25/05/10 Big fish are turning up regularly in spite of the hot weather (which has broken today) and it's hard to keep up with them. On the 21st of May John Coleman-Wood from Hanworth Middx came and caught a fine 24 [pounder. Even the Korean War and a triple heart bypass couldn't stop this 83 year old from casting a fly at Palm Springs Salmon fishery. He was with his son Gary, below.
there have been a few sunburnt anglers but the catched have only slowed a little in the bright sunshine. The water visibility has been only 2ft but the salmon seem to be unaffected and fight very well. Earlier in the week an angler who wishes to remain unidentified landed a 27 pounder so I got a picture of just the fish for a change, yes that is a large set of scales!
Mark Jones from Chirk took home one of 23 1/2 pounds on the 24th. I've started to single out the 25+ pounders as the 20-25s are getting quite common!
22/05/10 The very next day after George Best's 26 pounder, Oliver Hill from Chiswick, London landed a salmon half a pound larger. He caught it on a black fuzzy thing, (not a new fly but a description!). Here is a nice picture of him with his dad, Nigel.
They were part of a party from Croxley Green fly fishers club and they had a brilliant day, landing an average of 5 salmon each. More recently on the 20th of May, David West from Weybridge in Surrey took home a 23 1/2 pound salmon.
11/05/10 Sorry about lack of updates, I've been busy growing fry but there is some news. Now that the cold northerly wind has set in the catches have increased after the lean spell of warm weather with bright sunshine. A lot of salmon have been caught but no big ones (some hooked and lost), until today when George Best from Biggin Hill landed a 26 pounder on a black and green wooly bugger, it was one of 16 salmon he had in his landing net. That was one fish for every year he has been alive, his visit was a 17th birthday present,, wish I was that young. He had an exceptional day, but 5 salmon for a day ticket is almost the norm at the moment, so come before the weather changes if you are thinking about it. Here is George with his salmon.
02/04/10 I try to find something interesting to write in this column and last Friday, Steve Lambert from Stowmarket caught a salmon with his fly a foot above the water surface, having leapt clean out of the water. I tell anglers to fish the hang but that's going a bit far! It just goes to show how well fish can see above the surface, we'll call this new technique dry fly fishing. Six anglers had 25 salmon on the bank.
From the left, Walter Smith, whose 2 guests caught 3. John Vincent, the in form fisherman on the day had 8 including this 22 pounder. Steve Lambert, 6, Dave Warren 2,and on his first visit, Chris Moses from Sleaford landed 6 salmon.
12/02/10 More fisherman are visiting now the shooting season has finished and the **** weather (I can't stand the cold!) is picking up. On Tuesday Kelvin Pallett caught a cracking 25 pounder, a change from his usual barbel fishing on the Wye.
and today Mike Palmer lost count of how many he had caught! He reckoned about 20, biggest 8lb, but he needed to be sure to get a place in the record books. He was accompanied by his wife Rebecca who had bought him a day ticket gift voucher for Christmas (he made a good catch there!) . He cashed that in on the 2nd of January when he caught 3 salmon, which is more like average for here. Here he is by the water which is clearing well after the snow and rain, visibilty must be 15-20 feet now.
The fishing has been steady in the past 2 weeks with nobody drawing a blank. A couple of anglers have come close with Jamie Eales from Haydon Bridge catching a 14 pounder on his last cast on the 4th of December. The rod average has been over 3 salmon banked for December so far. Regular Arthur Sykes landed this excellent 17 1/2 pounder in the December sunshine today. 
19th of November saw another large brace of fish caught by John Lewis and Peter Langard.
Peter is on the left with a 22pounder and John is holding a 25lb salmon. It's getting dark at closing time now as you can see but the last hour is very productive at present. Today (24th) regulars John Eaton and Arthur Sykes landed 21 and 22 pounders, salmon of this size are becoming caught regularly and any visiting angler has a good probability of catching a very memorable salmon.
