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| Salmon fishing in 2011 was tough, but at times exciting... |
The 2011 season as a whole was dominated by serious lack of water throughout, with just a short period of good water levels during September, during which time we landed 21 salmon. The salmon total was 25 fish from our beats at Lifton, plus 4 for our rod on the lower Tamar, and one from our rods at Endsleigh. Of these 30 fish, only 3 were kept. Of the 27 released, the best was for Alexander Jones from Quarry pool on the Tamar, taken on a Rapala in high and dirty water in September. Despite the low flows, runs of salmon during the final few weeks of the season were good, with a decent head of fish now in the river system and prospects for spawning are excellent.
The sea trout total was 102 from our beats at Lifton, plus 5 from our rod on the lower Tamar, and 7 from our rods at Endsleigh. From this total of 114 sea trout, only 32 were kept. Of the 82 released fish, the best was a very good peal for the Tamar system at 6 ½ lbs, for Gerald Spiers in Silver Doctor pool on the Lyd, taken in mid-June on a WMD fly. The poor numbers of sea trout are a reflection of the crippling low flows which persisted for so much of the 2011 season.
These low flows made trout fishing tough at times, but the total of 2,241 wild browns (virtually all released) shows that our trout stocks are in fine fettle. The early season fishing was better than usual, simply because rivers were consistently low and never out of order due to spates. Dry fly fishing during May and June was superb, and some fine sport was also enjoyed in September. Individual catches and good fish are too numerous to mention, but many experienced rods had bags of over 20 fish in a day, and the best of these were up to 14 inches. We also had 73 grayling, again many good fish were released, the best up to two and a half pounds.
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| Beat 2, River Lyd. David Pilkington tries a cast for autumn grayling. |
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