“Wilde Trout is the company I founded iron cast in my mission to protect and preserve our precious chalkstreams, and make worldclass fishing available to everyone in the UK and abroad.”
Wilde Trout is the company founded by fishing guide and river keeper, Jamie Pankhurst, iron cast in his mission to protect and preserve our precious chalkstreams and make world-class fishing available to everyone.
When you book with us you will visit some of the finest chalk streams in England including the famous River Test and the buzzing fly fishing village of Stockbridge at the beating heart of quintessential rural Hampshire.
Whether you are planning your once-in a-life-time pilgrimage to the English chalkstreams, or simply dreaming of a fishing break away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, we can design a bespoke trip tailored to your every need. If you would like to come accompanied with a ghillie, we can provide a Wilde Guide who will come fully equipped with all the local knowledge, tackle, equipment and flies required for your trip. If you would prefer to explore the chalkstreams on your own, we can provide all the kit required for the adventure of a lifetime.
The Fork and Feather is our good food guide for travelling fly fishers which makes booking accommodation or finding a bite to eat a breeze, and when the fly hatches are hectic and the fishing is too good to leave the waterβs edge, we deliver scrumptious riverside picnics direct to your fishing cabin door. You can book all of this and much more 24/7 online, over the telephone, on WhatsApp or via email.
Wilde Trout also supports some fantastic river conservationists including the Wessex Rivers Trust, and the Wild Trout Trust, and our own River Stewardship programme empowers riparian owners to actively maintain our precious chalkstreams, so when you book with us you are directly contributing to chalkstream restoration, conservation and rewilding.
Like all good stories, mine starts way back in my childhood. Dad and I did the father and son fishing trips, for mackerel, bass and flounder in the Exe estuary, and later for trout in the rivers and lakes all over Devon. I have never wanted for more or less, but deep down he has always been a sailor.
He built his first boat before he was 21, and has owned and sailed boats in the UK, France, Spain, and the Mediterranean ever since. Some of my earliest memories are of peering over the guard rails to watch the porpoises playfully tussling with each other under the bow, and perhaps the fondest of all is witnessing one of the great natural phenomenons of the world, planktonic bioluminescence, when a pod of dolphins put on a magical firework display while we crossed the inky black Biscay in the dark of night. We have long since crewed together on many occasions but the call to fly fishing and freshwater was never a silent voice.
As kids, my friends and I were utterly obsessed with the river Exe. Every day before and after school we would race the sun, rise or set, to the river on our bikes with fishing rods, tackle and bait wedged under our arms or balanced precariously over the handlebars. We fletched our own floats from goose quills and duck down; hoping to outwit a trout, grayling, dace or chub, and at the weekends we turned to den building in the woods or cycling to ponds, lakes and rivers further afield. We chased pike and perch along the canal tow paths and bouldered through the bournes of Exmoor for Sea Trout and Salmon. Within a 20 mile radius, we must have explored every patch of water on the map and more. It was the call of the wild, and it had us by the scruff of our necks.
Fishing for me has been like sailing to my father, it is who I am, but it wasnβt until I discovered our chalk rivers that I unearthed my lifelong ambition. For there is surely no greater connection with nature than to study a trout, to watch him as he feeds, and to trick him into taking your carefully presented fly then finally, to coax him to the riverbank, all the while immersed in nature at the most intimate level. And thus fishing, guiding and river keeping on these beautiful streams quickly became my first love.Β
Wilde Trout is the company I founded to protect and preserve these precious chalkstreams and make world class fly fishing available to everyone in the UK and abroad by bringing a new level of professionalism to the whole business.Β The experience of our customers is our chief and obsessive focus and we pride ourselves on upholding the highest level of service with every client, so if I have one piece of advice to any of our prospective customers it is this: whatever your query, big or small, I hope you will feel that you can contact me at any time; via telephone, email, whatsapp or website enquiry, and expect a swift and timely reply. You will chat with me, a real person with real experience, and never again be lost in the ether of dodgy call centers, automated emails, or AI chatbots.
I have spent many happy years as a guide, river keeper and fly fishing agent on the glorious UK chalk streams, so there is truly no question about angling I have not been asked. For honest and impartial advice, or just a jolly good excuse to chat about fishing, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Welcome to the Wilde Trout family, I hope a special fishing trip is about to begin!
