Flaming June!

After some excellent trout fishing over the last couple of weeks, the migratory fish are now coming to the fore. The brownies gave superb sport while rivers were low, but a five-foot flood last Friday rather spoiled dry fly fishing. On Saturday, as the spate fell away Nick Sargeant had our second sea trout of the season, a very fresh fish of around a pound, released in Silver Doctor pool on the Lyd. David Morel fished a  large fly for salmon in Quarry pool on the Tamar, without success, his wife Jo followed him down and in ten minutes was playing a spanking fresh 9-pounder, carefully released after photos.
Today Mike Haines also put a large fly through Quarry pool, rewarded with another superb fresh fish, this one 31 1/2 inches, a conservative 12 pounds. Fish were sprinting over the gauging weir on beat 9a on Saturday, with more rain forecast they will just keep coming.

Postcard from the Riverbank

It seems that summer is here already and the Tamar Valley is looking simply stunning. We still have availability for June - without question the best month for wild trout fishing at The Arundell Arms. Later in the month should see the sea trout arrive and we're hopeful of a good run this year thanks to the high water of April. To whet the appetite - some pictures from the last couple of days...

The view from Quarry Pool upstream on the Tamar.

Butterflies and buttercups on the banks of the Tamar.

Beyond Blue Charm Pool, River Lyd.

The lower Tamar above Gunnislake.

A cast for a spring salmon on the Duchess Pool, River Tamar.

Trout fishing hotting up

Sport with wild brown trout has leapt into top gear with a spell of warmer weather and excellent water levels. The first few mayflies are now emerging, along with swarms of black gnat, plus lots of olives and a few sedges. 143 trout were released last week, along with 11 grayling, and we only had a few rods out each day.
The salmon keep coming, our fourth fish of the season was released at Lyd Foot by Dominic Jevons, a cracking fresh ten-pounder which took a Stoat's tail tube fly. Three other fish have been lost. Sea trout are pushing up the Tamar, some nice ones taken down at Endsleigh, and all heading up the river to the Arundell Arms.

First salmon 2012

A quick post to announce the first salmon of the season at the Arundell Arms. Caught yesterday by regular rod, David Chapman. In his own words....
"8.10pm, salmon approx. 7lb? (couldn’t get the flipping scale net to work, its seized up, obviously don’t make enough use of it), 1 ¼” copper tube carrot-coloured fly on fast sink tip line. She went like hell in all that water but finally managed a bundled landing. Fish went back very strongly, angler needed lie down. Happy days. Dave"

We currently have superb salmon fishing conditions. The fish will be few and far between at this time of year, but what quality fish...

The wettest drought for a long time!

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.

River Report 18/4/12

We finally have some water. It's wild outside with gale force winds and some very heavy showers, but our rivers have had a much-needed top-up and are currently up and rising. We could still do with this rain continuing for another week or two, but the extra drop at the moment should work wonders. With plenty of juvenile sea trout and salmon (smolts) about, this flush should send them on their way to sea to feed and grow before returning to the rivers in the future.
With a bit of luck, once the weather subsides, the winds will be more favourable and bring warmer days and nights and good fishing conditions rather than the persistant easterlies of late.
We can but wait and see, but in the meantime here's a brief report of the last few weeks' fishing:

Persistent easterly winds slowed trout fishing towards mid April at The Arundell Arms, but most anglers managed to catch a fish or two on wet flies and nymphs. Sporadic hatches of large dark olives brought a little dry fly sport for fishers in the right place at the right time, with most of the surface activity seen on the larger pools of the lower River Lyd. The March total was 121 wild brown trout, with the best fish at 10.5 inches on a dry Blue Dun for Tony Bostock fishing the River Wolf. Up to mid April 110 trout have been landed with some hefty out of season grayling to over 2lb also putting in an appearance. While heavy showers have brought a couple of small lifts to the river levels, a big spate would be gratefully received to encourage some early salmon and sea trout up the river to Lifton.