The excellent fishing passport schemes available throughout the country offer some great fishing and excellent prices. Peter Anderson revisits a a few of his favourites.
For those of us who get about a bit and like to fish different rivers, passport schemes are a Godsend. The principle is simple: buy vouchers, choose which beat to fish, post the required number of vouchers in a beatside letter box, fish, make a catch return. Easy. Some beats have to be pre booked via the appropriate scheme website.
Miles of water have been opened up in this way to the benefit of anglers, but also to the landowners who have a new source of income available to them. At present there are 7 schemes and they are expanding all the time. Here’s an overview including some notes on the beats I have fished.
ANGLING 2000 – The West Country Passport Scheme
The first to be established with beats throughout Devon and Cornwall with the biggest density in the Launceston area. A welcome recent addition has been the Duchy waters of the Dart system. This is wild fishing on very small streams up to medium sized rivers such as the Tamar. I have fished some of the beats:
Blue Fox Glade on the Little Dart.
A pretty small stream in woodland and easy to get disorientated. Access is down a steep hill (egress is, of course, back UP the same steep hill!). It is a pretty stream with plenty of fish although when I fished it, it rained hard and after a couple of hours the river started to come up and I called it a day.
Yealm
Near Plymouth. This beat is in to distinct parts, the lower bit is, well, sedate really. It’s OK. The upper beat is a brilliant moorland stream. Fish the dry or the duo and enjoy.
Lyd
Near Lifton. This used to be a passport beat but was probably over fished. Now it has to be booked and it’s well worth it. A lovely setting, plenty of trout and grayling, and some big fish.
West Dart
Miles of it. Thrilling fishing, lots of boulders and pocket water.
Cherry Brook
A lovely stream with fish very willing to take the dry.
Wye & Usk Foundation
The biggest scheme. 76 beats available to pre book and 62 voucher beats....enough to keep anybody busy. I’ve fished quite a few and to list them would get tedious, so some comments of the rivers.
Wye
This is a big river and the wading can be scary. Plenty of fish and some very big ones.
Usk
Smaller than the Wye and regarded by many as one of the best wild trout rivers in the country. Some wild beats, especially at the upstream end, and some very “civilised” beats, Glanusk Estate for example but this also has stocked fish. Wading at times is difficult with tilted bedrock and hefty boulders.
Irfon
A Wye tributary with some very big grayling and the most terrifying wading I’ve ever encountered!
The Monnow system
The Monnow, Honddhu and Dore with some of their tributaries, Olchon Brook, Ecsley Brook and others. This is small brook fishing generally and is sublime. The Monnow is a sizeable river by the time it gets to Skenfrith where there is a good beat, but my preference will always be the smaller streams. The Dore is well behaved, the Honddhu is uncouth, the upper Monnow is delightful. You will not be disappointed on any of these. Nymphs are effective, many locals wouldn’t dream of anything other than the dry.
LLynfi Dulas
Very good mayfly hatch but can get busy at that time of the season.
Lugg/Arrow
Small/medium sized rivers. Lots of beats, plenty of fish and some very good grayling fishing.
Lots of others I haven’t fished yet!
Go Wild in Eden
The Eden passport scheme in Cumbria. This scheme differs from the others in that you don’t put the vouchers in a bank side box, you post them back with a catch return. Make sure you fill them in before fishing in case you are challenged! The website is not exactly welcoming:
“Definitely NOT for the faint hearted. THIS IS DIFFICULT FISHING. The river banks are overgrown with tall vegetation that you have to bush whack your way through. Tread carefully, because there are no neatly manicured river banks, mown footpaths and heated huts. This is how nature intended.
Obstacles, you bet! There are weeds, tree roots, boulders, overhanging branches, fallen branches, bits of trees and that tall stuff growing on the river bank, usually hiding things for you to trip over.
The mud comes in two varieties: the stickiest and the slippiest, and there’s plenty of it.
Stealth is essential, this isn’t like sneaking in from the pub. These wild brown trout know you’re coming even before you do!
Once you are in the water, you’re still not in the clear. The overhanging branches make it impossible to fish with anything other than a 7’ rod, and the lightest of lines. There is everything there to tangle your lines and snap your rod and really put a blemish on your day”
Don’t be put off, it isn’t that bad! 29 beats ranging from rough mountain streams to the main River Eden. I’ve only fished one beat, Crowdundle Beck, in barely fishable conditions when the Eden resembled the Zambesi. It gave me the best 2 hours fishing on my season, topped off by a wild brownie of well over a pound.
I haven’t fished the other schemes yet. In the north east is the Tyne Passport Scheme. 28 beats, some are coarse fisheries and others are open for a short period only, eg Allen Banks is open from 14 March to 31 July. I did try to fish the Devil’s Water last September. I was flooded off but with a name like that....well, it just has to be fished!
In Derbyshire is the Peak Passport scheme. This has been going a couple of years and I have heard mixed reviews, one friend went to a beat which in his view was unfishable (always a risk in late summer on wild rivers). It is always a good idea to check with the scheme offices, they will always advise on the beats that are currently fishing well (and this applies to all of the schemes, of course.
The Ribble Passport in Lancashire is pretty new and has 6 beats. I intend to give this a go this coming season.
Finally, the Severn Passport scheme, the newest of them all. 5 beats, 4 on the Afon Cain and one on Dick Brook. To be fished!
To read more of Peters fishing adventures please take a look at his excellent blog