NEWS – all categories

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.

From the Totnes times ‘Peep at the Past’ feature:

100 Years Ago

Owing to thunder showers towards the end of last week, the Dart rose, and the salmon and peel were noticed on the move. The water is, however, again low.

Eight salmon have fallen to the rods, Mr Wright securing five weighing 47lb in all; Mr Churchward two, of 8Ib and 9lb; and Mr Willcocks one of 8ib. All the fish were taken with the worm. Mr H Searle had a couple of nice peel and some trout. Mr E Distin also took several brace, the fish being in capital condition.

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.

 

Here are some smolts that were caught on the fish pass camera at TWP. It is unclear at the moment whether they are sea trout or salmon smolts. The v-shaped tail may not necessarily indicate salmon at this stage of development.

The fish near the camera look huge but you can see from the fish in the background and especially in the bottom photograph that they are indeed smolt-sized. The red strip is 600mm wide. Although good for species identification purposes, it is very difficult to assess the size of fish from a side view like this and it is hoped that in time an overhead camera may be fitted to make the task easier.