A Fishing Room for a Chalk-Stream House

Rods made up and ready, a bench for tying, and somewhere for waders that does not smell by August.

What we were asked for

A house twenty minutes from the water, fished thirty or forty times a season. The client wanted rods left made up, because a rod that has to be assembled is a rod that gets fished less. That single requirement drives most of the room: full length, clear height, and support at two points along the blank.

What we built

A fitted wall in oak with vertical rod storage, butt cups lined in baize and tip locations cut generously so nothing is gripped. There is cane in the collection, so a separate horizontal cradle run was built for it — split cane takes and holds a set far more readily than carbon, and it wants laying down.

Reels sit in shallow drawers with divisions cut to the reels themselves, lined in napped wool. Fly lines have their own drawer, dark and dry, because line is the shortest-lived thing in the room.

The detail that mattered most

The wet end. Waders hang upside down from the boot, over a slatted rack on a stone floor, with air moving through rather than heat blasting at them. Breathable waders fail from the inside, and heat without air movement makes that worse rather than better.

There is also somewhere to wash kit down. Invasive species move between catchments on damp gear, and check-clean-dry is a great deal easier when the room is built for it.

We do not publish client names, house names, street names or the detail of any security arrangement. Counties are given only where the client is content for us to do so.