As spring brings colour to the riverbank, David Pilkington, instructor at The Arundell hotel, recalls a famous guest
TROUT FISHING IN THE Westcountry opens on March 15, and way back in the 1960s Oliver Kite often started his trout season here at The Arundell, as his local chalk streams were closed until April. He also sometimes began his season on the Usk, or the Teifi, which was where he first tied his famous Imperial to imitate large dark olives. Ollie, as his friends called him, died while fishing the chalk streams in 1968, and as my association with the Arundell didn’t start until 1969, it is of lasting regret to me that I never had chance to meet him. In Devon, Kite loved the little River Carey, and if the rivers are low and clear enough to fish on opening day, Kite’s Imperial will be found just as acceptable today as it was long ago. In the absence of any rising fish, a nymph is inevitably first choice, and the various modern nymphing techniques will usually catch a trout or two right from the opening day, but are also likely to catch a grayling.
With our fishery rules calling for total catch-and-release of all wild fish on the rivers, the close season concept has become a little woolly these days, as grayling rods inevitably catch trout in the winter, and trout rods catch grayling in the summer. I do not have a problem with this, so long as barbless hooks are used and best practice for fish handling is followed. If water temperatures remain low, the grayling will still be actively feeding, while the trout tend to bide their time until bigger fly hatches tempt them to the surface. We seem to be getting more extreme weather patterns these days, but I have my fingers crossed for a spell of warm and settled days to encourage me out with a rod. I will find myself unable to resist the temptation for a few casts if I feel a bit of spring sunshine on my face and hear the chinking call of an early chiff-chaff.
My tackle is seldom fully fettled for the start of the season, and I often find myself sorting out old nylon and leaders, or hastily tying a few flies. One thing I do manage to do is give my lines a decent cleaning in warm soapy water, and I never fail to be amazed by the black stripes left on the cleaning cloth from all the dirt that fly lines somehow accumulate. Once clean, I rub the lines with conditioner, which re-plasticises the surface and makes them shoot beautifully. We would all fish so much better if this was done more often.
Salmon fishing opens on the Tamar on March 1, but with salmon stocks dwindling everywhere, hopes of an early fish are slim. All (legal!) netting has long since finished on the river, but now the fish must run the gauntlet of 20 grey seals, which have taken up residence on the estuary only recently and come right up to the tidal limits. In the 1960
