Friday 10th May - Wild Brown Trout on the River Lyd Devon

For my 58th Birthday my wife treated me to some wild brown trout fishing down on the Tamar system and 2 nights in the Arundell Arms Hotel which fully caters for anglers (game fishermen). I have not done this since I was in my early teens and was looking forward to the change. The Arundell Arms controls about 20 miles of river fishing as well as have their own lake. Here is an overview of what water they cover.

Due to the heavy rain the Tamar was very dirty and unfishable but I was allocated Beat 20 on the River Lyd so had about a mile and a bit to myself. When I show one of the coaches my 9; 6'' rod he fell about laughing and loaned me a nice 8' one with a box of trout flies and light leaders. When I did get to the river, about 6 miles away from Lifton I could see why the 9' 6'' rod would be no use.

Here are some pictures of the surroundings, absolutely beautiful.

River is here somewhere



Found it

An open space at last

The River was averaging about 2 foot deep in the pools but a lot of it was less than 6'' deep, very clear so had to stalk the fish as they were easily spooked. I was keeping eye on the fish and creeping around so much I was not looking where I was going and suddenly slide down a bank of wild garlic on my backside and ended up in the river with a wader full of water ''oh dear'' I said, not lol. Not to be put off I emptied the water out and carried on. Finally I got a take, look at this fine specimen.



ok if you are on a diet!

Slightly better fish followed, here are some samples.....

 

After about 5 hours when I went back down the beat to catch up with my wife who sat among the blue bells all day reading a big deer bolted out right in front of me, I nearly filled the other wader but it wasn't with water!!!

All in all a lovely days fishing and a great birthday present.