2004 Season

Season started off cold (snowing as the brochures were being posted out) however good weather and higher temperatures in April together with some rain kicked off the Brown Trout sport.
May was generally very warm and dry apart from occasional thunderstorms which gave rise to some very localised spate conditions. The lack of rain carried on through towards the end of June with with river reaching low levels however excellent hatches of Mayflies and Olives provided some good dry fly catches.
As summer rolled in good numbers of brownies from 4 to 12oz were reported on most beats but fishing was difficult on the wild smaller streams in low water conditions combined with the profuse summer bankside vegetation.

Seatrout penetrated all the main Westcountry river systems - with Seatrout caught on beats 3, 4, 10, 14 & 20 by the end of June.Disappointing numbers of Harvest or School Peal arrived with a good stamp of 2lb Sea Trout, giving some good sport for those prepared to fish after dusk during July and early August.

Grayling figured in most catch returns for Tamar, Inny, Lyd and Ottery beats to 21/2Ib.

The hurricanes in the Western Atlantic produced some very unstable air streams over the second half of August that resulted in some catastrophic downpours and thunderstorms.

Consequently all catchments in the scheme had localised spate conditions affecting various tributaries and in most instances the main river. This resulted in a good run of Grilse and Seatrout on most catchments with some notable catches on the A2000 beats.

A following very warm and dry spell to the 10th September allowed Brown Trout anglers to take advantage of some late season fly activity.

Autumn rains put virtually all the rivers back in spate on several occasions for late September and October resulting in a good run of Salmon on all southwest rivers and a further five fish landed on A2000 beats including one from the Lerryn which was the last beat to close for Salmon on December 15th.
Grayling continued to to figure in returns on the Tamar catchment with some good ones to 2Ib until the season ended on November 15th.

Notable Catches for the 2004 season

Sydenham
A brace of early Seatrout around 2lb taken in April.

Penpoll Lake
5 Carp (18lb, 2x16lb, 12lb, 10lb) in a session at the end of April. Sweetcorn and stealth were the successful tactics!

Treguddick
P produced 14 Brown Trout with several in the 13 inch bracket in an early May lunchtime session. Fish fell to wet and dry patterns.

Wiggaton
Prolific Brown Trout catches (42 caught in one session!) reported mid May. Fish from 6 to 12 inches falling to small black klinkhammer.

Ham Mill
A dozen Trout to 11 inches on evening rise in mid June

Champerhaies
Trout to 1Ib and Chub to 3Ib+ reported during July.

Treguddick
Continues to perform as one of the scheme's most popular beats with returns of 4 Grayling all over 21/2lb taken one mid August afternoon together with several Sea Trout to 4 lb taken in early morning / late evening forays.

Clam End
6lb Sea Trout taken after one of the late August spates.

Sydenham
5 1/2lb Grilse taken early morning on falling water at the end of August. Sea Trout and Grayling to 2lb also recorded at this time.

Upper Torridge beats
A all recording some good Brown Trout landed to 14 inches on warm evening sessions in the first week of September with a brilliant catch of 62 trout between 3 anglers in one afternoon.

In October, Salmon to 8Ib were reported at West Larrick, Treguddick and Collon Barton.

An early November Grayling of 3Ib caught and returned at St Leonards.

Some end of season statistics
Total declared salmonid catches for all A2000 beats:
Brown Trout 2168
Sea Trout 35
Salmon 7
Grayling 132
96% of catch returned.

6 most visited beats:
Sydenham
Treguddick
Champerhayes
Gortleigh
South Yeo
Ham Mill