The River Stour flows through Wiltshire, Somerset and Dorset from springs and streams in all three counties, but with a definitive starting point claimed by Stourhead and with a large part of its catchment edged by chalk hills containing the Blackmore Vale where the river pushes its way through the clay giving it a capacity to rise, rage and flood within a few hours.

The waters that the club were able to use were only rivers, and the stretch of river from Colesbrook to Highbridge Mill was the first to be used. The club investigated the other stretches of river around, and found that the river above Gillingham town (Shreen) would make excellent Trout fishing water and was in fact designated as Fly fishing. No longer a fly fishing stretch, the river is still used by the club to this day. 

In 1952, a member suggested that the committee should patrol stretches of the river to prevent poaching, where it was pointed out that the rules permitted any member to ask to see the membership card of anyone fishing the associations waters. A Rule that still stands fast today!

At the 1952 A.G.M. Mr E.A. Martin passed a comment that the people in the town seemed to think that the idea of the club was to prevent fishing, but he thought it should be made clear that the primary objective of the club was to improve the the fishing in the area for the benefit of everyone. As this could not be done without money, a subscription would be charged to generate the revenue.   

The Club has always been keen to develop the angling experience, and in it's initial year, put 4,000 trout fry into the river above the town, and 8,000 coarse fish into the lower stretch of the river, something the club has been doing consistently to improve it's lakes and rivers since its inception. 

Growing from just the local rivers, the club now has other lakes as well as the same stretches of river. Cups and Trophies are now fished for on matches and outings, and the club enjoys various annual events such as the presentation evening of cup winners and riparian owners dinner year after year.

The River Stour used by the club now, passes through Stour Provost which also has links back up the Stour. In 1086, the Domesday Book recorded that the village had a mill, and although the location of that mill cannot be known for certain, it is a fair guess that it was not far from the present one. Now there is a complex of buildings dating from the early 19th century. There is Mill House from which both the mill and a farm were run. The Old Mill itself was converted to a cottage, but as a plaque on the side records, the waterwheel was restored in 1988 and continues to work. The wheel dates from the 1880s and was made at the Mill in Bourton. The mill complex is at the bottom of Mill Lane, which is continued by a public footpath that passes close to the Mill House, then runs beside a pretty little stretch of the Stour before crossing over towards Fifehead Magdalen.