October Report and Season Summary

With the exception of a fleeting rise of around a foot during the second week, October saw low water and leaf soup for salmon fishers at the Arundell Arms. On the last few days of the season reasonable numbers of fish were present on the middle Tamar, although many were coloured. From the start of the month up to the last day on the 14th, 12 fish were landed (all of them released). Highlights included first fish for regular guest James Graham and for local angler Ben Garnett. James landed a cock fish of around 6lb in Top Pool on the Lyd on a Mepps. Ben landed two – one to a spinner and one to a home-tied Cascade – both grilse, on the Tamar. Alan Vinnicombe had a very productive day on the Tamar, landing four to 28 inches on spinner, and the best fish - 10lb-plus - was landed by hotel instructor David Pilkington in Quarry Pool on a Sunray Shadow on the last day of the season.
The final flurry in October took the salmon total to 23 fish off the Arundell Arms beats, with another six from the hotel rods on other beats. The largest fish of the season, estimated at 13lb, was landed by Alexander Jones in Lydfoot on the Tamar in late July. All but two fish were returned to the river. This total is a considerable drop from last season’s 50 fish, especially seeing as salmon fishing pressure was arguably greater this year. This backs up the general view that the river was badly lacking in salmon in 2009. On a brighter note, the sea trout total of 253 plus nine from hotel rods on other beats (with the majority released) was the best for 10 years. The largest fish, estimated at 5lb, was caught and released by Gabriele Miotti in Quarry Pool on the Tamar. If the peak four weeks of the season in July and August hadn't been lost due to relentless high water, we are confident that many more would have been added to the records. For those lucky enough to have fished when the conditions were right, some truly superb sport was had fly fishing at night. There was a very good mixture of fish too, with high numbers of school peal and plenty from 2 to 5lb. Some larger fish still were spotted, and at least four anglers reported being broken by monsters in the dark – time for some stronger string next season!
Trout fishing was also severely hampered by relentless spate conditions during the summer, but the total of 2204 wild brown trout (with all but a handful released) was almost double the five-year average. May yielded a fantastic 684 fish, including a good number over 10 inches, and most of them on dry fly. Trout fishers also picked up some reasonable numbers of grayling to nearly 2lb, and sightings of large fish rising during the closing days of the salmon season will be enough for hardy types to target these over the coming winter months.
With the exception of the worrying salmon situation, it was a good season at the Arundell Arms. We would have preferred the rain during the summer to have come at the back end, but there’s always next year!