Archived 12/01/10

June 20 2009 Something interesting seems to happen a lot at the moment. Below is a picture of our anglers today and as you can see, on the left is our youngest fisher to date, Tom Hradecka 12, from the Czech Republic. He had an exeat from boarding school near Oxford so his dad brought him along. Don't be fooled, Tom is a very experienced angler, he can cast a good line and play a fish like an expert. He showed the men up with a 10lb salmon on his second cast! lost 2 and landed another in the afternoon. Fishing with Tom were a party from John Lewis/Waitrose angling club, this picture taken at lunchtime.  Everyone caught salmon, 9 were landed for the day. From left Tom. Steve, Neil,Graham and Mick.

June 17 2009 An interesting day, notable because all four anglers caught their first salmon. Atlantic salmon that is, as Graham Amy from E. Sussex had caught Pacific salmon before. In fact Graham, (with fishing companion Tom Pierce) is actually spending a couple of days with us instead of his usual trip to Alaska! We may be able to get near the fishing but I give up on the scenery! Joining them was Mike Stroud and Ken Smith. Mike is based locally but Ken hails from Co. Cork Ireland where he is chef at the Water Rock Golf Course. (People do travel a long way to fish here, yesterday we had a father and son team from Aberdeen.) In spite of rain in the afternoon everybody scored, 11 salmon were caught up to 13 3/4 pounds in weight. From left Tom, Graham, Ken and Mike. 

June 10 2009 Up from the city of London came Lee Bartlett who booked the fishery for himself and 5 of his colleagues. After a slow start the fishing picked up well, Lee himself banked the first 2 salmon and after a special lunch laid on by Carol, 8 fish were bagged in total.. You can see from their faces that they had a good day!

June02 2009 The first anglers of June were Paul Harrison from Manchester, Arthur Sykes,Skegness and John Eaton from Horncastle. Arthur and John had fished earlier in the year with Mike Smith (as a party) when John blanked, but this time Mike was in Benidorm on holiday. We couldn't work out why as it was a beautiful hot day and there's no salmon to be caught on the Costa Blanca. By mid morning John broke his duck with a 14 1/2 pounder which made the mistake of jumping right out of the water and onto the bank (something that's been happening recently, maybe because the visibility is lower in the water, Ben). Paul lost a nice fish after a spectacular fight but landed an 8 pounder later on. The fishing came on strong in the afternoon Arthur led the way with seven and John ended up with four. The salmon were very active in spite of the strong sunshine and surface temperature of 18 degrees, which bodes well for the fishing into the summer. There is plenty of oxygen in the water so the salmon are fighting harder than ever, at the end of the day Arthur was complaining of an aching arm!  Here they are from left Paul, John and Arthur.

Arthur and friends have booked the first Tuesday of every month and have joined our growing list of regulars, a sure sign the fishing at Palm Springs Salmon is very much worth coming back for.

May 09 2009 Apologies for lack of updates (I have good reasons!) but I'm back on song now. The fishing is more challenging now after the large catches of the winter with the average salmon banked per angler down to 2, but very rewarding all the same. I just have to tell you about a salmon landed by Ian Vickers from Middlesborough fishing here while his mates were on Rutland Water. Fishing away, Ian had a couple of knocks followed by a gentle take and he was into a fish. That was the start of an amazing fight, we didn't see the fish for about 20 minutes in spite of steady hard pressure, Ian is a builder by trade and certainly no wimp. The salmon just swam wherever it wanted to go, you read these stories about monster salmon but I knew there was nothing over 20lb in the lake so what was going on? After half an hour, in which we followed it from one end of the lake to the other, the reason became clear the fly had caught on it's adipose fin! After a Titanic struggle we got the fish in and on the bank, a huge relief and quite an emotional experience after such a long fight. It weighed only 11lb and doesn't count in the records but will be remembered for a long time.

April 03 2009 Here is a nice picture of Colin Stevens and his grandson Oliver with a typical Palm Springs Salmon

March 25 2009 Five anglers fished Palm Springs Salmon and enjoyed an almost perfect day's fishing. I greeted Dave Brooke and father-in law from Chemlsford first and they had 6 for the day, biggest 14 1/2 pounds. However, it is Chris Bywater and father and son John Downing Jr & Sr, who I really want to report on. They had travelled all the way from Edenbridge in Kent and arrived a little late not surprising given the 2 1/2 hour drive. Chris caught the first salmon, 6lb, and John Jr, four to 14lb and John Sr, three to 13lb. What was remarkable was that John Sr caught 2 salmon sitting down! being 87 years old he was unsteady on his feet so we made him a bench on one of the stages and he fished merrily all afternoon. So the moral of this story is you are never to old or incapacitated to catch a salmon here! Below from left is John Sr, John and Chris (also in his eighties!)

