A glimpse of Spring?

The heavy rain forecast for today failed to materialise, so this afternoon Tim and David had an hour on the River Lyd trying for grayling. Tim had a beauty of 36 cms, plus a brace of unseasonable brownies, while David had a smaller grayling and another brace of trout. All were taken on deeply fished nymph patterns. The sky cleared and the air was noticeably mild, and with the pussy-willow breaking we thought it could have been a Spring day.

Limited edition fly lines coming soon...

A limited range of lines will be available from the hotel from early March. Made in the UK and tailored to fishing small rivers, the lines have evolved from many prototypes used and abused by the hotel instructors and regular rods last season.

Our particular favourite is the 'PR Sink-Tip'. PR stands for 'Peal Remover' and - in our view - it's the perfect night sea trout line for small rivers. It's a white floating line that features a 4ft neutral-density tip (dark-olive coloured) to get the fly down a few inches deeper and avoid any wake which can and will spook fish on our westcountry streams. Unlike many sink tips, it turns over very smoothly without the noticeable clunky 'hinging' of some; this both gives a more stealthy touchdown on the water and aids all-important accuracy. At the same time, the tapers have been tweaked to handle our usual size 4 to 8 wet flies, as well as bulky 2-3 inch surface lures. The thicker-than-usual running line allows for more efficient mending and easy handling (ie little tangling!) at night.
Most importantly, (and without wanting to waffle on with the usual maketing man's jargon) they do the job they were made for, and we're happy with them.
Bring on those jumbo June sea trout.

The PR Sink-Tip will be available in WF 6 and WF 7.
Olive-coloured, floating river lines will be available in WF 4 and WF 5.
A white-coloured, 'standard' floating line will be available in WF 6.
The price is likely to be around £30 per line.
Orders are being taken now, and only 20 of each line (in each line rating) will be available for the time being.

Spring is trying hard to get here...

The rivers are currently low and clear enough for grayling fishing. Some rain is forecast for the coming week, which could rapidly colour the water and preclude fishing. Spring still seems a long way away, with winter birds such as egrets on the river, and a drake pochard on Tinhay lake. Midges were dancing in the sun yesterday, and Grannom will hatch by the end of this month. Snowdrops are in full bloom, and the wild garlic and daffodils are just poking through.

Flyfishmap.com - what a great idea!

If you have an hour spare, have a look at this site: Flyfishmap.com

It's the 'Google Earth' of fly fishing and we'll be following its development with interest...

Tamar salmon - the next generation

Here are a few pics from the River Tamar hatchery at Endsleigh today. The pics show cock salmon in a holding tank and some of the fertilised eggs from 2009's hatchery operation. If you look closely you can see that some eggs are 'eyed' - note the small dark marks in the eggs that are the developing salmon's eyes...

River Lyd webcam on the way

The fantastic River Tamar webcam went live shortly before Christmas - River Tamar Webcam - and we can now confirm that a River Lyd camera will soon be up and running. Watch this space!

Arundell Arms now on Facebook and Twitter

For those of you who may be members of Facebook or followers of Twitter, we will now (that's if this works!) publish regular updates on river conditions and catches.

For Facebook, search for Arundell Arms Fishing.

For Twitter, search for ArundellArms.

PS: As you can tell, the weather is miserable and the rivers in flood - explaining much wrestling with computers this afternoon!