Portents of Spring

The winter so far has been extremely wet - you may have noticed! Rivers have been in flood for weeks and the ground is super-saturated. The Christams Eve flood peaked at a staggering 19 feet 4 inches down at Endsleigh, and was well into the teens of feet up here at Lifton. A walk along the Tamar  last week revealed hints of the damage which will need to be addressed before we start fishing, with three wooden ladders completely gone from just one beat. Those familiar with Coffin Pool at the junction of beats 7B and 8A may recall a mass of fallen trees lodged firmly in the pool tail for the last two years - well, they are gone!
One has only moved some 50 yards, and is now in Little Coffin pool, fortunately very close to the bank and out of the way. Another has come to rest a further 200 yards down, in Chain Bridge pool, and again not in a place which will affect fishing. The other went a good quarter-mile and is in the shallows above Tunnel pool. The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away.
Signs of approaching Spring are everywhere, this year's growth of Dog's Mercury is actually in flower, and the hazel catkins, normally tightly compacted, are fully extended into the 'lamb's tails' which we normally expect in March. In spite of early morning ice today, and miserable cold rain, a blackbird is singing his heart out in the hotel garden, and wood pigeons are getting amorous in the ash trees.
The accompanying photo shows the level of Tinhay Lake, hopefully it will subside by the time we resume fishing properly.

Here's to 2014 - a new season beckons

A happy new year to one and all. After a season of desperately low water conditions, we were hoping for a drop of rain in 2014 and it appears to have come a few months early... We often get a large winter flood on the Tamar system, but since a rise of nearly 14 feet on Christmas Eve, it's barely dropped back. At the time of writing, nearly all of the rivers are once again just about in the fields. Needless to say, grayling fishing is on hold for the time being.
Prior to Christmas, we walked the tributaries to look for signs of spawning salmon. Although a little later than usually expected, we were very pleased to witness several pairs of fish and many redds throughout the Lyd, Wolf and Thrushel. This came as a small sigh of relief as relatively few salmon seemed present in the river during the season. All being well, the offspring of these fish will be taking our flies on the Tamar and Lyd in 2017 and 2018!
Here's to a fish-filled 2014 season. Our course dates and fishing availability have all been updated on the main hotel website, so please CLICK HERE for more information.

High-summer trout fishing on the Tamar