23/03/09 On Monday we had Lorenzo Serrano to fish Palm Springs. Lorenzo is a veteran of the Moy river in Ireland, the most productive river in Europe for numbers of salmon, he told me. What he didn't know was that Palm Springs Salmon fishery is one of the most productive places to catch a salmon anywhere on earth! Lorenzo is a very astute fisherman who seemed to know exactly where the fish and his fly were in the water column and he was rewarded with 18 salmon landed for the day, the second highest on record here.

Friday the 13th Ummmmm..... That's a day to test one's fishing luck. (Not a good for our desktop it contracted a virus that day and needs the doctor, so I'm doing this on Carol's laptop.) Undetered, we greeted John Bedford and Alex Brown to test their luck and we would see if our salmon fishing can be influencd by the darker side of superstition. Apart from an early pull to Alex, nothing happened for the first 2 hours and I was beginning to wonder if that might be the case. However I had not reckoned on the magical appearance of the 'Bedford Bomber'!  John put on a very heavy gold headed black fly and soon landed a perfect 6 3/4 pounder. From then on a relaxed day's fishing produced 3 fish each, all to the Bomber which, apart from an 8 pounder, all weighed between 12 and 15lb. Two are shown below, John left and Alex, right. 

A regular visitor to Palm Springs Salmon is Michelin Star Chef, Aaron Patterson from Hambleton Hall, one of Britain's finest country house hotels. Aaron has taken the phrase ' fresh local produce' to it's natural conclusion by catching the salmon for his restaurant himself! The salmon are out of the lake and into his smoker within a couple of  hours, and as fish are the fresher the better, you can't get fresher than that. I also suspect that Aaron's visits are not just in the interestsof culinary excellence, the superb fighting qualities of the salmon have something to do with it too.

 02.01.09 Guests: John and Dan Bouckley, Al Murton and Chris Skuse.      Four anglers arrived on the 2nd of January to kick off the fishery for 2009, comprising Chris Skuse, from Leamington Spa and a group of 3, Dan, his Dad John and an old college friend  Al.  Al lives in Scotland so already within 2 months of opening we have had a visitor from each country in the British Isles.

John was new to fly fishing so I lent him a rod and gave him some pointers to get him going.  Fish were caught early on but a bright day made the going a bit harder than normal. We stopped for lunch. Carol served hot soup and ham rolls and we all enjoyed a good conversation about family trees (and salmon of course).  By 3pm everybody had bagged fish except John who in spite of  patiently casting all day was looking like the first angler to blank at Palm Springs.    Miraculously John had a fish on his very last cast and after a nervous few minutes had his salmon on the bank.  Chris ended with 4 salmon, Al 7, Dan 4 and John 1. Quite a day to start the year!

30.12.08 Guests : Mark Corps and Andrew Stanistreet.      Mention must be made of a visit by Mark Corps and his friend Andrew.  Mark was our first visitor from Ireland and has an interesting job promoting angling over there.  I could tell he was a very experienced fisherman by the impressive ease with which he could cast a fly right across the lake and although he arrived an hour late, he still ended up with 14 fish.  Andrew had good sport landing 9 salmon for the day.

27.12.08 Guest:  Tony Blackwell .     Just when I thought Gordon Robertson's laid back way of catching 17 fish in a day was the way to go, along comes Tony Blackwell from Loughborough who turns the whole thing on it's head. Tony is a bit of a tarpon and bonefish expert having been non-stop for 15 years running (until this year when he got married instead! ) but his roots as one of the countries top match fishermen are still there just below the surface. A self-confessed fishmonger he just loved catching fish and he came to the right place to indulge his passion. To cut a long story short Tony caught a stupendous 20 salmon under ideal conditions, a new fishery record.  As soon as I unhooked and returned a fish for him his fly was straight out for the next one.  Maybe a bit over the top one might think, but on reflection everyone fishes in their own way to their own ends and so long as the rules are observed, and they walk away happy, there's no harm in that. 

19.12.08   Guest:  Gordon RobertsonOn Friday 19th December we were honoured to welcome Gordon Robertson CGC our first visitor from Wales although he is Scottish by birth.  Gordon caught the stupendous total of 17 salmon but what was even more remarkable was the way he did it.  Fishing a cats whisker fairly deep with a varied retrieve it wasn't long before Gordon was into a fish.  Once he had banked it instead of getting his fly back into the water we had 5 minutes chat, a walk round the lake or a hot cup of tea, so with the fish not too startled, it wasn't long before the next salmon was on the end of Gordons line.  On the drive home I reflected that Gordon was very relaxed about his day's fishing, which in a way made it more productive                                                            The weather was good too, with an overcast breezy day warming up the water after Decembers early cold spell. 

