Westcountry Sea Trout Festival 2011

Well we're finally back on planet Lifton, having spent the last four days or so at Blenheim Palace for the CLA Game Fair. It's always great fun and a change from being on the river banks talking about fishing to, er, being stood in a field talking about fishing! To all those regular Arundell Arms folks that visited us at the show - thanks for popping in and we hope you enjoyed the event. Now to another event.
The Sea Trout Festival (1st to 12th July) was a great success. Sadly, the drought we've experienced all spring and summer threw us a bit of a curved ball and the sea trout were a little thin on the ground. With lots of anglers fishing over 10 nights and our ghillies working their hardest to find the fish, a total catch of only 19 fish was a little disappointing. However, the demonstrations and organisation seemed (we hope!) to run smoothly, and many newcomers to sea trout and fly fishing at night caught their first fish. The largest fish of the event was landed by Tony Brown on the Tamar, and weighed approximately 3lb. There were one or two larger fish seen during the nights, but they remained elusive.
The highlight of the event was undoubtedly the Gala Day, where a happy bunch of keen anglers gathered to hear talks from the likes of Dr Graeme Harris (author - Successful Sea Trout Angling) and the marvelous folks at the Westcountry Rivers Trust. Some of the latest research was indeed fascinating, especially the information on the AARC project: AARC PROJECT
The mysterious lives of sea trout are gradually being unraveled!
The day continued with talks and demos on all things sea trout related, followed by a very entertaining discussion/ q&a session with David Pilkington, Bob Mountjoy (author - The Sea Trout Diaries) and Charles Innis (fishery manager - The Half Moon Inn, River Torridge). Cormorants, canoeists and catching big peal were all up for discussion. To wrap things up in his own supremely entertaining style, Charles Jardine (straight off the plane from Norway) very kindly dropped in with a few rods. Charles' demo was the perfect end to the day as the afternoon sun faded and thoughts turned to the river bank at night.
David and Tim would like to thank all of the anglers that attended and special mention must go to the additional ghillies during the event - Alex, David, Gerald and Joe. We'd also like to thank the Celtic Sea Trout Project, The Westcountry Rivers Trust, Country Sports South West, Simon Kidd at Snowbee (everyone was impressed by the new Switch rods!) Paul Hopwood and www.seatroutforum.com, and last but by no means least... Charles Innis, Bob Mountjoy and Charles Jardine.
We have already been asked the question about the 2012 event... we'll let you know early next year!

A collection of pics...

July Update

Sorry for the lack of reports of late - it's been a busy fortnight here at the Arundell Arms. A full report of the Sea Trout Festival will come soon, complete with pictures, but suffice to say that a great time was had by all. Sadly, the fish were very much thin on the ground, with a lot of hours fished by a lot of anglers for only 19 landed to 3lb. However, most of these fish were first ever sea trout for the festival goers, which is the aim of the game.
The sea trout are still a little thin on the ground, although reports of large shoals of school peal on the lower river are very encouraging... so watch this space.
Trout fishing is still relatively good for the time of year, and small goldhead nymphs are taking the lion's share. A size 16 goldhead Prince Nymph was just the ticket for one angler on beat 3 of the Lyd yesterday who - in his own words - caught 'TOO MANY' fish!!!
Salmon... well. When we finally get some rain, we'll let you know. Tomorrow's forecast is a wet one so fingers crossed.