First Tamar salmon landed!

We have just heard that the first salmon of the 2014 season has been landed on the River Tamar. The bright silver springer was caught on fly on a private fishery on the lower river. 

With the Tamar still running high, it might not be too long before we are announcing the first Arundell fish of the year!

Start of the season report

River levels were fairly high for the opening of the trout season, and are still holding at a good level into April. 20 wild brownies, up to 9 inches, and 3 grayling up to 13 inches, have been caught so far from the Arundell Arms beats on the Lyd, Tamar and Carey. There are also some sea trout smolts starting to shoal in the Lyd, the salmon smolts will also appear soon, and this fact has not gone unnoticed by the cormorants and goosanders. Not much fly has been hatching this early in the season, but in a month's time we should be in the thick of the trout season with olives, black gnats and plenty of rising fish.

Migratory fish are so far pretty scarce, with nothing as yet reported on the Tamar. With such consistently high flows there is every chance of sea trout or salmon pushing well up into the middle reaches in the next few weeks. May will see a real chance of salmon or peal here at Lifton, with the best of the fishing expected a little later on. Sea trout sport peaks in July, with chances of a salmon always dependant on the right water conditions. All the springs and small streams are still flowing at full volume, and although the ground is slowly drying out, it has a very long way to go before we start worrying about flow levels.

David Pilkington