River Itchen from the site http://www.riverangler.co.uk I couldn't start this website without a look at what some people regard as one of the finest fly fishing rivers in the country , the Itchen. The River Itchen is only 28 miles long starting its life just to the south of the village of Cheriton flowing northwards through Cheriton and Tichbourne then joining with its tributary the River Aire and the Candover Brook just below New Alresford the river wanders westwards and through the upper Itchen valley passing idyllically named villages of Avington, Itchen stoke, Itchen abbas, martyr worthy, Easton, and abbots worthy it then enters Winchester the river splits into several channels in the city, It then flows through water meadows and through the Itchen valley country park before joining the river in Southampton. The river is designated as a site of special scientific interest [sssi] along most of its length and is a well noted as one of the worlds premier chalk streams and has seven species of ecological interest including crayfish, otter, salmon, bullhead and brook lamprey.Its water quality is crucial and helps to support the plants and invertebrates and in turn the large range of species that the river supports. The Itchen is regarded as one of England's finest chalk stream Trout rivers along with the River Test , famous angling writers fished the Itchen like G E M Skues who was probably the inventor of modern day nymph fishing and wrote numerous books on fly fishing his first book Minor Tactics of the Chalk Stream was his effort towards restoring wet fly fishing back to its rightful place on the chalk streams of England.[Skues] Sir Edward Grey was a prominent statesman in British politics in the early 1900s and is the man who sent Briton into the First World war [grey] he wrote books based on the Itchen ,Cottage Book Itchen Abbas 1894-1905 and Fly Fishing. Frederick M Halford was a business man who retired to fish he wrote books on dry fly fishing and historically is the man that made dry fly fishing into an art and wet fly fishing was looked down on and even to this day it remains the same on many rivers in this country.[Halford] he wrote Floating Flies and How To Dress Them and many more were penned. River Itchen River Itchen The Fishing. Test valley angling club ,Southampton piscatorial society have a short length of the Itchen near the m27 motorway behind the white swan pub on the A27 the river contains chub carp roach grayling dace pike perch eels gudgeon and flounders. the club offer membership at a yearly cost. check them out here.. http://riverangler.co.uk/tvacsps At Twyford East lodge fishing offer fishing to corporate events to fish the river and stay in the Lodge ,treat yourself to some dry fly fishing for the trout and salmon http://riverangler.co.uk/eastlodge Avington trout fishery offer fishing and corporate events at their stretch of the river at Avington http://riverangler.co.uk/avington Upstream Dry fly, offer fishing on the upper river also do corporate events and will like most of the other private owners of the waters offer tuition and accommodation http://www.upstreamdryfly.com/ If you fish or have fished this delightful little river please share your experiences with us also let us know of clubs on the river and your memorable days. Help us with this page by sending details about the river photos snipets anything at all that you can share with us . mail me at andy@riverangler.co.uk see main site and page here. http://www.riverangler.co.uk/river-itchen