A reminder that our membership includes permission to fish the Dutchy water on Dartmoor. (Subject to level of membership)
This sea trout estimated at 3-3.5lbs was caught by a visiting angler staying at Two Bridges who hadn’t fished for peal for many many years.
He encountered it at the tail of Brakey Firs, first week in June. Quite fresh so must have run hard and fast on high water. Midnight. He was concerned about the disease on its snout but happy that it swam away strongly.
These are some selected fish counter photos from May/June this year. Some of these fish are fairly large. Because these photos are from above, it is not entirely possible to distinguish between Salmon and Sea Trout but the longer ones are probably salmon. As a guide to length, the electrode strips are 45cm apart.
Here’s a good photograph sent in by Dave Johns. It shows a Demoiselle fly eating what looks like a stonefly (two tails?) beside the Dart.
Just posted on the Photo Galleries page, some photos from member David Marles Showing a Dipper collecting food and this great shot of it feeding its young. Also a couple of good shots of a Grey Wagtail. (Full size pics in gallery)
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.
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.
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