News

The Arundell Arms hotel in Devon is one of the UK’s premier fishing hotels, with 20 miles of private fishing on the River Tamar and its tributaries. They are running a friendly and social weekend of fly fishing for wild trout with dinner and accommodation, aimed at Wild Trout Trust members and supporters. Your host is David Pilkington, the hotel’s senior fly fishing instructor. Join David for dinner and take advantage of his 50+ years’ fly fishing experience. Stay for two nights, Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 May 2020, for £295 per person. The price includes two days fishing and dinner each evening, plus room and breakfast.

The hotel will donate £20 per person to the Wild Trout Trust.

For more information and to book your place, contact Reservations@arundellarms.co.uk or ring 01566 784666

WTT members will have seen an article in the Autumn newsletter describing how to tell the difference between a brown trout and a sea trout. They are the same species, but with different life strategies and telling them apart is not as easy as you might think.

You can read the article here.

Paul Kenyon of Snowbee and Fly Fishing Devon has taken the question further in this interesting web page .Another interesting article on the remarkable flexibility of trout and their migration habitats will appear in our journal, Salmo Trutta, which will be sent to members in early May.(You can join as a member here.)

Beavers have been breeding on the River Otter in Devon since at least 2015 and have been the subject of intensive study to understand their impacts. The River Otter Beaver Trial Science and Evidence Report has now been published and is available to download here.

Mike Blackmore, formerly WTT Conservation Officer and now working for the Wessex Rivers Trust, sat on the Fisheries Forum for the beaver trial and wrote this article for our journal, Salmo Trutta, in 2019.

More information, including the WTT position paper on beaver-trout interactions, is available on the ‘Predators and Beavers’ library page on our website. The summary paper includes a matrix of postive and negative effects of beaver activity on trout.The Wild Trout Trust position on beavers can be summarised as:

The judging team agreed that the Living Heritage of the Don project reflected the innovative nature of contemporary urban river restoration, with its blend of technical excellence, partnership working, community engagement, long-term monitoring, and above all fish passage improvement - so that salmon are now reappearing in the post-industrial heart of Sheffield after an absence of 200 years.

The project has received a £2500 donation from the Fario Club supported by Peter Ahluwalia Bellinvest Global Equity Fund together with a sculpture of a kingfisher, the river watcher, cast by reknowed bird sculptor Paul Harvey.

Click here for the full Press Release with details of all the finalists.

The EA are running a consultation on whether to extend the season for the Yorkshire and NE coast net sea trout fishery. We would encourage everyone to respond to preserve our sea trout stocks. The consultation closes 21 February 2020.EA consultation details are here.

There are supporting documents which you can download, and the survey can be submitted online or using this document. It is very short – essentially one question.

Our full response is here. This is the first paragraph of our response:

Fishing available:

A number of clubs and fishery owners have contacted us to say that they have fishing available for the coming season:

River Lambourn at Hunts Green near Newbury. Contact Bruce Wheeler on 07950 046696Taw Fishing Club in mid Devon. Ideally local members willing to get involved in river management. Contact info@tawfishingclub.orgRiver Itchen at Easton/Kingsworthy. Contact Chris.Netherton@disastercare.co.ukRiver Usk (lower river). ISCA Angling Club – salmon and trout fishing. sec.isca@gmail.comWiltshire Avon on Salisbury Plain, email: chisenburyfishing@outlook.comRivers Dove,Churnet and Bentley Brook. Leek and District Fly Fishing Association. https://ladffa.com/