Winding down for the winter.
With all the river fishing now closed, except for grayling, tackle is being put away for the winter and things are much quieter at the hotel.
2014 has to go down as the worst salmon season since 1959, which for those with very long memories, was a drought of biblical proportions. We managed just 4 salmon, all released, with 2 more from our rod at Endsleigh. The season was spectacular for lack of both water and fish during the normal salmon-producing months.
Sea trout fishing, by contrast, was rather good, with a total of 172, of which we released 124. Had it not been quite so scorchingly hot from late June until the end of the season, no doubt we would have had several more. The whole Tamar system was stuffed with sea trout, on the last day of September I fished at Endsleigh, and eschewing the pleasure of trying to catch one of a very few salmon in hopeless water, took the trout rod and hooked 4 sea trout on dry flies.
Brown trout fishing was also good, and would have been a lot better without the sky high temperatures and dead low water which persisted for much of the season. We had 1,537 wild brownies from our rivers, one notable feature being the scarcity of fly life after the raging winter storms, and the success of nymphs.
We also had 127 grayling, more than usual, and possibly because more people fished nymphs, which are always very attractive to the Lady of the Stream.
Currently the rivers are settled after a decent spate in mid October, running quite clear and in fine order for grayling fishing. Sitting at the computer may have to be shelved for a couple of hours!
Tight Lines. David Pilkington
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