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.

River Report - 28/3/12

The trout season is off to a good start, although the current tropical weather is dropping water levels at a rate of knots. This doesn't yet seem to be worrying the trout as most rods out fishing have been managing catches of well into double figures. Here's a report from regular rod Ben Garnett...
"I went out to Beat 2, had a lovely start to the season - sun shining, wood anemones out everywhere, birds singing, frogs croaking and the otter had made a sandcastle to poo on :) Caught 23 fish including 3 grayling (one beautiful male of 1lb 8oz in his spawning colours - slipped him back carefully!), and at least 5 pretty big salmon parr (these were scattered widely up and down the beat. Although seem to be quite a few in the first pool by the bridge?). Managed one trout to a Para Adams, the rest came to the nymph. There were grannom and LDOs around, also a fair number of daddy long-legs."

We still have availability for some of the season's best wild trout fishing over the next couple of months, so pleaqse don't hesitate to call us on 01566 784666 if you fancy wetting a line!

River Report

The salmon season opened on March 1^st, with the trout season following on the 15^th. As per usual at this time of year, very few anglers were seen on the rivers as, realistically, the chance of a March Tamar salmon is a very slim one. However, the first salmon of the season - a ten-pounder - was reported from the tidal waters in the middle of the month, so the season is now officially underway. We can offer rods on the tidal water for £30 per day; availability is very limited, so please phone for details. The first Arundell Arms trout of the season – albeit a tiddler of around six inches - was landed by regular rod Alexander Jones, on a goldhead nymph on beat 7a of the Tamar. The trout fishing has been typically slow with rods having to cover plenty of water to find the odd feeding fish. Nymphs have been the choice for most but, on the milder days, brief rises have been taken advantage of with fish feeding sporadically on small hatches of olives. During the winter months, several of the more lightly-fished trout beats have been subject to serious bank clearance by the Arundell river keepers, bringing hotel fishers even more accessible water to enjoy. Let’s hope for some rain this year, as last year’s dry summer hampered chances of the quality salmon and sea trout fishing that the Tamar system can produce. A date for the diary is the long weekend of 26^th – 30^th July when the hotel will be hosting the third annual Westcountry Sea Trout Festival. This sociable event has proven particularly popular with those taking their first steps in to night sea trout fishing.

A New Season Opens

March the first sees salmon fishing opening on the Tamar system, with sea trout on the third and trout on the fifteenth of the month. Dog's Mercury, Purple Toothwort and Kingcups are already flowering on the river banks. Herons and egrets are fishing the weir at Polson, along with a pair of kingfishers, and for the first time ever an oyster-catcher was on Tinhay Lake.
Grannom were hatching on the Tamar yesterday, Large Dark Olives any day now. Fresh otter tracks everywhere along the margins - I am sure he will leave a few fish for us. Plenty of water in our rivers, but low enough for some nice grayling to be caught on nymphs.

River Report

The rivers are holding a nice level but low enough to fish for grayling. We are currently in a spell of mild weather and the first grannom has been seen on the Tamar system.
Large dark olives will be hatching for the start of the trout season, which is now less than a month away.
Salmon fishing starts on March 1st, although very few springers are expected so early in the season. However, for those fishing the lower beats on the Tamar... there is always a chance (albeit a very small one!).

In addition, our own David Pilkington is interviewed as part of the 'Totally Devoted' series in The Field magazine this month (March 2012 issue) - well worth a read!

Winter in the Lyd Valley