Welcome to Issue 43 | Eat, Sleep, Fish

"Summertime and the livin' is easy, fish are jumping..." George Gershwin was just about right. I guess he could have said the sea trout are jumping but it's near enough for me.

Has the fishing been easy where you are?

In Devon, the hatches have been outstanding as has been the dry fly fishing although migratory fishing has been mixed dependent which side of Dartmoor you live.

There has been a lot of fish that run the south side of the moor suffering from disease. Ulcerative Dermal Necrosis (UDN) is a term that I have heard mentioned a lot of times. The problem is that no one seems to be able to give a definitive answer, including the Environment Agency, and so there is a lot of scratching of heads, deep sighing and no one ever seeming to be the wiser.

If you have ever seen a salmon or sea trout lying in a pool covered in fungus it really is such a pitiful sight for such noble fish. Is there anything we can do or do we just accept it is part of how nature works and hope it sorts itself out? Is it climate related?

Looking ahead these are the sorts of questions I'd really like Eat, Sleep, Fish to try and ask and to try and find the answers too. Not to be provocative but to find out and learn, to see if there is anything we can do to help.

This will be something I'll be working on over the coming months. We'll also be changing the look of ESF a little too. I have an idea of what it will look like but if you have suggestions I'd love to hear them.

Good fishing!

Pete

Pete Tyjas is a fishing guide based in Devon, UK

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