October 27 2009 Here is the first report for the 2009/2010 season and what a start it has been. No less than 8 20lb+ salmon have been landed and average catch of 3 fish per angler in the first 2 weeks. Here is another 2 super pictures
of Phil Earl's opening day 24 pounder. 
On the 20th of October the whole fishery was booked by Mr Cobley and his party from Ross-on-Wye. They are regular fishers of the Wye itself and found Palm Springs an excellent antidote to a slow season on their home beats. !2 salmon were landed including a 20 and 24 pounder. Here they are with their catch taken home to fill their freezers.
Three days before George Barlow came for a birthday treat with 3 friends. They landed 12 fish with Steve Alvy on the left with another 24 pounder.
Finally on the 26th the fishery record was broken twice in a couple of hours. First by regular Lorenzo Serrano with a 25lb 8oz fish
Then Alan Moore from Clacton-on-sea landed a 26 pounder.
These large salmon are giving an amazing account of themselves, jumping clear of the water and taking all the line off the reel. Yes that's the fly line AND all the backing as well!
For last year's reports see archive in photo gallery
29/11/09 Here are a couple of super pictures of a superb 25 pounder caught by Mark Stroud a local angler from Peterborough on his second visit., one of 7 he landed yesterday,
just look at the size of it's tail!
10/10/10 2010 Seasons Anglers Report for Palm Springs Salmon Fishery. A warm September delayed the opening of the 2009/10 season until the 10th of October, but it was worth the wait as 4 anglers caught no less than 30 salmon headed by a superb 24 pounder, to Phil Earl from Haverhill, Suffolk. Fishing was steady thereafter , 48 anglers landed 161 salmon, a rod average of just over 3 per day. Most of these early season fish ranged from 3-8lb but large salmon were also in evidence with 11 over 20lb. The 26th was a remarkable day when Lorenzo Serrano had a 25 ½ pounder and Alan Moore caught a new fishery record, a fine fish of 26 pounds.
The catches in November improved further when 29 rods landed 139 salmon, an average of 4.8 per day ticket. Arthur Sykes and John Eaton had a red letter day on the 25th, they banked 15 salmon each, for 30 in a day between them! Large fish for the month were one of 25lb for Mark Stroud on the 4th ,and on the 19th, when John Lewis and Peter Langard took home 25 and 22 pounders respectively.
Thereafter the terrible winter began to take it’s toll and few anglers ventured out in December and January. Some notable catches did occur, Mark Corps had 9 on the 29th of December and John Eaton returned for a salmon of 20lb on the 19th of January. It was a case of fishing around the ice and trying to keep warm. It has to be a spell of bitter weather to defeat the warming effect of the spring water flowing through the lake and ice it over, but it did just that for a lot of January. Never mind, although the rain and snow melt coloured the water, it’s only ice and high summer water temperatures that make the lake unfishable. February resumed where November left off with the same rod average of 4.8, 50 anglers having caught 240 salmon. These figures are a little flattered by the exploits of Mike Palmer on the 12th who lost count! and had to estimate his catch at 20, and by World Fly Fishing Champion Iain Barr, who caught the same number on the 16th and landed another 14 on the 28th. These large catches must have occurred because of the light fishing pressure of December and January but it is remarkable how it varies from day to day, (which must be due to the vagaries of the weather) even though the water quality stays the same
. February was a good month for large fish also with 11 salmon over 20lb landed.. Kevin Tallett had one of 25lb on the 9th and Iain Barr included one of 26 ¼ (a new fishery record) in his 14 of the 28th. Iain’s record didn’t last long, Andy James had a 27 ½ lb cock fish on the 8th of March which in it’s turn was overhauled by a 29 ¼ pounder to William Knapper on the 10th, the current record and the only one he landed that day! I can say Andy James salmon was a cock because it was an over wintered fish in spawning colours (picture on website) which is unusual for here, as nearly all the salmon stocked are in the ocean feeding stage of their lives, and not returning to spawn like the salmon found in our rivers. 5 other salmon over 20lb were landed in March, William Knapper’s friend had one of 23 ¾ on the 10th as well. The rod average fell back a little, 33 anglers had 111 making 3.3 per day ticket but the average size is increasing with most fish in the 8-12lb range at present.