P.S. In spite of the coldest spell of December weather for 30 years we were only iced up for 2 days... Ben

8.12.08, Guest: Simon Conroy

On This Monday we welcomed Simon Conroy for a day's fishing.  Simon was the first angler to stay at the hotel as the journey from Preston and back would have meant a very long day         

                                                 The weather and fishing turned out to be ideal, a cloudy day with a breeze making a nice ripple on the water.  In spite of some deep frosts there was no ice to be seen owing to the good flow of warm spring water.  Simon was keen to catch a salmon after several blanks on the river  Eden.  Simon's day followed a pattern which seems to be very familiar.  The first half hour produced 4 fish and had us thinking is this too easy?  but after a cup of tea at 11 it went quiet and nothing happened until just before lunch when two came in quick succession.                                     After lunch Simon kept the first he caught a beautiful small fish just to make sure he had one to take home.  However the next salmon was much bigger, just short of 10lb speeding down half the length of the lake during the fight.  Simon had to keep this to show the folks back home.  After two more late fish Simon had a tally of 10 for the day.  He was very pleased and planned to come back before Christmas.

Bens own fishing experience

Here are some pictures of a salmon I caught for Stapleford Park, a local country hotel.  We have had much interest from local restuarants as the salmon make good eating too.  This salmon gave an amazing tussle taking me down to the backing with searing runs that made the line really sing.                                    

 

It's fasinating to watch the line rise and rise in the water ending with a spectacular jump right out of the water

Unfortunately my photography is not so good as to catch these leaping salmon on camera (Carol) but this was close!

This was a brutal physical fight that really had my arm aching.  I will say this was an exceptional fish.  Others I have caught havn't been so spectacular or strong, but if you do get a jumper it is an unforgetable experience.      Come and try for yourself!

09.11.08

We had the pleasure of welcoming Mr Richard Neville for a day's fishing on Sunday 9th November.  Richard has the distinction of not being our first customer but of holding ticket No 1 as he was the first person to make a booking.  He arrived on a bright but windy day with his wife Linda, who took advantage of the Hotel facilities to disappear for a well earned breakfast as she had driven.

There had been some rain the day before and with a ripple on the water it looked good for a day's salmon fishing.  With Ben as ghillie Richard had a poor start with his line breaking on the first 3 takes.  This was due to a poor leader which although rated at 10lb seemed to be shearing on the fish's sharp teeth, so Richard cut it shorter to 12lb+ and had no more problems.

From then on it really was good sport with a steady landing of fish on a variety of medium trout lures.  It was decided to release fish in case one came along badly hooked which duly happened about half way through the morning.  Richard kept that one and stopped at 1.15pm for lunch.

Carol arrived and a pleasant hour was spent by all putting the world to rights in the pavilion.  Richard put in another hour of rod bending action before calling it a day on salmon number 11, I think his arm was aching enough!

P.S. Richard tried a blob fly fished well down which resulted in a salmon being deeply hooked.  It was released ok but this type of fly may have to be banned if it causes too many mortalities....Ben

.

  OPEN DAY

Ed, George and Nick arrived at 9 O'clock on a very cold Saturday morning.

The three men landed 12 salmon between them. 

The weather was freezing and they fished a long morning session.  Five came out early on then it went quiet when a cold breeze set in.  The rest came out steadily towards the later part of the session.  The fish didn't seem interested in salmon flies but fell to trout lures with black, green and white in them.

This is George landing a salmon

and George again giving Ed a helping hand 

Gently gently

landed safely on the bank

Ed, with  Ben and George lending a helpng hand  

Fishing over, back to the pavilion for lunch

George with an 8lb salmon. Ed with a 4lb ,Nick with a 7lb  and Ben holding another or George's fish.

After the excitement we all had lunch in the pavilion and talked fish of course!  The general opinion was a good days fishing and they had thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

STOCKING THE LAKE

The initial stocking of the lake has now been completed and the fish weigh between 4-12lbs

This is the start of their journey 

Ben is netting them from the tank into the van

Once in the van they are delivered safely to the lake and then quickly transferred       We thought we would dress Ben differently this time in case you think we keep putting the same pictures on

 

               

      

These fish are beautiful specimens

Into the lake quickly and away they go

        

When all the fish have been put  into the lake Ben walks round to check all is OK

             

All is well and we leave them to settle in

These are the photos from our original home page

August 18th 2009.No real news to report. Some test fishing has been done over the summer but the few salmon still in the lake have refused to be caught. The water is crystal clear at the moment and although the fish will follow a fly, they will not actually take.  Back at the rearing unit things are going well. Here is a picture of me with a 29 pounder, the shape of things to come this season!

