Fishing at Tree Meadow

Address: Tree Meadow Fishery, Deveral Road, Fraddam, Hayle, Cornwall.Phone: John Hodge on 01736 850899. Mobile 07971 107156Directions: From St.Ives go to Hayle on the A3074. Then go over the A30 on A3302 towards Helston. At Fraddam take Deveral Road which is on your left between the shops. Travel along this road for well over half a mile and you will see the fishery on your right hand side.Fishery: There are two lakes with a combined acreage of about 4 acres. The front lake is smaller and shallower. It responds well to small nymph and dry fly tactics. The dry fly season in Cornwall appears much longer than in other parts of the country. Perhaps it is the generally warmer weather. This lake is stocked with slightly smaller fish ranging from 1.5lb to 151b. In all honesty I have never seen a fish as small as 1.51b in this water.The top lake is much larger and deeper. It is now stocked with fish of a minimum weight of three pounds. Both lakes are gin clear and ideal stalking waters.Fishery Records: 16lb 7oz rainbow and 10lb 7oz brown trout.Facilities: Flies and some tackle for sale, rod hire, tuition, hot drinks and W.C. – I have not visited the fishery for about a year and there might be more additions to these. Phone John for more details.Tickets: The front lake is 25 for five fish, 22 for four fish, 18 forthree fish and 15 for two fish.The top lake(big fish water) is 35 for four fish, 28 for three fish and 22 for two fish.Alternatively you can pay 7 to fish plus 1.80 per lb for your fish.

Fishing at Tree Meadow

I first fished this fishery when on holiday in Falmouth. As we were on holiday in a Ford Fiesta there was not much room for tackle. All I had was a 9ft Shakespeare “Travel Fly” and a fly reel loaded with a WF6F line.However one morning, despite having so little tackle with me, I decided to travel to Fraddam to fish Tree Meadow. When I arrived I was amazed at the clarity of the water and the size of the fish that I saw jumping on the top lake. I set up with my travel fly with a long leader to fish a small gold ribbed hairs-ear sub surface. I tried all different rates of retrieve but couldn’t get a take. It had turned cold and there was now no sign of any fish. I changed over to the gold bead version of the same fly to fish much deeper down. I degreased the leader and let the fly sink for 25 seconds before starting to make a very slow retrieve along the bottom. I had not moved the fly more than a couple of feet before I had a take and struck into solid resistance. The fish remained very deep down and put up a terrific fight in the gin clear water. This was certainly a good test for my travelling gear. Slowly the fish tired and I was admiring my first Tree Meadow fish. It was a fin perfect rainbow of over five pounds. That was a good start!An hour later, I had another take that turned out to be a golden rainbow of over two pounds. I had caught my two fish and was very pleased – then it was time to continue the family holiday with a visit to St.Ives.The following year, I returned to fish the water but it had turned much warmer. There was a good hatch of hawthorn and the fish were up feeding on top for them. This time I fished the surface with a dry hawthorne imitation. I did not have to wait long for the first take. Possibly in excitement I struck too early. I felt the fish give a couple of shakes with its head before the hook pulled free. However this only made me more determined and a couple of casts later I made no mistake as a nice four pound plus rainbow took my dry fly. This did not disturb the fish as I went on to catch another three rainbows in the next couple of hours with the best turning the scales at a fraction under five pounds. It was a brilliant evenings fishing that made me a convert to Tree Meadow. Since then I’ve always dropped in to Meadow Tree Fishery when on holiday in that part of Cornwall. It has always proved to be a very consistent water producing some very nice fish. I have had rainbows to nearly eight pounds, some nice browns and golden trout from this venue. It is certainly a venue that I would have continued to fish regularly but in recent years we have been spending more holidays in North Devon and in Yorkshire. No doubt I will be back the area in the not too distant future and I will be able to fish Tree Meadow again. I really look forward to that time.

If you have a trout fishery that you would like us to visit and to review, please contact Laurie on 020 7573 5473.