April was most important for the fishery because on the 21st John Heley landed a salmon of 34lb 4oz which is the only salmon over 30lb caught in the whole year, three other salmon in the low 20s were landed too. Spring brought the anglers out in force, 55 anglers banked 213 salmon of which 132 were put back. Average 3.9
May was another excellent month, 65 fisherman attended with their fly rods catching 237 salmon average 3.6 with a good sprinkling of large fish. On the 11th George Best had a cracking 26lb 4 oz and the next day Oliver Hill had one 4oz bigger, the only one he caught! Largest of the month was a 27 pounder on the 23rd, to the rod of Dominic Warren and 4 others landed between 20 and 25lb. Pictures of most of these large salmon can be found on this website.
June was a month of two halves. Fishing was good until the hot weather arrived so from the 16th onwards there were more blanks than in the whole of the rest of the season. Even so, 90 salmon landed by 63 anglers gave a 1.4 average still not bad compared with some reports by visiting anglers who had tried to catch a wild salmon from the rivers.
So at the official end of the season a grand total of 1317 salmon were landed, of which 801 were returned and 516 were taken home by 388 fly fishermen at an average of 3.4 salmon landed per day ticket.
Once again we have tried some experimental fishing over the summer with mixed success. Arthur Sykes landed a 27 pounder in late July but I haven’t kept any detailed records on the catch rates. I’ll have to have a think on how we can proceed. Ben
08/07/10 Not much is happening now as the season is drawing to a close. The hot weather makes catching a salmon very hard work. I will try to post a report on the season soon, so here is a picture of the kind of fish I hope you will have a chance of landing next year.
This one weighed just under 30 pounds, note the Yucca flower to my left,
22/04/10 I was hoping that the record here would pass 30lb by the end of the season but it already happened yesterday when John Heley from Barton near Miltion Keynes landed a salmon of 34 pounds. It took a cat's whisker then went round the lake a couple of times before being landed.
Yes, that is John below with a 24 pounder and he stole he friend Bill's record too! On the left is their pal George Cheetham who missed their first trip but wasn't going to miss out this time!. I wonder what John's salmon weight average is after this.
27/03/10 Just a snippet to say that some anglers have found some chrominid midge larvae in the salmon's digestive tracts so some small imitations may yield results. Ben
15/03.10 It's a good job we have modern picture technology otherwise you wouldn't believe when I say the record here has been broken yet again! On the 10th of March William Knapper from Luton only banked one fish but it weighed no less than 29 1/4 pounds. His friend John Heley had 8, biggest nearly 24 pounds. I'll leave you to decide who had the better day!
11/03/10 David Barker's record was only slightly more durable than Iain Barr's at 5 days. On the 8th of March, Andy James from Cirencester caught a salmon of 27 1/2 pounds late on after a slow day. As you can see it is a cock fish that took 30 minutes to land.
08/03/10 Iain Barr's record below lasted just 3 days for on the 3rd of March David Barker from Derbyshire caught a salmon weighing 27lb. His Pal, Wayne Jordan landed a 22 pounder too,
on a day when 7 anglers landed 11 salmon. Good to see all visiting anglers at the fly fishing show.
02/02/10 Last Sunday Iain Barr returned to Palm Springs Salmon Fishery and in true World Champion style caught a new fishery record salmon, 4oz bigger than Alan Moore's 26 pounder. 
There were 3 other anglers in Iain's party, catching 32 salmon, a record fishery catch in one day. Mind you Iain caught 1 salmon twice (something that happened before with one of my salmon at Hazlecopse, Sussex) but I suppose they all count.
From right Nigel Tranter,caught 7, Gary brewster,8, Iain, 14, and Nigel's son Daniel ,3, with a 14 pounder.
