The Fowey rises on Bodmin Moor and runs through Lostwithiel to the estuary at Fowey town. Granite spate river with salmon, sea-trout, brown trout. Fowey River Association covers main-river fishing. Smaller and less productive than the Camel but with similar character. Atlantic salmon are assessed by the Environment Agency against each river's Conservation Limit — many principal rivers are classed 'at risk' with mandatory catch-and-release byelaws; check current rules before fishing.
The Fowey rises on the high granite of Bodmin Moor a mile north-east of Brown Willy and runs thirty miles south to the sea at Fowey, draining one of the largest catchments in south Cornwall. It is a true spate river — gin-clear off the granite, quick to rise and fall with the heavy moorland rain — tumbling out of the moor through the narrow wooded valley of Draynes and over the boulder staircase of Golitha Falls before settling toward its long estuary below Lostwithiel. The water is clean and acidic; the clarity makes it a real test for the fly-fisher. It is one of the best late-autumn salmon rivers in England, fishing into mid-December, with sea trout from April on the spring rains. The character is steep, wooded, boulder-and-bedrock freestone. Wading is granite-boulder work, slick under the oak shade and serious in spate.
Wading: Slick granite boulders, serious in spate
Summer-autumn runs (June–September), nocturnal peak season pattern
- Granite
- Partly confined
- Step pool
- Pool riffle