Mister Hawthorn - You're Late!

At long last, I saw the first Hawthorn fly of the year yesterday. Bibio Marcii is so named because it appears on St. Mark's day, which is 25th April. Being almost a month late demonstrates what a cold, late spring we are having here in Devon. Our little wild brownies absolutely love this big, juicy land-born fly, which falls helplessly to the water on breezy days, and we are having plenty of those.
The trout were rising well in the slower pools, and there is still a good flow after a big spate last week. As well as a few hawthorns, there were plenty of olives, some yellow may duns and more black gnats, and fish caught were fat and full, as they jolly well should be in late May. The Mayfly itself, Ephemera Danica, is at last being seen on the Ottery, where two rods caught 45 trout yesterday. I told them that they could try harder, but it was a reasonable effort.
David Pilkington

Summer is a-coming in - I think!

You may be forgiven for thinking that, after more than 60 years, the sudden realization that summer is actually happening again may not really do much to me - but it still does! Today, despite a cool wind, the fresh green leaves glowed in the odd glimpses of sun, black gnats swarmed over the stickles for the very first time this year, rhododendrons bloomed on the Lifton Park drive - by God it felt good! A few trout rose, more in some pools than others, but they were catchable on dry fly. An inch of extra water after yesterday's rain has helped push more smolts seaward, but they are still not all gone yet.
All things are late this season, not a sign of a hawthorn fly, and in the frenzied melee of hirundines over the river fields there are still no swifts. I am sure they will be here soon, as will the salmon, to catch a salmon at Lifton before the swifts arrive is rare indeed. Rain is falling again as I write, and should give the little smolts encouragement to head down-river tonight - I wish them well on their dangerous journey, and look forward to their return.
David Pilkington

Smolts Galore!

The seemingly interminable non-Spring of 2013 rolls gently on, at last a few glimpses of the sun,but everything natural, in terms of flowers, trees, insects etc., appears to be 3 or 4 weeks behind. One thing, however, to brighten the horizon, is the excellent numbers of smolts in our water. All the rivers, from the larger Tamar to the humble little tributaries like the Wolf and Thrushel, are stuffed full of both salmon and sea-trout smolts. These brave, beautiful little bars of silver are currently dropping down every night towards the sea, helped by smatterings of rain and decent flows in the rivers.
I cannot recall seeing so many, the pool above the gauging weir at Polson on the Tamar was alive with them, dimpling the surface across the whole pool. Their presence has not gone unnoticed by the cormorants, fortunately just before our licence expired, so did one of a pair seen on the Tamar.
This superb smolt run augers well for the future, many of the sea-trout smolts were as much as 8 inches long, and these will be back in the river again by July, having at least trebled their weight. The run of school peal should be good this year, as for the salmon it will be one or two full years before they return.
Trout fishers have been reporting these smolts from all the beats, along with a few nice brownies, best around 10 inches, and an odd grayling.  Fly hatches are just now starting to build, I saw more Grannom on the Lyd this morning than I have done so far for the year. Large dark olives and large brook duns are about, we are expecting the swarms of black gnats soon, and of course May is very much the fly fisher's month. David Pilkington  

One swallow doth not a summer make!

It certainly was April Fool's Day. Tim and I were working on the Tamar yesterday morning,  getting the riverbank back into fishable order after the winter floods, and there was a swallow. I looked again, expecting someone in a Jester's outfit to be playing it on a bit of nylon, but no, it really was a swallow.
The sun was out but the bitter east wind cut like a knife. Just briefly, while digging silt out of a flight of steps, in a very sheltered spot, I shed my coat, and contemplated shedding my jumper. Standing back in the wind on top of the bank admiring my work, I was glad I didn't.
Down beside the water, in the sun and out of the wind, new growth of nettles and celandines was thrusting hopefully upwards. A pair of grey wagtail flitted about, hoping for a hatch of fly, rather like the anglers. On Easter Saturday we saw a peregrine carrying some unfortunate songbird, being given serious grief by a pair of ravens.
There does seem to be some faint hope of this present arctic blast moving elsewhere by next week. The trout and the anglers will all be very grateful. David Pilkington.

New Rods for a new season...

We've just received a huge box of rods from Sweden... Guideline's new Exceed range.
We tried some of the switch rods and smaller double-handers at the end of last year and we were very impressed. The trout and sea trout rods have just arrived. First impressions are very good indeed; not too 'pokerish' like many modern rods. These actually feel like 'proper', honest fishing rods and not just for the distance casting competitions! The 9ft, 9ft 6in and 10ft 7wt models should be spot on for sea trout. Please can we now have some mild weather in which to try them?

As a special introductory offer, we are giving £10 off any Exceed rod.

You can see the whole range, prices and more info here:

Guideline Exceed Fly Rods

Spring is coming (apparently!)

Despite the rest of the country being blanketed in snow and ice, the sun is shining in Lifton today. The only hint of harsh weather is a bitterly easterly wind which is freezing the fingers while we fish.
Due to a large dose of rain last week, we have been restricted to tackling Tinhay Lake's trout, but - remarkably - these fish have been rising well to hatches of large black midges.
Earlier last week, Aidan Decadenet managed a brace of fish on a sinking line and Green Pea black lure. One of the fish was most noteworthy - a superbly-conditioned, grown-on brown trout of between five and six pounds. The trout fought like fury, but young Aidan kept his cool and landed the fish in style, which he then returned to the lake.

Aidan Decadanet with a superb Tinhay Lake brown trout.

This weekend saw a group of anglers fishing the lake, and beginner Jan Spendlove showed the boys how it's done, landing three perfect rainbows of around 1 1/2lb on a Black Buzzer. Regular fisher, youngster Dan Barnard celebrated his 11th birthday in style with two lovely rainbows to 3lb on a lure fished deep. Well done that boy!
Amazingly on Sunday 24th March, we saw two sand martins at the lake. They were working hard in the freezing cold for a few adult buzzers, but they must have wished they were still back in Africa. Pussy willow is breaking on the riverbanks, the snowdrops are now all gone, surely Spring must now be just around the corner.