Westcountry sea trout flies - now available

Online Shop - Sea trout flies

A range of our favourite flies for Westcountry sea trout fishing is now available at our online shop. Stingers and surface lures will be available very soon. Here's to a summer of nocturnal activity and screaming reels...

Happy Birthday to England's premier fly fishing school!

The Arundell Arms celebrates 75 years as England's premier fly fishing school in 2010. The landmark year was marked by a week of 1930s-themed events, culminating in a Murder Mystery dinner this coming weekend.

Over the years, many thousands of anglers have taken their first casts under the guidance of Arundell Arms instructors. It's a wonderful privilege to often meet three generations - grandfather, son and grandson - who have all learnt to fish at the hotel. To put it into perspective, we asked Roy Buckingham how many people he taught in his time as senior instructor (between 1969 and 2008): "I worked it out to be in the region of 16,000!"

Here's to another 75 years and many thousands more new recruits.

(Left to right: hotel instructor Tim Smith, director Adam Fox-Edwards, manageress Heather Measey, hotel instructor David Pilkington.)
The photo above shows current hotel AAPGAI instructors David Pilkington dressed in typical 1930s attire and Tim Smith in modern fisher's dress.

Fly fishing in Devon - Spring on the River Lyd

Just a couple of pictures of the River Lyd that has been spoiling our guests with its spring show of daffodils and wood anenomes. Unfortunately its resident wild brown trout haven't quite been playing ball! The successful anglers have been those fishing heavy nymphs and covering as much water as possible. A bout of warmer weather should do the trick and encourage fish to take advantage of the prolific grannom and large dark olive hatches.





PS: After last week's success, all seems to be quiet on the salmon and sea trout front... for now!

First Salmon and Sea Trout 2010!

Arundell Arms instructors David Pilkington and Tim Smith started the catches rolling on the River Tamar this week with (as far as we know!) the first sea trout and salmon of the season.
On April 13th, the pair fished a section of the lower river and David hooked a big sea trout within half an hour of starting. While Tim took snaps of the dramatic fight, the fished threw the hook just moments away from the net!
Not to be beaten, David moved to a pool lower down and hooked another fish! This one, just under 3lb of sea-liced spring peal, didn't escape. David hooked both fish on an intermediate line and (perhaps not a big surprise!) a size four Pilk's Bumble.




The following afternoon, and just a few hundred yards from David's previous success, the pair saw a fish show while they were having a bite to eat. They both fished down the long pool to cover it, but it was Tim's lucky day. Fishing a 7wt rod, Di3 line and size four WMD (an outfit aimed at early sea trout), Tim saw himself connected to eight pounds of very angry springer. A spectacular fight in powerful water saw Tim chasing up and down the pool until David did the honours with the net. The fish was in absolutely perfect condition and incredibly fresh, bearing long-tailed sea lice. After a quick photo or two, the salmon was safely returned to the Tamar.

Rivers Update

Sadly the rivers are all a little too high to get those waders on to chase some trout. It's now (fingers crossed) drying up however, and the water should now drop pretty quickly (trees are very thirsty at this time of year, which helps!). Given a few more days and it will finally be time to get the season started in earnest.
On the salmon front, no one has been able to get close to the river for weeks now, until today when just the very odd pool was fishable by guests with spinning kit. With all of this water, the first of the season could just as well come from our beats at Lifton as on the lower river...

Arundell Arms Fishing Hats...

...are now in stock!





These are brushed canvas (superb material - almost like moleskin), olive-coloured caps. Embroidered with The Arundell Arms logo, they are extremely durable and a sensible colour to help you blend in with the background when hunting those tricky river trout. Just the job for the season ahead and a bargain at only £12.99.

Click here to visit the online shop: BUY ARUNDELL ARMS CAPS ONLINE