June 9th 2009 Last weekend marked the 65th anniversary of the D-day landings and to my astonishment Walter Smith arrived in a Signals Corp vehicle of WW2 vintage. It rained most of the day which is not good for the fishing here, but as soon as it stopped, fish were on the bank. Here is Walter and his friend Alison Pullen with her first salmon and the aforemetioned vehicle.

May 25th Here are some pictures of salmon stocked into the lake last week, averaging 13lb. They complete the May stocking programme for the summer and catches should peak during June so come along and see if you can tempt one!

April 8th Here are pictures of our first lady anglers, but there is bad news for you men out there. Gill Baker with the first salmon. The ladies have the same hypnotic effect over the salmon here as they do on the rivers. Terry Austin caught a 16 pounder on the same day. It was proven again on May 8th when Claudia Stokes from Herts caught salmon on her 'girlie fly', (pink of course!) that the ladies can easily out fish the men. I don't think it's anything to do with pheromones, my theory is that they have more patience than we do, but I'm scatching my head because that can't be true either! Ben

March 20 2009 Friday Today we were honoured to receive a visit from Steve Cullen and colleagues from the Total Fly Fisher magazine. I will let you read about it in detail in the June edition but I must add a few points of my own and it goes without saying that a good time was had by all.  Steve brought along Tim and Simon to provide some fisherman shots for Pat the cameraman. Everybody caught fish including Pat who finally put his camera down after one of Carol's gourmet lunches and swapped his usual coarse fish pole for a proper fly-fishing rod. Simon actually brought a 15ft double-handed salmon rod and chest waders which were definitely out of place here, but he caught salmon nevertheless. Here is Steve into a good fish with me ready with the landing net.(Orange hat, great camoflage!)

At the end of the day we had an interesting session experimenting with some outrageous flies, with Steve demonstrating his undoubted skills. Catch it all in the Total Fly Fisher!  Ben

4/3/09  Double Record

Larger salmon are being caught at Palm Springs Salmon now with the fishery record falling twice in 3 days. John Harrison from Glasgow caught an 18 pounder on a size 12 Cormorant with a sink tip line.

Then 2 days later Steve Usher from Stratford-on-Avon had one half a pound heavier on a size 8 Minkie fished deep on an intermediate line. Steve's companion, Paul Wood from Stourbridge kept up the excitement with a 16 1/2 pounder out of the 12 salmon they landed that day.

One angling day was lost to the February snow with the average catch per angler down to 5 salmon banked. Black lures did better towards the end of the month, with most fish caught on a fly which followed the contours of the lake profile. The higher temperatures now mean the salmon are getting more active and can be seen breaking the surface, dolphin style. Opening times and prices are changing on March 20, please check elsewhere on this website for more details. Ben

1st Newsletter January 2009  Sorry this is a bit late I have had trouble with the website

We opened on the 1st November 2008 and have had a steady stream of fishermen through the gates, coming from as far as Scotland, Wales and Ireland.   Everybody has enjoyed good fishing and been full of praise for the conditions of the salmon and their fighting qualities.  The lake is being restocked and rested over the next 2 weeks.  The restocking with an average weight of 12lb is being taken from the tank that has produced the 19lb salmon pictured above.  We rear the salmon ourselves in our restocking unit and are soon to receive the next batch of eggs.  10,000 of them to be reared and graded until only the best 2,000 remain to grow on.   We are now in the third year of our rearing cycle and have salmon at all stages and sizes eating their heads off and growing at an alarming rate.    

Average weight so far 8lb                                  Average catch per fisherman   9

Largest salmon caught 13lb    by Andrew Atanistreet on 30.12.08

Most salmon landed was a remarkable 20 by Tony Blackwell on 27.122.08  next was Gordon Robertson with 16 and then Mark Corps from Ireland with 14

The salmon are fishing well and are being caught on a variety of flies with no firm favourite yet.

Weather  Lowest temperature  -8

It has been a very cold winter with temperatures below freezing a lot of the time.  Only once was there ice over part of the lake and Ben still managed to catch a salmon that day.  One guest on 20.01.09 caught 14 salmon.  These salmon are beautiful bars of silver.  

We have had some very variable weather at Palm Springs.  Windy days, rainy days, snow  and even temperatures below freezing.  the lake has fished well in all conditions with fish always being caught.

Updated 30/01/09  

Here is a picture of a fish which came out of the rearing unit during the very cold weather. It was frozen by the time I got round to weighing it! and to my surprise it tipped the scales at 19 pounds.

It came from the next batch of salmon for stocking the lake so we may get our first 20 pounder sooner than we thought. Looks like salmon will be on the home menu for a bit, and the neighbours, and the friends, and the relatives..........

Plus some others for you to look at

Ben with a couple of big ones	Like Father like daughter
From this	To this