Typical! The West Country was just declared by the Environment Agency to be in 'environmental drought', and it has hardly stopped raining since! Fears of the low water we endured in March have now vanished, the best news being that the salmon and sea trout smolts have had an excellent and largely predator-free journey down to the estuary. This is in stark contrast to last year, when dead low clear water left the precious smolts running the gauntlet on every shallow, harried by cormorants, herons ,goosanders, egrets, the lot. We therefore expect a significant improvement in the run of school peal this summer.
A huge amount of rain fell overnight, over an inch, giving a brawling brown flood on all our rivers. They will settle to good trout fishing again with a few dry days, in the meantime the blackbirds in the hotel garden are cashing in on the glut of worms to feed their young.
