The past month has seen rain, rain and more rain, with two full floods during which the Tamar and tributaries came close to breaking their banks. Unsurprisingly, this has been bad for trout fishing, disastrous for night sea trouting, but brilliant for salmon, in the windows of opportunity. Mrs Jo Morel showed the boys how to do it with a spanking fresh 9-pounder, released back into the tail of Quarry pool on the Tamar, on a large black and purple tube fly. Mike Haines then released another very fresh fish at Lyd Foot, estimated at 12 pounds. David Pilkington released a fresh ten-pounder in Black Doctor pool on the Lyd, taken while trying for a daytime peal, on a copper-beaded Black Pennell. Jon McQuade released two on separate days, an 8-pounder from the Lyd, spinning on very high water, then a 9-pounder from the Tamar. Geoff Gaskell, fresh from a successful afternoon of guided bass fishing with instructor Tim Smith, completed his day by releasing his first fish, a very acrobatic 8 ½ pounder from Donkey pool on the Lyd, taken on a Black Tadpole intended for sea trout. Alex Prentice then popped in for a cream tea, found a couple of hours to fish and released his first fish, a fresh 10-pounder in Lyd Foot, on an orange and black tube fly. Alexander Jones took the first grilse, a very fresh 4-pounder from Silver Doctor pool on the Lyd, and a few days later released an 11-pounder in Railway Hut pool on the Tamar. Eddie Gray released a very fresh fish of 10 ½ pounds in the tail of Quarry pool, on a Garry Dog. Charlie Yeoward fished a black and orange tube fly in Mallard pool on the Tamar and landed a fresh 9 ½ pounder, on a 5-weight trout rod. Despite 20 minutes trying to revive the fish in the water, this one was bleeding and did not survive, having swallowed the hook well down onto its tongue. Sadly the same fate befell a fresh 8-pounder taken on a flying ‘C’ by Rob Neville in huge dirty water on the Tamar at Quarry pool. Kit Ellis, having caught his first bass on fly during the afternoon with instructor David Pilkington, went on to release his first fish in Lyd Foot that evening, a spanking fresh 10-pounder taken on a Black Tadpole on a 7lb leader. Rupert Edmundson released a fresh 9-pounder in Quarry pool. Pride of place for this season goes to David Lynch, who landed his first fish in Upper Chain Bridge pool on the Tamar. David was alone and unaided, wading thigh-deep, and managed to eventually squeeze the fish into his small net. His camera was in his bag on top of the bank, so he measured the fish at twice the width of his net and released it. After much measuring of nets and estimation, this salmon must have been at least a 15-pounder! The successful fly was again the Black Tadpole.
Night sea trout fishing was impossible in the high water, but David Pilkington had a few forays for sea trout by day, landing one from the Tamar and two on the Lyd, best 19 inches, and all released. Black Bumbles and the good old Black Tadpole did the business. Dave Chapman fished the Lyd on a couple of evenings to release a brace of peal both around two pounds, taken on a large black tube fly and a Stoat’s Tail. Eddie Gray had a 2 ½ pounder on the Lyd on a tube fly, and Charlie Yeoward released a two-pounder also on the Lyd, on Pilk’s PR fly.
Only 85 wild brownies were released from our beats, a reflection of the fact that for most of the time the rivers were quite unfishable. We would normally expect several hundred trout at this time of the year. Mayflies are still hatching, with some good sedge hatches now appearing in the late afternoons, but river levels have to drop significantly to allow sensible trout fishing. Still, with 19 salmon so far for the season, it is not all bad news.
