Author: Luke

Kevin Hoare from Washbourne fished Kilbury on friday night and was delighted to catch two sea trout. The first, an active school peal, was returned, and the second, a bigger fish was kept. Kevin doesn’t generally eat sea trout, but a kindly neighbour does. He laid this fine fish on the river bank and continued casting. When he’d had enough there was no sign of his catch. He searched high and low, in water and on bank, to no avail. Finally after half and hour and in the dead of night he gave up, but just as he was leaving he heard an otter call, and the penny dropped. Cross with himself for being a little foolish, and cross with the otter too, Kevin went home. This morning he phoned a contact in the angling fraternity and relayed his tale of woe. It just so happened that his friend was on his way to the river too and had decided to stop at kilbury to see what was about. Lying on the riverbed was a fish. . . freshly caught, and though somewhat smaller than the one in the story, it bore many of the same characteristics. Clumsy angler ? or otter with a conscience ?. . . . .take your pick !

Rob Dart  spent time fishing and viewing on 17/8 and was rewarded with a 3.5 lb grilse from Stretchford. This evening  Robin Thorn, fishing Fogden’s,  caught another grilse of  4lb. Both fish fresh.

 

15/8

Experienced local angler Robin Thorn has been at it again. This time catching two grilse in Abbotsmead and moving a third half a mile further up river in Nursery pool.  Robin is demonstrating perfectly that even in low water salmon can be caught. These clean fish weighing 4.5 and 5 lbs were taken on an upstream Mepps. (photo to follow) Hopefully Robin’s success will encourage other anglers to have a go.

There is a decent head of school peal in the lower river and most seem to be in excellent condition.

 

A landing net has been found on the lower river and a black thermos flask at Kilbury. Please call the secretary for more details.

13/8

Robin Thorne reports a grilse of 4 – 5 lbs taken while spinning CC water last week. He saw a couple of others in ideal viewing conditions.

10/8/16

Last week’s rain brought the river up by around 4 ft. It didn’t of course last for long, but as it dropped and cleared Derek Myhill intercepted a couple of grilse of 4 and 5.5 lbs. Both fish were caught spinning the CC water. Angling effort appeared quite low, but it is to be hoped that reasonable numbers  ran on the spate as new salmon have been observed higher upstream.

One or two members have had good night fishing  , and there are currently a few decent shoals of (mixed) seatrout  visible. Photo to follow.

23/6

The ‘unconfirmed’ salmon has been verified and was caught by Derek Myhill  from the same pool a few days earlier. The river is settling and coming into better condition for night fishing: one or two reports of success of late including a 5 lb fish from Hembury.

21/6

Robin Thorn caught an 8.5 lb salmon from Nursery Pool last Friday. There have been reports of another though so far unconfirmed.

 

Things seem pretty quiet on the sea trout front after a brief flurry of activity in the second half of May. Though a few have been caught, the general feeling is that the main run of ‘springers’ is over and has been somewhat disappointing. Quite a lot of disease has been witnessed and we have not got off as lightly as we had hoped. It remains concerning and we are not much the wiser.

 

05/5

Pleased to report the first confirmed fish from Totnes weir pool. Earlier this week Philip Prowse and Alan Tudor caught three sea trout between them and lost a couple of others. The fish ranged from 2.5 lbs – 4 lbs. Congratulations to both : perseverance furthers !

Some diseased fish have been spotted up river. It’s too soon to jump to conclusions, but nevertheless further sightings should be reported to the Hon Sec. The river is settled and perfect for viewing with polaroids: encouragingly, one of our members watched a large shoal of smolts ( sea trout ?) descending yesterday.