Fishing for ladies at the Arundell Arms

Fly fishing is generally perceived as a male dominated sport but not for much longer according to Anne Voss Bark, proprietor of England’s leading sporting hotel, the award winning Arundell Arms (arundellarms.com) at Lifton in Devon. Herself a keen fisherwoman, she reports more and more women are taking it up and joining the special beginners’ courses the hotel runs.

In 2007 the Arundell Arms, famous for its extensive river and lake fishing facilities, will be holding a series of beginners four day fly fishing courses from £415.00 and the hotel is forecasting that an increased number of women will sign up for the courses. Also ideal for beginners are the two day Stillwater Fly Fishing course (£215) and a weekend Beginners’ ‘Quickie’ Course (£235). Courses begin in April and run on set dates throughout the summer.

This year the hotel will also be running refresher and advanced courses and giving individual tuition. The Arundell Arms has two full time instructors, Roy Buckingham (a former Welsh Open Fly Casting Champion) and David Pilkington. They are both Salmon and Trout Association Instructors and fully qualified members of the Association of Professional Game Angling Instructors.

In addition to course charges, stays at the Arundell Arms costs from £185 per room per night, based on two people sharing and inclusive of breakfast and dinner in the hotel’s award winning restaurant.

The Arundell Arms, an old coaching inn which dates back to Saxon times and situated in a valley of five rivers close to the uplands of Dartmoor, has been teaching fly fishing and entertaining fly fishermen for nearly 60 years. The hotel is ideal for those wishing to get away from it all, offering 20 miles of private fishing with individual beats of anything from a half-mile to a mile and a quarter where you can fish alone all day with only a dipper, a kingfisher or a buzzard for company. The valley ‘s five rivers (the Tamar and its tributaries) contain brown trout, sea trout and salmon and there is also a three acre lake stocked with brown and rainbow trout.

And for the partners who choose not to fish there are countless other activities to do in the surrounding areas including shopping in Exeter just 45 minutes away, visiting the nearby Eden Project, bird watching, kayaking and sailing at Roadford Lake, golf on nearby championship courses, walking on Bodmin and Dartmoor or perhaps a trip to Tintagel Castle, legendary home of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.

The Arundell Arms has produced a brochure on its 2007 Fishing Courses which is available from the hotel by emailing reservations@arundellarms.com.