24/02/10 Today Palm Springs hosted it's first Troutmasters fish off and a very exciting day it proved to be. Five anglers competed to see who could catch the most salmon in the alloted time. I thought one angler would walk away with it but it was nip and tuck all the way and some large salmon were caught into the bargain. Here they are at the end of the day 
From the right. John Eaton caught the first salmon and the biggest at 23lb, landed 4. Peter Fletcher also landed 4 including a 20 pounder (released as he had no room in his freezer!). Arthur Sykes had a very slow morning but came in with a late charge landed 4 including a 22lb salmon. Phil Earl looked good early on but couldn't keep it up with a tally of 3, and finally on the left is our winner for the day, Mark Stroud. You can see him above holding a 20 pounder part of a 6 fish haul. 21 salmon, four 20+lb in a day, these are good anglers and if they don't watch out they'll be banned for catching too many!
17/02/10 Yesterday World Flyfishing Champ Iain Barr came to Palm Springs Salmon fishery to do a feature for Sky TV's Tight Line's programme (I'll let you know when it's on) and in the process matched the record for number of salmon landed (20!) in a day. Luckily the sun shone, Carol laid on lunch, and a good time was had by all. Here is Iain on the left with his largest (20lb ) and the other visiting angler for the day Nick Lane holding his biggest at 21 1/2 lb.
11/01/10 No fishing has been possible so far in January as the extreme weather has finally defeated the warming effect of the spring water and the lake is frozen over. If temperatures hovver around freezing (as they are now) there will be a slow thaw. Phone for an update if you are thinking about booking a day ticket. Meanwhile here is a photo taken by my daughter, Flo, from our dining room window. With him and his friends around there's no need to prune the privet hedge this year!
01/01/10 Fishing was possible with reduced numbers recently because of some ice cover (which interestingly forms in the middle and not at the edges) but the catches have been good notably a 23 pounder caught by Barry Williams pictured here with his pal Jimmy Scott on the laft.
The 30th of December was remarkable as three anglers all caught their first salmon within 10 ninutes of the start. In this photo with Carol are Harvey Mobbs, Trevor Richardson and Simon McGovern 
This picture taken on boxing day shows some ice on the lake but no fishing days lost yet.
22/11/09Things have been quiet at Palm Springs Salmon with the weather and run up to Christmas. Some hardy anglers have managed to escape the wives and shopping but not many! The heavy snowfall and very cold temperatures have meant a battle for survival back at the rearing unit. That's me not the fish! We have no tap water for the house as the pipes have frozen and the hill coming in has been impassble some days. Here is a picture of the first 30 pounder I have managed to weigh from the lead batch of salmon. Note the icicles, and the hedgecutter broke the window on my left. Not a good day again today but at least the shortest day is behind us now.
The New Seasons restocking
On the 1st of October and the following 2 days Ben restocked the lake. There is a range of sizes the biggest being between 20 and 25lbs
Fishery open day a 24lb salmon caught
The day started with a glass of whisky for all and some was sprinkled over the lake as is tradition in Scotland I believe.
Ben Mike Phil John and Arthur
Phil Earl caught a 24lb salmon on opening day pictured here with Arthur Sykes helping to weigh it.
It was a beautiful fine day. Arthur and friends John and Mike who have now been several times to Palm Springs had booked for some time to be here on opening day and Phil who had not been salmon fishing before came alone. He has been fishing for big Spanish cat fish and said and I quote ' the fight was just as exciting and the memory will last a long time.'this salmon fought hard and it took him half way along the lake. The salmon was caught on a special fly tied by John Eaton and was med size mid green with a black tinsel tail, very pretty I might add. Between the 4 of them on the day they landed 30 salmon and all confessed to having a thoroughly enjoyable day.
Last seasons newsletter in archive section of Photos 12/01/10
Six Month Anglers Report for Palm Springs Salmon Fishery.
A warm September delayed the opening of the 2009/10 season until the 10th of October, but it was worth the wait as 4 anglers caught no less than 30 salmon headed by a superb 24 pounder, to Phil Earl from Haverhill, Suffolk. Fishing was steady thereafter , 48 anglers landed 161 salmon, a rod average of just over 3 per day. Most of these early season fish ranged from 3-8lb but large salmon were also in evidence with 11 over 20lb. The 26th was a remarkable day when Lorenzo Serrano had a 25 ½ pounder and Alan Moore caught a new fishery record, a fine fish of 26 pounds.
