Come for the trout, stay for the calm of watching British dudes wax poetic about chalk and water.
If you love fly fishing docs, check out this list of the Best Fly Fishing Documentaries (from my writing partner Rob Kelly).
Trailer for “Chalk – Bedrock of Fly Fishing”
You Can’t Make This Sh*t Up
- Some UK chalkstream beats now cost over £500/day to fish. And still book out years in advance.
Watch “Chalk – Bedrock of Fly Fishing”
You can watch “Chalk – Bedrock of Fly Fishing” on Fishing TV (subscription required).
Ratings:
- My Rating: 89/100
- IMDB Rating: Not listed
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: Not listed
Director’s Note: Created by Fishing TV and Chalkstream Fly, and produced by Simon Cooper (author and fly fishing writer). This 89-minute doc mixes historical reverence with modern activism.
Release Date: 2017 (Fishing TV original)
My Review of “Chalk – Bedrock of Fly Fishing”
The Setup
England’s chalkstreams—The Test, The Itchen, Mottisfont, and Broadlands are sacred temples of trout fishing. This film explores why: from the porous chalk filtering the water to the way it allows for lush plant life, constant temperature, and insect abundance (especially during the mayfly hatch).
The doc weaves through the past (with nods to F.M. Halford, G.E.M. Skues, and Frank Sawyer) and present (featuring conservationists, guides, and global anglers) to show how these rivers shaped fly fishing’s rules, ethics, and techniques.
More Highlights from the Doc
- Features Marina Gibson, Charles Rangeley-Wilson, Steve Cullen, and Glen Pointon—top UK names in modern fly fishing.
- Halford’s strict “dry-fly only” code on the River Test created fly fishing’s class system, where even casting a nymph was seen as heresy for decades.
- Frank Sawyer invented the Pheasant Tail Nymph while working as a riverkeeper. He tied flies with wire instead of thread because he was trying to make them sink faster for picky trout.
- We visit lesser-known rivers like the Ebble and the Avon, which get overshadowed by the Test and Itchen but are equally historic.
- We see how current pressures—abstraction, pollution, climate change—are threatening these rivers. One section shows brown algae choking a chalkstream where water levels dropped too low.
- James Murray (the narrator) does more than read lines—he’s a passionate angler and brings genuine reverence to the voiceover.
- The underwater macro footage of mayfly hatches is mesmerizing—and timed to peak season filming.
Lesser-Known Details from the Doc
- Chalkstreams make up just 0.0002% of the world’s rivers—over 80% of them are in England, making them globally rare and ecologically critical.
- One River Itchen beat featured in the film has been passed down through four generations of the same family under a traditional leasehold system.
- The documentary reveals that some riverkeepers still use hand tools to cut aquatic vegetation, keeping trout lanes open without harming the stream bed.
- F.M. Halford’s dry-fly-only philosophy was so dominant that nymph fishing was considered unethical on many chalkstreams for decades, even though trout often feed subsurface.
- “Chalk” was partially funded by donations from everyday anglers worldwide, making it a rare crowd-powered conservation doc.
Wrap Up
“Chalk” is a slow, clear-flowing love letter to the rivers that defined fly fishing. It’s also a warning about how easily they could disappear.
Thanks for reading!
Heather Fenty, Guest Writer, Daily Doc