The spring of 2009 started with a burst of warm weather and fishing on the rivers really kicked off with a bang.  However, just when we were thinking we could dispel the memories of the last two years of wet summers we were again hit with another record-breaking year of floods.

Fishing on the rivers, although impacted at times, turned out to be very good and we had reports of some excellent brown trout fishing to be had if anglers were prepared to seek them out.  Sea trout fishing during the day was at times also very good, but night fishing was sporadic at best. A number of anglers had great fun in the summer fishing for salmon, with the Tamar beats offering the best chance of a fish.

Looking to 2010, please make sure you keep the catch returns coming in; not only is it a requirement of using the Passport waters, but these data are essential for us to measure the quality and abundance of our fish stocks!

Booking Office fishery round-up

The Booking Office proved to be popular addition to the scheme and anglers reported some fine catches across the scheme’s waters including:

Sydenham - a 12lb salmon and 6lb sea trout in only four casts for one angler. Also, brown trout to 12", grayling to 2lb and lots of peal in the ¾lb to 1½lb range. As always it had great reports from the scheme’s anglers.

Netherbridge Court - a tally of over 30 fish with trout to 15" and grayling to 2.5lbs during one session. Salmon to 6lb and sea trout to 3.5lb also featured in the returns, lots of positive returns.

Leewood - generally small trout up to 10", a number of peal up to 2.5lb and one salmon of 5lb. Fished best on falling water with still plenty of colour.

Upper Yealm - fished very well last year, lots of brown trout to 12", a number of sea trout up to 4.5lb (although good numbers often seen in the weir pool to over 7lb) and salmon to 6lb. Lots of positive feedback.

South Dornaford - a good bet for some lovely trout fishing with fish to 12". No salmon caught but they were seen in several pools, sea trout (in the day) caught to 1lb. One angler simply noted ‘peaceful fishing in a lovely valley, thank you’.

Pixies Parlour - not overly fished, it produced wild brownies to 10" and occasional stocked fish to 1.5lb.

Token fishery round-up

The table below is a summary of the 2009 catches on each Token beat, with the different species and best fish also recorded.  We have included the best of the comments, but please note we want to hear about your day, good or bad.  In the few cases where we received negative comments it was down to issues such as access, and we have tried to address these problems before the 2010 season. Keep the returns coming in!