The catches in November improved further when 29 rods landed 139 salmon, an average of 4.8 per day ticket. Arthur Sykes and John Eaton had a red letter day on the 25th, they banked 15 salmon each, for 30 in a day between them! Large fish for the month were one of 25lb for Mark Stroud on the 4th ,and on the 19th, when John Lewis and Peter Langard took home 25 and 22 pounders respectively.
Thereafter the terrible winter began to take it
February resumed where November left off with the same rod average of 4.8, 50 anglers having caught 240 salmon. These figures are a little flattered by the exploits of Mike Palmer on the 12th who lost count! and had to estimate his catch at 20, and by World Fly Fishing Champion Iain Barr, who caught the same number on the 16th and landed another 14 on the 28th. These large catches must have occurred because of the light fishing pressure of December and January but it is remarkable how it varies from day to day, (which must be due to the vagaries of the weather) even though the water quality stays the same. February was a good month for large fish also with 11 salmon over 20lb landed.. Kevin Tallett had one of 25lb on the 9th and Iain Barr included one of 26 ¼ (a new fishery record) in his 14 of the 28th.
Iain
Total salmon catch figures to 31st March 2010 875 landed 590 returned 285 retained
Palm Springs Salmon fishery in situated in Rutland only 2 hours drive for most English anglers. Fly fishing only with strong single handed rod, 15lb leader and large landing net. Day tickets cost £120, gift vouchers, and whole fishery can be booked by phoning Carol on 01780 411427 or 0786 069 0594. Fishing information Ben on 0775 948 1255, lot of pictures and information on website www.palmspringssalmon.co.uk.
April was most important for the fishery because on the 21st John Heley landed a salmon of 34lb 4oz which is the only salmon over 30lb caught in the whole year, three other salmon in the low 20s were landed too. Spring brought the anglers out in force, 55 anglers banked 213 salmon of which 132 were put back. Average 3.9
May was another excellent month, 65 fisherman attended with their fly rods catching 237 salmon average 3.6 with a good sprinkling of large fish. On the 11th George Best had a cracking 26lb 4 oz and the next day Oliver Hill had one 4oz bigger, the only one he caught! Largest of the month was a 27 pounder on the 23rd, to the rod of Dominic Warren and 4 others landed between 20 and 25lb. Pictures of most of these large salmon can be found on this website.
June was a month of two halves. Fishing was good until the hot weather arrived so from the 16th onwards there were more blanks than in the whole of the rest of the season. Even so, 90 salmon landed by 63 anglers gave a 1.4 average still not bad compared with some reports by visiting anglers who had tried to catch a wild salmon from the rivers.
So at the official end of the season a grand total of 1317 salmon were landed, of which 801 were returned and 516 were taken home by 388 fly fishermen at an average of 3.4 salmon landed per day ticket.
Once again we have tried some experimental fishing over the summer with mixed success. Arthur Sykes landed a 27 pounder in late July but I haven’t kept any detailed records on the catch rates. I’ll have to have a think on how we can proceed. Ben
Updated 08/07.10 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 Robertson
On 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
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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..........
