: whatever your query, big or small, I hope you will feel that you can contact me at any time; via telephone, email, whatsapp, or website enquiry, and expect a swift and timely reply. You will chat with me, a real person with real experience, and never again be lost in the ether of dodgy call centers, automated emails, or AI chatbots.
I have spent many happy years as a guide, river keeper, and fly fishing agent on the glorious UK chalkstreams, so there is truly no question about angling I have not been asked. For honest and impartial advice, or just a jolly good excuse to chat about fishing, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Welcome to the Wilde Trout family, I hope a special fishing trip is about to begin!
