It’s always exciting to welcome in a new season of fly fishing, here on the River Taw in Devon, but early season fishing can be challenging. Cool weather and cold water aren’t conducive to hatches and fish can be lethargic and a bit more picky about what they’ll get out of bed for.
To help point us in the right direction, we asked several experienced local anglers which flies they would choose, if they could only fish two flies for the early spring. While there was some overlap in responses, we were surprised at the wide range of responses we received. All of the anglers have been fishing the Taw and Devon rivers for at least 10 years and many for 20 years or more, but each had distinct and specific flies they preferred.
Streamers and Wet Flies
Not surprisingly many of the fly choices given were sub-surface. The water temperature in early in the season is often between 9 and 11 degrees, and most mayfly species, other than Large Dark Olives, hatch at temperatures over 11 degrees.
Mini Sculpin – There’s no doubt that large flies fished deep can catch big fish. The mini sculpin most closely imitates our native Bullhead, but might also be mistaken for a roving Stone loach or minnow. We regularly catch good brown trout while swingling or pulling large salmon patterns. A favoured approach is to fish streamers on a sink tip line with short leader.
Black Leech – Another large streamer pattern that can produce fish throughout the year, but works particularly well in both the spring and autumn when there are fewer alternate food sources around. Leeches are often found under rocks reaching about 4-5 cm in length and can be found in various shades of grey, green, brown and black.
Salmon Flies – Not a top two choice of any of our anglers, but often carried as a baitfish imitation in early spring. Flies such as Stoats Tails and Black Pennell can be cast easily with a lighter rod and swung or stripped, and can often produce fish when nothing else is working. If you happen to hook into a big salmon on light gear, at least you’ll have an interesting tale to tell!
Spiders – Another honourable mention and a great fly to keep in the box in early spring, spider patterns in red/brown, olive and black can be productive. Normally fished on the dropper above a weighted point fly, but bead headed variations also can also work well on the point.
Nymphs
When we started this exercise, we assumed that most people would name one or even two nymphs for their early season flies, so it was interesting to see such a diverse response from seasoned anglers, when faced with the challenge of choosing only two flies. That said they were the still the most popular fly type mentioned imitating the many nymphs.
Many anglers would argue that presentation is as important, or even more important than the specific choice of fly, and this is particularly true in the early season when fish are picky. Nymphs can do well when fished in teams with a heavy nymph on the point and a lighter alternative on the dropper. This works well when swinging or retrieving through the riffle or faster water. For dead drifts however, it is often easier to use a dry dropper approach, suspending a nymph under a buoyant dry fly and fishing upstream, especially in slower, deeper waters.
Black Pheasant Tail Nymph – One of the most prevalent and largest nymphs we see early spring are the Heptagendiidae. These are the rock clingers and we have a few species, most notably March Browns and Large Brook Duns. Even in the early part of the year these can be large, measuring more than 25mm, tip to tail. The black PTN tied in a bushy style is a great pattern to imitate these and many locally anglers will carry a selection of weights and sizes from 18 up to 12.
Bead Head Pheasant Tail Nymph – Both the black and natural PTNs were named by anglers, so we’ve included both here. The colours of the native nymphs can differ dramatically, depending on their surroundings as well as where they are in their moulting cycle. While not mentioned specifically, olive dyed PTNS can do well as well. You really can’t go wrong with the Pheasant Tail Nymph on the Taw and carrying a few colours weights and sizes will certainly help you catch fish on most days.
Hare’s Ear Nymph – So far this year, the Hare’s Ear Nymph has accounted for more fish than any other fly on the hotel beats and if you’re fishing the Taw or local rivers, you’ll want to have a few of these in your box throughout the year. Its a great complement to the PTN often filling in the gap on lighter coloured side for freshly motled nymphs, some of the stonefly nymphs and even the light coloured Green Drake nymphs which are plentiful in the spring.
Perdigon Nymphs – Not one of the top two flies chosen by our anglers, but worth a mention. While it’s rare to see anyone Euro nymphing on our beats, the pocket waters of the upper Taw do see a bit and some water and conditions locally benefit from high sticking with a heavy nymph. The Perdigon style of slimly tied weighted flies with a few strands of Coq de Leon are a great pattern to imitate the small baetid nymphs, especially the olives, which are present almost all year round.
Emergers
The four mayfly we expect to sometime during the early spring are the Small Dark Olive, the Large Dark Olive, the March Brown and the Large Brook Dun, as well hoping for a few decent hatches of Grannom. Our anglers named two specific patterns, but any pattern that approximates the above hatches should be included in your spring fly box.
Sparkle Dun – A great pattern that can be productive throughout the year. The olive sparkle dun has performed notably well this spring on hotel beats and but brown-olive and red-brown can be good choices as well (if you’re in the camp that believes colour is a factor in dry flies – go team!)
Olive Dun Emerger – Another named fly chosen by one of our anglers. While it could be argued that it serves a similar purpose to an olive tied Sparkle Dun, it is often easier to tie with a slimmer profile so I find myself reaching for this if I’m seeing the Small Dark Olives and the Sparkle Dun for when the bigger Large Dark Olives are around.
Whether you choose to carry one or both styles, or opt for a Comparadun or other favourite patterns, it is certainly worth making sure you bring some emerger patterns, if you’re fishing with us or similar rivers in the area.
Dry Flies
And so to the very top of the water. We weren’t sure that with a choice of only two flies to fish, anyone would have the confidence to opt for a dry so early in the season, but the prospect of the Grannom hatch is hard to ignore.
Deer Hair Caddis – Elk or Deer Hair Caddis is a great pattern to carry in your fly box throughout most of the year. Early in the season it’s the perfect imitation for the Grannom caddis flies which we’ve seen from late march into mid April. We’ve also had hatches of two species of stonefly and a good number of alder flies for which the Deer Hair Caddis is a decent imitation.
May Dry Flies – While not specifically named, all of our anglers will be carrying some type of dry mayfly pattern and fishing it when conditions allow. Small patterns are great for the Small Dark Olive while mid size and larger patterns match the Large Dark Olives, Large Brook Duns and March Browns of the early season. No doubt we’ll be seeing a lot more of these named in our Late Spring/Early Summer Fly Box choices.
Even if you’re not specifically targeting fish on the surface, a good buoyant dry to suspend a weighted nymph is one of the easiest ways to get a longer, more realistic drift of you nymph and increase your chances of success when fishing in the early spring.
Fortunately you won’t need to bring just two flies if you come for a visit, but this selection should give you a great base of flies to stock up on, for every level of the water, if you’re heading our way. Most will work well into the late spring and later season, but we’ll see if we can tap into the local expertise to share another set of flies for later in the year.
Fishing can be added to any stay with full and half day rates available and we have a great Fishing Break package that includes Dinner, Bed and Breakfast, as well as fishing on our Offers and Events page.
