A RARE opportunity to enjoy a day’s fishing at a secret location with TV’s ‘Accidental Angler’ Charles Rangeley-Wilson is just one of the headline lots in the Wild Trout Trust’s annual auction. Charles – presenter of the popular BBC TV angling series and a founder member of the Trust – will be taking one lucky winner to a fantastic trout stream somewhere in England for an unforgettable day’s fishing.
Once again, access to some of the UK’s most exclusive rivers and legendary chalkstreams will be up for grabs, with guide prices starting as low as £15. And it isn’t just classic trout fishing that’s up for grabs. How about guided fly fishing for pike from a boat on a little-fished section of the Norfolk Broads or casting for bass off a West Country beach?
You can bid online for these and dozens of other fishing lots in this huge charity auction of promises due to be held on eBay this spring. Much of the fishing on offer simply isn’t available to the general public at any other time of year.
And for the fisherman that also happens to be a Harry Potter fan, there’s a Grey Wulff fly tied by actress Emma Watson (Hermione), framed with a signature card. A Hogwart’s Express train set signed by Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Ruper Grint (Ron) and Emma Watson (Hermione) is also on offer, as is a Ferrari Formula One race shirt signed by Michael Schumacher and Ross Brawn, and various Red Arrows unique items.
The Wild Trout Trust’s annual Auction of Promises is a major fund-raising campaign which generates cash for environmental work on rivers and streams nationwide. The Trust provides professional advice and seedcorn funding to kickstart habitat restoration and improvement projects through its scheme of Advisory Visits and Practical Visits. Several hundred kilometres of river have benefited from improvement work carried out as a direct result of a WTT visit and the number of projects continues to grow year-on-year.
Guide prices for the fishing lots range from just £15 to several hundred pounds.
• A day’s guided saltwater flyfishing for two on the Dorset coast
• A weekend on the ‘Famous Five’ Derbyshire trout streams
• A day’s wild trout fishing with Paul Procter
• A week’s sea trout fishing at Futa Lodge, Chile
• Drift boat fishing on the Madison River, Montana, USA
• Guided wild brown trout fishing on Lough Corrib, Ireland
• Top quality fishing tackle from Sage and Hardy & Greys
• Oliver Edwards autographed DVDs
• Framed flies tied especially by John Goddard, Peter O’Reilly, Stuart Crofts
The auction opens on March 6 with final bids to be submitted by March 15. To place your bid, log onto: www.wildtrout.org and follow the links to the charity auction on eBay. For further information, contact Simon Johnson, WTT director on 01377 232097 / 07881920078.
About the Wild Trout Trust
1. The Wild Trout Society was created in 1997 with a clear mission to improve the wild trout’s lot in the face of mounting environmental threats such as water abstraction, diffuse pollution and the effects of intensive farming.
It does this by championing the preservation and restoration of wild trout habitats by initiating ‘in-house’ restoration projects and acting as a catalyst to help others get their own projects under way.
2. In July 1999 the Wild Trout Society became the Wild Trout Trust. The switch to charitable status enables the Trust to do more for habitat conservation, with improved funding opportunities. Charitable status also allows the Trust to help many more people put their own conservation projects into action.
3. As well as creating good habitat to encourage wild trout to spread over previously desolate areas of river, the work of the Trust also benefits a more diverse range of wildlife, from invertebrates to kingfishers to otters and helps them repopulate previously neglected streams.
4. The Trust has some 2,500 members and organises a number of events nationwide – including the prestigious WTT/Classic Malts Wild Trout Conservation Awards. To date, the Trust has coordinated more than 300 river restoration projects across the country. For further information, visit www.wildtrout.org
The Wild Trout Trust is a UK registered charity No. 1077041.
