Kris Kent isn't the only one looking forward to the 2018 Wild Trout Trust Auction
This March will see the fourteenth Wild Trout Trust Online Auction go live. It will run between the 9th and the 18th March. I’m getting excited already.
Denise Ashton has been really busy over the last few months contacting all the wonderful people who each year donate lots to the auction. No mean feat as that’s around 285 people and organisations who each year donate around 300 lots. The donors range from large organisations like Sage and Nervous Waters who donate some of the big-ticket lots, rods and destination fishing; to small organisations like Rawson & Perrin who donate a split cane rod or the artist Sam MacDonald who regularly donates his sculptures; to dozens of fishing clubs who donate days on their waters; to hundreds of individuals, like myself, who donate guided days, books, a box of flies, or even a water vole safari. I’m always astounded by people’s generosity and their willingness to dig deep for this great cause.
Artwork donated by Sam MacDonald for 2018
Every year I donate two or three lots to the auction. My passion is fly fishing for wild trout and the auction gives me a great opportunity to support the Wild Trout Trust and give something back to something that gives me so much pleasure. Strangely other people seem very keen to spend time with me by a river, even though the fishing can sometimes be tough. Last year Shaun won my lot fishing on the Little Syndicate waters down in Dorset. It was going to be a challenging day, the Frome and carriers were low and sluggish after the dry winter. We waded up the main river casting into any deeper, faster spots we could find but to no avail. Shaun didn’t fish that much and was used to the more manicured Hampshire chalkstreams. This was a whole different kettle of fish, wild and woolly, but he seemed to be loving it. We moved over to one of the streams in the afternoon and enjoyed our lunch sitting on the stone bridge spotting fish in the fast water below. Making our way upstream, replete on pork pie and ale, we were pleased to see a few rising fish. It turned out to be the grayling that were looking up and Shaun picked up a few as we progressed under the ash and hawthorn.
Shaun chasing the ladies
It was a thoroughly convivial day spent chatting, laughing, eating well and catching a fish or two in the process, and all for The Wild Trout Trust.
I’m surprised when I meet people who haven’t heard of the Wild Trout Trust Online Auction because each year thousands of people log on to eBay or fill out their postal forms and put in a bid. Of course, not everyone can win their preferred lot, but each year around 250 people are lucky enough to win a lot, or two. What a great win-win. The auction lot winner gets to go fishing on an exclusive bit of water or with a well-known angler that they otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to do, and The Wild Trout Trust gets the money. In a sense everyone’s a winner because even if you don’t win the lot you’ve bid for, you have supported the cause.
The lucky winner of another one of my lots in 2017
The great thing about The Wild Trout Trust Online Auction is that there is something for everyone. Lots start at as little as £20. There is fishing for trout, grayling, sea trout and salmon here in the UK as well as fishing in some more exotic locations. Chances are there will be something on your doorstep with fishing all across England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The very handy Map Feature on the website means that you can quickly and easily find out what’s available, where.
Auction Map
As well as being a regular donor I have also been a regular bidder, sometimes too much so. The Wild Trout Trust auction has given me the opportunity to fish all over our green and pleasant land. From the Teign in Devon to the Eden in Cumbria, from the Welsh Dee in the west to the Yorkshire Derwent in the east. I’ve bought rods and flies; books; fishing for pike, trout and grayling on stillwaters and rivers. It has been my luck to fish with Mike Weaver, John Tyzack, Stuart Crofts, Paul Gaskell, Peter Arfield, Steve Rhodes, Dr Mark Everard and last but by no means least Paul Proctor. Some fabulous opportunities and some wonderful memories.
I’ll never forget fishing with Dave Southall on the Yorkshire Derwent. We had made a weekend of it, well East Yorkshire is a good drive from my neck of the woods.It was a stiff walk in and I was puffed and hot when we reached the upper reaches of the Derwent. This was proper wild trout fishing; the river was full of woody debris, snaggy as hell.
