Different Rules for Different Regions!

United Kingdom?

Thankfully since my last blog we can now all go fishing again, however, depending upon where you reside in the UK, there are unfortunately differing travel restrictions, e.g. in England and N. Ireland we can travel anywhere to fish, but in Scotland and Wales the guidelines state that a limit of 5 miles is the current recommendation. In addition to this, accommodation is still not available until at least July 4th, which also restricts multi-day trips for those of you who like to stay over and fish a variety of beats on different days. That said, as long as we do not experience a new spike with regard to Covid-19 we are now definitely moving in the right direction and hopefully we can get back to some semblance of normality very soon!

Typical stamp of fish from lower Eden

Those of us in England were very fortunate to have been given the green light to return to the river on May 13th and despite the bright sunshine and very low water conditions, up to, and during this time, there has still been some very successful salmon catches on the river Eden, (mainly on the lower river) and most of the fish I have seen have been very fresh indeed and in the 12lb - 15lb range.

Slightly smaller, but still a good fish

It is not unusual, following long periods of low water (on the lower beats) for fish to stack up in these areas due to limited access to upstream migration, but these beats do seem to be holding an exceptional amount of fish this time around, and the fishing certainly did improve once that persistent East wind decided to leave us a while back.

In the past few days alone, on the tidal beat I look after on the lower river, we have moved into double figures of fish caught (and several lost) and that's only the ones I am currently aware of. This implies that there is a lot of fish down there and on some days this is very apparent as they are often very active. I hope this remains the case for anglers coming from Scotland and Wales when you eventually get the chance to take advantage of this fantastic bounty. Long may it last!

One of many Brown caught

The trout fishing has also been very good and my first day out on the river produced a very enjoyable catch of 18 brown trout, (all on the dry fly) which I thoroughly enjoyed, especially after such a long period of cabin fever, and I have to admit, I have had a few more since then too. 

Before!

I haven't been fishing all of the time though, as I have been taking advantage of the fact we could get out again to do some much needed river improvements on the lower beat ready for some one to one and small group fishing sessions which I am now doing again since June 1st (in line with government guidelines of course). 

Therefore I have at last had time to clear the steps in front of the small shelter down there as well as doing some further repairs to the shelter itself, 

After!

which in all honesty I feared would have been washed away by the early season floods we had, but no, my previous repairs have paid off and kept it in place and it still serves us well. 

Before!

So hopefully from July the 4th, which is when it has been intimated that accommodation options will become available to us again, it will also be there waiting for those of you coming to enjoy your multi-day trips to the Eden. I am sure Scotland and Wales will have better travel guidelines by then and I look forward to rearranging these sessions for those of you who's trips had to be cancelled.

After

Anyway I am sure time will tell and I look forward to catching up with many of you again, giving everyone the opportunity to shake off those cobwebs whilst indulging in a some long overdue fishing. Not long Now!

Over the weekend we received our first significant rainfall which did effect the river (although not in a big way) adding a few inches of fresh water and affording some of the salmon on the lower beats a little more access to beats higher up, but the good news is that fish are still being caught on the lower beats and also still being seen on recent tides. This looks very promising for the rest of the season.