Day Tickets

Day tickets are available for the Yarrow Farm and County School beats only. Tickets are limited to one a day or two visitors fishing together. This means that you will not have to share the beats with another day ticket purchaser although you may be joined at some stage by a member. The Committee reserves the right to restrict the number of tickets sold at its discretion.

You can use the calendar, below, to check availability and make a booking. Tickets can only be booked and paid for in advance and online.The cost is £40 per angler per day.

Please note that you cannot pay on the river bank.

Our Day Ticket season opens on May 1st and closes on October 29th, both days inclusive. Day tickets go on sale from January 1st.

” . . . what a beautiful stretch of river and the brown trout I caught was in sublime condition. Your river is far more tranquil, better kept, and more bountiful than the stretch of the Itchen I often fish!” NP, day ticket on 8 June 2021

The Yarrow Farm Beat has an interesting mix of water with deep pools and faster-flowing water with a gravel bottom. Wading is not essential although lengths of the Beat can be waded with care. The County School Beat is a mix of relatively slow-flowing and quite deep, straight stretches with some faster flowing shallow glides at the top and bottom of the beat. Wading is not recommended except for the area immediately downstream of County School bridge itself. Visitors should take care when walking along the bank as cattle poaching over the years has created a number of trip hazards, which will reduce now that the entire stretch has been fenced.

When you book a ticket, you will receive an email with your ticket, a copy of the fishery rules, the code number for the padlock on the signing-in box and a map of the Fishery showing the two beats, car parking areas and the main access point.

Day tickets cost £40 and allow you to take one stock fish only and catch and release as many as you wish.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Untagged Stock Fish

For a number of seasons the club tagged introduced stock fish for identification and research purposes. This practice has now ceased, so members and day ticket visitors, who may be used to simply looking for a tag, are asked to be particularly careful when trying to differentiate between wild and stocked trout in the future.

The traditional signs of a farm-reared trout can be fin damage and slightly inferior condition to the indigenous trout, although these days it is increasingly difficult to tell the difference. The introduced fish also have a bronze/yellow colouration that distinguishes them from the more silvery wild fish. Size is another factor and any trout under 12 inches can be safely considered a wild fish. If you are in any doubt please return the fish to the water as quickly and carefully as possible.

Recording your catch

The Committee is anxious that our catch return records are as accurate as possible. We ask that you make a judgment as to whether your trout is a wild or stocked fish and record your catch accordingly – making the usual distinction between a wild and a stocked fish. There will be some over-wintered, tagged stock fish caught. An over-wintered fish may have a YELLOW or BLUE tag or just possibly a GREEN tag. The tags are by the nearside of the dorsal fin. All wild fish should be measured before they are returned to the river. Their lengths should be recorded on the catch return card. Please complete a separate card for each beat that you fish. Please bring a tape measure with you so that you can measure the length of any wild fish caught. Fishing is from dawn to dusk.

Recording catches per beat

Anglers fishing County School and Yarrow beats will need to indicate on their return cards which fish were caught on which beat as this information is increasingly important.

On arrival at the Fishery please go the the signing-in box and complete Part 1 of a catch return card for the beat or beats that you will be fishing. Part 2 of each card must be completed before leaving the Fishery.

River access

We are fortunate in that we are not restricted to walking up and down the riverbanks between the river and the fence, where there is a fence. This means that when walking downstream to the bottom of a beat to start fishing, or to return to re-fish a stretch of river, you can walk along the meadow well away from the water. Keeping well back from the river will mean that you will not frighten fish and if there is someone else fishing you will not spook all the fish that he or she is hoping to fish for. As well as being bad manners, there is nothing more frustrating than working your way quietly upstream to try for a fish that you may have seen rising earlier, than to see someone marching down the bank in full sight of fish in the river and scaring ‘your’ fish.

No wading is allowed on the County School Beat.

The section of newly raised grave glides at the lower end of the County School beat is particularly valuable for small fry and spawning adult fish, so in order to minimise disturbance to the gravel, please do not wade.

Please note: The river Wensum is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and we are committed to protecting the local wildlife, which means we cannot allow day ticket holders to bring dogs onto the beats, so please, no dogs. Thank you.

You can download mobile phone-friendly travel directions here:  Day Ticket Travel Directions  These directions will tell you how to find the Signing-in Boxes, the Yarrow Farm and County School beats and the parking area at the former County School station.

You can download the map showing the day ticket beats, location of the new signing-in box and where to park etc:

Download Day Ticket Map

In case of a problem with a booking or to confirm a booking has been made, contact Richard Nelson rvnelson@freedom255.com or 07970-759635.

To use the booking calendar, just select an available date, fill in the form and click ‘book now’. The date will be held pending confirmation and you will receive instructions for payment shortly.

At the committee’s discretion, refunds will be made if, for whatever reason, BMTF considers the river to be unfishable on the day you have booked. Alternatively, your booking can be transferred to a suitable day, usually in the next season’s calendar.

Please note: Only one booking for a maximum of two anglers is allowable for any available day