A tricky spot on the Derwent
But everywhere there were game little trout that would pounce on a well presented scruffy little fly. We didn’t catch anything big but they were the most beautiful trout imaginable, fit and feisty, fin perfect and deeply spotted. It was an honour to spend time with an angler of such experience and skill, good company to boot.
The legend that is Dave Southall
Putting the Wild Trout Trust Online Auction together is no mean feat. Once Denise has sourced the lots she has to put together the catalogue. That has to be proof read by Patrick and Christina before it can be published and uploaded to the website. All the lots have to be loaded onto eBay, Sean works through the night over a weekend to load all 300 lots. Then there is all the time and effort that people contribute promoting the auction in the press, online and through social media. Almost all involved, like myself, are volunteers. We all get involved because we love it and because the Wild Trout Trust is such a wonderful organisation.
The 2017 auction catalogue
You might ask is it all worthwhile? Last year the auction raised £98,000, the most ever. Since 2007 the auction has contributed over £628,000 to The Wild Trout Trust’s coffers to be spent on practical projects to improve habitat for trout and other wildlife. The Wild Trout Trust team prides itself on using its funding as effectively as possible. Last year The Wild Trout Trust was able to work directly on over 365km of river, undertake 194 advisory visits and run 77 practical habitat events. All made possible thanks to the auction.
River restoration
More importantly the auction funds help the Wild Trout Trust to leverage other funding. Without the auction the Wild Trout Trust wouldn’t have the ability to work up a project to the point where it can get other funders interested. Lots of funders require match funding or a contribution, so the auction funds help pay for that. Every £1 of auction funds helps The Wild Trout Trust to obtain £5 of other funding.
A good example of this was the Dever project. In October 2016 I had some time on my hands and for some unknown reason I decided to volunteer to help Mike Blackmore, Wild Trout Trust Conservation Officer, and his team with their project on the Dever at Bullington in Hampshire. The project's aim was to transform a kilometre of overwide, silty, straight and shady channel into a river with variations in depth and flow and much better habitat for trout. This work benefits the whole system by creating better spawning and juvenile habitats for trout and grayling that will go on to populate the wider catchment.
They had already been hard at it for a week by the time I rocked up. Trees had been felled to open up the canopy and provide materials for the hard engineering. Mike’s best friend the post basher had seen a lot of action putting in place the structures that would help narrow and re-meander the channel.
Mike’s best friend, the post basher
I arrived just as the heavy artillery got started, the two earth movers got stuck in on the ‘dig and dump’, putting back in the deep holes and shallow riffles and helping introduce fresh spawning gravels. It was amazing watching the team transform the river before my eyes. It was the most fun you could have in waders.
Dig and dump
With these sorts of project funding is always a challenge. For this project £4,000 of auction funds helped leverage £20,000 from other sources, including the Environment Agency and the riparian owners, enough to make a huge difference to the river. The riparian owners, the Bond family, were very pleased with the work done, ‘We are delighted with the project; you have all delivered an excellent result and appear to have followed the brief exactly. Thank you to the Environment Agency and to The Wild Trout Trust plus all the others involved for the hard work in completing the project on time.’
So, if you fancy the opportunity to win a hand made cane rod, some unique art or some fabulous fishing with some wonderful anglers, and to help protect our wild trout and their habitat in the process, why not get bidding.
If you want to know more about the Wild Trout Trust Online Auction or fancy donating a lot for 2019 there is plenty of information on the Wild Trout Trust website. Wild Trout Trust members all receive a copy of the auction catalogue, which can also be downloaded from the website along with the Postal Bid Form, and details of each lot can be found on eBay when it goes live.
http://www.wildtrout.org/
Biography:
Kris Kent has been fly fishing and trotting for brown trout and grayling for over 20 years in the UK, Europe and Scandinavia. He is Chief Guide at Chalk Stream Dreams, Fishing Manager at Orvis in Stockbridge, PR Officer for the Grayling Society and helps out The Wild Trout Trust with their online communications and events.
