You may remember the 4½ lbs brown trout caught by Luke’s young son Ruben while fishing for salmon with his dad back in March.
More recently, in the first week of September, Ruben caught his first fly-caught sea trout at night.
Caught on an up-river beat, the fish had been in for a couple of months and weighed 1¾ lbs.
Robin Thorn had a good night on Friday on an up-river beat. The Sea Trout pictured was a good 30 ins long, estimated at 8 or 9 pounds.
Robin also had one of 2.5 lbs and two of 4 lbs in the same session.
Our fishing has been closed to visitors since the beginning of lockdown. Previous to this, tickets were available from the Dartmoor Lodge Hotel. We are pleased to say that the Dartmoor lodge will be reopening on the 13th July, when visitors tickets will again be available.
Since fishing restarted last month, TWP has fished reasonably well, with a decent number of sea trout caught up to 5 or 6 pounds.
In May, about 400 fish passed through the fish counter, mainly sea trout. In June about 150 had been counted at the last check.
Of course the fishing in TWP will now tail off as the fish move upstream.
Oddly, given their prevalence over the past few years, no sea lice have been seen on fish and no fish with saprolegnia fungus infestations have been reported. Could this be some effect of lockdown or is it just coincidence?
This lovely approx 2lbs brownie was caught by member Ben Beardsworth just above Abbotsmead recently. The image is a bit dark, as the photo was taken in crepuscular light.
Ben tempted the fish with a size 14 BWO and says it was quite an acrobatic character, leaping about 3 feet in the air.
You may be aware that fishing in England is to reopen on Wednesday (13th May). Our water will be open to members but please note that we will not be issuing day tickets for the moment and that the Duchy fishing on Dartmoor remains closed until further notice
Of course, Social Distancing of at least 2 metres must be strictly adhered to on the river bank, just as it must elsewhere. Presumably interactions between more than two people from separate households are similarly not allowed.
Good luck.
Due to the small changes to the Coronavirus lockdown regulations announced yesterday, fishing can resume on Wednesday (13th May). However – not everyone could wait. This visitor ended up fishing in DAA member Rob Dart’s garden pond!
Fisher from Dart Angling Association on Vimeo.
Some of you already will have received the following from the Angling Trust but for those of you who have not…
| When We Fish Again – an important update from Jamie Cook |
We’ve now submitted our proposal to the Government to get us fishing safely again and wanted to share them with you. This is a phased plan to see angling permitted as a safe activity for mental and physical wellbeing during the COVID-19 crisis. It’s a powerful case as to how and why angling should be at the front of the queue when the lockdown restrictions are reviewed.
I encourage everyone to watch our video and read the summary report we have provided so that everyone is clear on the detail of our proposal.
In sharing this I want to be absolutely clear that restrictions on angling have not yet been lifted – that decision must remain with the government in order to align with the national effort to combat the transmission of COVID-19 and support the work of our public services.
WATCH THE VIDEO AND READ OUR SUMMARY REPORT
Hon Sec has been busying himself on this line winder project as an alternative to creeping around in the dark trying to catch sea trout. He comments: “I hope that George Fawcett Butler my ex headmaster and past Association secretary would think that five years at Homelands Technical High School were not completely wasted!”
Unfortunately Phil will not reveal the secret plans but if you want to have a go yourself it should be possible to reverse engineer the winder from the photos he has provided.
All I can say Phil, is your racquet needs re-stringing.
DAA Chairman Ian Scofield has sent the following to members. It sets out the Association’s position.
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Members must be aware that the government has imposed a lockdown to deal with coronavirus.
It requires the population to stay in their homes except for certain very limited necessities.
Angling Trust has been told that fishing is not one of the exceptions and therefore angling is not permitted until further notice. Angling Trust is trying to persuade the government that angling as a solitary activity should be allowed but nothing is likely to change before the three week review date at the earliest.
We know members will be frustrated by this but all we can do is to inform you of the government position as relayed to us by Angling Trust. It is not a DAA directive.
Ian Scofield