May Report

Rivers remained low for the first half of May until a spate on the 15th that brought the main Tamar up by nearly three feet. Until this point, trout fishing had been steady, although cold conditions meant that nymphs and wet flies took most of the fish. As the spate dropped, milder weather kick-started the large hatches of black gnats along with the first of the mayfly. Despite a further couple of small spates ruining trout fishing, overall anglers enjoyed superb sport with well over 650 brown trout recorded for the month on the Arundell Arms water. Many nice trout of around 10 inches were caught, with several around 12 inches landed on dries on the Ottery. A superb grayling estimated at two pounds was landed by Mr Davies on the Thrushel.
The first salmon on the hotel water was landed and released on May 20th, as a spate dropped away. Gerald Spiers hooked the fish in Quarry Pool on the Tamar on his own tube fly pattern, a Mumbra. The bright silver fish was measured at 29 inches, estimated at nine pounds. On the same day, David Pilkington landed and released the first sea trout of around 2 1/2lb in Silver Doctor Pool on the Lyd. The fish was caught in coloured water on a large Black Tadpole during the day.
While the lack of salmon being seen is a little worrying to say the least, reports of reasonable numbers of early sea trout from the lower river bodes well for the onset of night fly fishing at Lifton. With the rivers holding their heights well - even in the hot weather at the time of writing - trout fishing should remain very good thanks to large hatches of gnats, olives and a generous sprinkling of mayfly.