there have been a few sunburnt anglers but the catched have only slowed a little in the bright sunshine. The water visibility has been only 2ft but the salmon seem to be unaffected and fight very well. Earlier in the week an angler who wishes to remain unidentified landed a 27 pounder so I got a picture of just the fish for a change, yes that is a large set of scales! Mark Jones from Chirk took home one of 23 1/2 pounds on the 24th. I've started to single out the 25+ pounders as the 20-25s are getting quite common!They were part of a party from Croxley Green fly fishers club and they had a brilliant day, landing an average of 5 salmon each. More recently on the 20th of May, David West from Weybridge in Surrey took home a 23 1/2 pound salmon.From the left, Walter Smith, whose 2 guests caught 3. John Vincent, the in form fisherman on the day had 8 including this 22 pounder. Steve Lambert, 6, Dave Warren 2,and on his first visit, Chris Moses from Sleaford landed 6 salmon.and today Mike Palmer lost count of how many he had caught! He reckoned about 20, biggest 8lb, but he needed to be sure to get a place in the record books. He was accompanied by his wife Rebecca who had bought him a day ticket gift voucher for Christmas (he made a good catch there!) . He cashed that in on the 2nd of January when he caught 3 salmon, which is more like average for here. Here he is by the water which is clearing well after the snow and rain, visibilty must be 15-20 feet now.Peter is on the left with a 22pounder and John is holding a 25lb salmon. It's getting dark at closing time now as you can see but the last hour is very productive at present. Today (24th) regulars John Eaton and Arthur Sykes landed 21 and 22 pounders, salmon of this size are becoming caught regularly and any visiting angler has a good probability of catching a very memorable salmon. of Phil Earl's opening day 24 pounder. On the 20th of October the whole fishery was booked by Mr Cobley and his party from Ross-on-Wye. They are regular fishers of the Wye itself and found Palm Springs an excellent antidote to a slow season on their home beats. !2 salmon were landed including a 20 and 24 pounder. Here they are with their catch taken home to fill their freezers.Three days before George Barlow came for a birthday treat with 3 friends. They landed 12 fish with Steve Alvy on the left with another 24 pounder.Finally on the 26th the fishery record was broken twice in a couple of hours. First by regular Lorenzo Serrano with a 25lb 8oz fishThen Alan Moore from Clacton-on-sea landed a 26 pounder.These large salmon are giving an amazing account of themselves, jumping clear of the water and taking all the line off the reel. Yes that's the fly line AND all the backing as well! just look at the size of it's tail! This one weighed just under 30 pounds, note the Yucca flower to my left, Yes, that is John below with a 24 pounder and he stole he friend Bill's record too! On the left is their pal George Cheetham who missed their first trip but wasn't going to miss out this time!. I wonder what John's salmon weight average is after this. on a day when 7 anglers landed 11 salmon. Good to see all visiting anglers at the fly fishing show. There were 3 other anglers in Iain's party, catching 32 salmon, a record fishery catch in one day. Mind you Iain caught 1 salmon twice (something that happened before with one of my salmon at Hazlecopse, Sussex) but I suppose they all count. From right Nigel Tranter,caught 7, Gary brewster,8, Iain, 14, and Nigel's son Daniel ,3, with a 14 pounder.From the right. John Eaton caught the first salmon and the biggest at 23lb, landed 4. Peter Fletcher also landed 4 including a 20 pounder (released as he had no room in his freezer!). Arthur Sykes had a very slow morning but came in with a late charge landed 4 including a 22lb salmon. Phil Earl looked good early on but couldn't keep it up with a tally of 3, and finally on the left is our winner for the day, Mark Stroud. You can see him above holding a 20 pounder part of a 6 fish haul. 21 salmon, four 20+lb in a day, these are good anglers and if they don't watch out they'll be banned for catching too many!The 30th of December was remarkable as three anglers all caught their first salmon within 10 ninutes of the start. In this photo with Carol are Harvey Mobbs, Trevor Richardson and Simon McGovern This picture taken on boxing day shows some ice on the lake but no fishing days lost yet.Ben Mike Phil John and ArthurPhil Earl caught a 24lb salmon on opening day pictured here with Arthur Sykes helping to weigh it. 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.
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. 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. 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. On 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. 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.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....BenEd, George and Nick arrived at 9 O'clock on a very cold Saturday morning.This is George landing a salmonand George again giving Ed a helping hand Gently gentlylanded safely on the bankEd, with Ben and George lending a helpng hand Fishing over, back to the pavilion for lunchGeorge with an 8lb salmon. Ed with a 4lb ,Nick with a 7lb and Ben holding another or George's fish.This is the start of their journey Ben is netting them from the tank into the van Into the lake quickly and away they go 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! 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| | |
Plus some others for you to look at
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| Ben with a couple of big ones | Like Father like daughter |
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| From this | To this |