Rivers were relatively low during April, with one brief spate on the 8th and another near the end of the month, both of which put a lot of colour into the water. The steady flows and often warm days were perfect for trout fishing for most of the time, giving a monthly total of over 300 trout, along with 10 grayling. The best trout was a fish of 12 inches for Rob Gibson on Beat 6A, in the Wolf/Thrushel junction pool, and the best grayling was a one-pounder for Alice Martin from the Tamar on Beat 9A.
There has been an excellent showing of both salmon and sea trout smolts on the Tamar system, most of which seem to have taken advantage of the dirty water at the end of April to reach the sea. CEFAS have had a good result at the smolt trap on the Endsleigh water, fin-clipping and micro tagging over 5,000 salmon smolts. Over 50 smolts were from last year’s fry reared at Endsleigh hatchery, these fish have smolted after only one year, and were in excellent condition.
Salmon fishing has been fairly quiet, with only a few fish so far taken on the lower beats. Unusually for springers these were quite small fish, only around 6 pounds in weight. A few early sea trout are already in the river, and have been seen jumping on the hotel water in Lyd Foot pool. One was taken on our Endsleigh beat during April, and a smattering of sea trout came from other beats on the lower river. Both sea trout and salmon should now be well spread throughout the whole river system, and night sea trouting will be improving all through June.
Fly hatches were encouraging, with the black gnats just starting in earnest at the end of April, along with olives and some iron blue duns. Mayflies and yellow May duns will be around for June, offering some first-class sport with the wild brownies.
