The Fishing Tradition

‘I venture to think that no sport or pastime has attained a greater number of votaries than fishing, whether it be for coarse fish or trout. Let him who does not credit this go, on almost any day between May and August, to one of the main London stations when an early train is leaving for the districts through which Kennet, Test, Lea, Mimram, Chess, or other trout-yielding river gently flows.’

Freshwater fishing

The rivers Test and Avon, with their tributaries, are famed for their fishing, especially for trout and salmon. Christchurch and Fordingbridge were the leading centres for the river fishing. Christchurch was noted especially for salmon, Fordingbridge for trout.

The River Whitewater in the north of the county is another stream celebrated for the quality of its trout.

The chalk streams of Hampshire produce trout of a lighter colour than in the north of England.

The fishing rivers have always been managed by estates to maintain the banks, flow of water and pools to ensure a plentiful supply of fish.

Fish farming

There were inland fisheries in lakes and ponds in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Lake trout was caught at Fordingbridge.

Ponds created on the wet loams that surround the heaths of Bagshot, Farnborough and Aldershot were stocked with carp and tench. Five acres of this water supported 1250 brace of carp and tench. The produce was sold to London. These fish ‘farmers’ were reckoned to earn about six guineas per acre annually.

Farmed trout

Breeding trout to restock the rivers and lakes began in the late nineteenth century. Farming of trout for the table did not start in Britain until the 1960s. Fish farming grew rapidly from the second half of the 1970s onwards.

The conditions that have made Hampshire a prime county for river fishing have applied equally to fish farming. The springs and clear waters of the Test and Kennet valleys have provided the basis for many fish farms in this county. By 1979, 28 per cent of all farmed trout produced in England and Wales came from the Southern Water district. An example was at Old Basing, on spring water.

Trout farms supply either the stocking trade - breeding fish for other farms - or the table trade. Species produced are brown trout, a British native species and rainbow trout, introduced from America.

Coastal fishing

The coastal districts have all been engaged in fishing for salmon, mackerel and other fish. From Southampton and the neighbouring district supplies were sent to markets at London, Oxford and other towns. Further east oysters were a particular speciality.