Fishing Available Now at Mottisfont Abbey, River Test, Hampshire

This week Mottisfont went live for bookings, the Mayfly joins the guide, and we have some new and exciting wild fishing on the River Creedy in Devon. Welcome to the newest instalment of the Wilde Trout newsletter.

Shobrooke Park Estate – River Creedy

This is an exciting opportunity to fish on a private and exclusive beat of the River Creedy in Devon.

Nestled in the Creedy valley, at the foot of Shobrooke Park Estate, is just over 1.5km of wild trout fishing as the river meanders through the meadows and tours quintessential Devon countryside toward Exeter.

Shobrooke Park itself is gloriously old-English. There is a string of beautifully sculpted estate lakes that date back to the 1700 and 1800s, the largest of which is guarded by rows of archaic oak trees and straddled by a 3-arch stone bridge. Once a trout pond before the war, it is fished today by a local coarse syndicate in between the village faits and festival productions that are hosted in the amphitheatre. During summer months, the heady smells of cut grass and stinging nettles almost drown out the roar from the thatched cricket pavilion when the bails topple from the stumps.

The 3-arch stone bridge over the lake at Shobrooke Park.

When the river calls, it is only a short walk across the sheep-grazed meadows where you will be greeted with dense undergrowth and overhanging shrubbery that make the fishing a wild but far from impossible challenge. There is a good mix of shallow riffles and deep pools that hold some lovely wild brownies and also small shoals of grayling, dace and chub.

Now, this is a river that loves a flood and the water often flows with a tinge of colour, so don’t expect the gin clear clarity of our Hampshire chalk rivers. But that colour does tend to hide some surprisingly deep pools and within them some surprisingly large trout. In the high season of May and June the river runs remarkably clear and spotting fish is possible from the vantage of a high bank.

Fly life is sparse, so a fly box with both dry fly and nymph is often required, but if you strike lucky and hit a hatch of Mayflies or black gnats you can expect some very productive fishing for rising trout. When the going looks bleak, a klink and dink with a bushy klinkhammer and a weighted nymph will often work well.

The River Creedy in high June colours.

Bookings will be available online later this month for 1 or 2 rods with private and exclusive use of this extensive beat for the day. It can be fished from the bottom up as a pair, or you can split the beat in two and send one rod ahead to the half way mark, and swap after lunch if you wish.

It must be fished from the waders and there are only a handful of places to climb in and out along its course, so we would suggest taking a small

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Dreaming of a burbling chalkstream brimming with frenzied brown trout slurping in the gunsmoke of an electric fly hatch? Your next adventure starts here!