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Homecountry of flyfishing, you can still fish a lot of extremely good and classic rivers here.
From the wild Dartmoor streams, traditional chalk streams to northern Yorhshire limestone rivers or rocky, scottish burns and lochs, there will be something for everything.
I am leaving away salmon rivers here. A lot has been said and written and put into the internet abpout this. Also, it is usually expensive and not my type of fishing. But I really do hope you get to find out more about the lovely trout and grayling rivers this country offers.
I will start in the south and then go uo further north.
Dartmoor
This absoloute wild and lonely area is where a lot of lovely moorland trout streams rise.
There is a number of extremely pretty and very good trout rivers which can be fished with the Tavy, Walkham & Plym fishing clubs trout licence. Lots of those rivers have salmon and seatrout runs, and you will have to purchase an extra licence to fish for them.
The trout licence includes:
the river Plym around Bickleigh
 
stretches on the river Tavy
...and the river Walkham between Horrarbridge and Buckland Monachorum, along with the river Meavy, a tributary of the Plym.
These rivers are perfect to be fished with the classic wetfly, but there are often hatches of duns and dusters.
You can get a:
Trout licence for 1 week costs 15 pounds
Trout licence for 1 month costs 25 pounds
Season trout licence for 60 pounds
For as little as that you have the chance to fish on a wide variety of excellent rivers!
Chalk streams
The chalk streams west of London home to the absoloute traditional flyfishing. They carry chrystal clear water and the trout are very shy and difficult to catch.
On top of that, licences are very expensive starting from 40 pounds a day.
The rivers include:
River Test
River Itchen
River Avon
use tiny, umweighted nymphs. Dryfly works well when there is a hatch. There are good hatches of duns and Mayflies.
Reservoires
There are many famous Reservoires in the midlands which offer finest quality stillwater troutfishing. You can hir boats on many lakes. Spring season starts with hatckes of buzzers (mosquito larvae) on the lake. Later in the season you can also fish a dryfly. I have always been quite succesfull with a grey wulff.
There so many different tactics for reservoir fishing and you are best advised to ask at the lake or contact a local tackle shop to ask for advice.
Here is a small selection of wellknown reservoires:
Grafham Water, near Bedford
Pitsford reservoir, Northampton
Ravensthorpe Reservoir, also near Northampton
Rutland Water near Leicester
The far north: Cumbria and Northumberland
Cumbria is my home county so I happen to know many good places for fishing. You will find a lot of small streams (called "becks" here) which are just about teeming with small, wild mountain trout, as well as nicely sized rivers which are looked after by fishing clubs and even give you the chance to catch salmon, seatrout or grayling. You will also be fishing in absoloute glorious landscape, in one of the prettiest holiday regions of England.
 
Penrith Angling Association waters
The Penrith Anglers club, located at Penrith south of Carlisle owns most rivers in the upper Eden valley.
You can obtain a visitor ticket for 15 pounds a day or 50 pounds a week if you are not a member of the club. This allows you to fish in a lot of excellent waters, like for instance:
The River Eden. It is also a wellknown salmon and seatrout river. The club controls several beats between Bolton and Armathwaite. There are grayling and many brown trout averaging around 1lb! Some beats are for members only, inform yourself on the clubs website.
The River Eamont. This main Eden tributary is fed by lake Ullswater. The water is very clear and seldomly coloured. The upper reaches offer excellent brown trout fishing while there are some grayling which mix in the lower part. The river itself is beautiful with shingle banks and deep pools. Perfect for nymphing. Dryfly and wetfly also promising.
A lot of smaller Eden tributaries also belong to the club. The waters which may be fished by visitors are the Troutbeck, Briggle Beck and Dacre Beck (pictured) which flows into Ullswater. The offer very interesting fishing for the small stream enthusiast. They also often have massive insect hatches...
In addition, you may also fish the river Lowther south of Penrith. It offers some excellent fishing for brown trout which grow really big.
Lake Ullswater
Regarded as the most beautiful lake in England and surrounded by high mountains, this lake near Penrith offers some superb loch-style fishing for completely wild lake brown trout. You can rent rowin boats in Pooley bridge or Glenridding. The best method is to fish the rocky shallows with a team of three wetflies. Windward shore will always produce more fish. On calm summer evenings with a hatch you may also try dapping with a large Mayfly imitation. Dithering your rod however often increases your chances as it looks like a struggling mayfly.
Anyway it would be wise to contact a guide or a ghillie if you are on the lake for the first time.
A note on small streams
As a small stream enthusiast, you should contact a local farmer or landowner if you spot a stream which you want to fish. That way you might be able to get to fish lovely little rivers for as little as nothing. Sunnygill Beck near Melmerby or Crowdundle Beck (in which I even caught a seatrout!) are two examples that I found...
 
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