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Early Autumn Flies for Devon Rivers

The Fox & Hounds Team
September 5, 2025

September Fly Selection for the River Taw

This article is part of the Fly Fishing Devon Rivers Tom vs Matt series in which we discuss our selection of flies for each month, our different techniques and setups, the bug life we’re seeing on the rivers, favourite beats, etc. We’re definitely not experts, but we do put in hundreds of hours on the local rivers each year and hope that some of the information will be helpful to new anglers or those fishing with us for the first time.

Review of August Flies

I’m not sure we caught enough fish in August to make our fly selection and results statistically relevant. Warm water and lack of rain meant several days of closure and even when we could fish the results weren’t spectacular.

Most days we were hard pushed to find more than two or three fish but had a couple of days nearer the start and end of the month when we had a few more. On the plus side we not only ran through our selections but also everything else in the fly box, fishing 10’s through 22’s, from the surface to the bottom as well as every colour and pattern – empirically proving that sometimes the fish just won’t bite! You can read full details of our August fishing in our August Fishing Report.

Matt managed at least one fish of each of his selections. The Tupps and Black Sedge were both disappointing accounting for one fish a piece. Small light coloured mays and the Black and Brown Silverhorns were the most abundant flies on the surface, with the exception of very small midges, but there was very little surface action. The Elk Hair Caddis took a few fish and the APT a few more from under the trees, both blind casting to likely lies. The black nymph accounted for the majority of his fish and from the non-competition flies, yellow body spiders and brown-olive parachutes, both in 14s, performed best.

Tom managed to dink his way to opening his lead a bit further. The lion’s share of his fish were caught on a black dyed hears ear nymph fished anywhere from 12-36″ under a dry. He picked up a few on Matt’s brown-olive parachute and got a couple of other rises, but none on the DJ Rocket, black streamer or Greenwells from his selection.

Overall Tom caught 33 fish in the month to Matt’s 32. Full disclosure, he did manage to do it in about a quarter of the days that I was out. But as I told him, spending four times the number of days fishing feels like a win, when the river is so beautiful!

Adding Tom’s fish caught on his competition flies selection brings his total up to 288, with Matt slightly behind on 284. With a recent top up in the water levels and everything to play for as we head into the final month, we’ll have our final scores and reflections on the season at the end of September.

A beautiful early autumn afternoon on Church beat

September Fly Selection for Devon Rivers

With the cooling temperatures and a bit more water, we expect to see fishing pick up again for September. There wasn’t any significant rain over the summer to encourage bigger fish to move up, so we hope to see a few salmon coming through as well.

We have quite a few late season species of may fly on the Taw including Pond Olive, Small Spurwing, Ditch Dun and some Baetis species, but we really haven’t seen a lot in the way of rising fish since early July. The safer bet may be to focus on sub-surface when it comes to choosing winning flies.

Tom’s Brown Trout Flies for September

Finally we have some water in the river … It’s not as much as we had wished for, however it has definitely made a difference to the water level and the fish seem to be a lot happier as well, understandably.

August was a difficult month we still managed to get out and catch a few fish, there was still the odd seatrout which we were picking up on the smaller black gold head nymphs and a few larger fish were seen in some of the pools seeming to have become residents and not wanting to feed on anything we threw at them.

There has still been a fair bit of fly life throughout the month but I certainly couldn’t work out what they were taking and Matt, now being a ‘bug expert’ was unlikely to share his findings without a bribe of a chocolate bar.

My fly choices last month were on a bit of a whim, I wanted to try something a bit different and suffered the consequences, however I was still catching on the old favourites which I am going to go back to this month.

So its the last month of the season unfortunately but I am looking forward to sorting out my fly boxes potentially planning something big for next year and doing some winter grayling and maybe even some pike fishing as well on the fly which I haven’t done in many years. It’s something I think everyone should give a go. The first time I went was several years ago on the river Parrot which rises in Dorset and flows through Somerset into the Bristol Channel. I went with my buddy Pete Tyjas and I found it super exciting, albeit a bit windy, but I simply cannot go through until March without throwing a line somewhere.

So here goes the last choices of flies for September.

The ‘Caddis’ Fly (14)

This one is not one of the old favourites, however after doing some research i have read that this fly works well for the end of the season, this particular pattern was tied by a friend of mine so would be a nice fly to catch a few fish on.

Kaufman's Stimulator (16)

Yes i am going to have this in my selection this month always been a favourite fly of mine and with some more water some decent weather and some bigger fish showing I recon I could bag up a few on this fly, always fishing something a little smaller first to see if I can entice a fish up but if not I will be putting this on and almost guaranteed to at least get 1 😂

Butcher (16)

I’m including a couple wet flies in my September selection which I intend to fish by swinging them downstream in some faster water. Depending on the river depth I may switch to a sinking line to try and get down to some fish sitting a bit deeper. This fly is meant to imitate small baitfish creating a flash and aggressive profile in the water. Hopefully enough to initiate a strike from a seatrout lying in wait.

Peter Ross (18)

Again this fly is going to fished similar to the ‘Butcher’ down and across I was going to include the ‘Coachmans’ in my collection but I have gone for this instead, I may still fish the Coachmans as well being a favourite fly by some for seatrout on the river taw fished either on the surface or as a wet fly.

Mega May emerger (16)

I wouldnt be me if i didnt bring back this beauty into the mix for the last month of the season.

Will I catch a few fish on this, being very late season, maybe… maybe not, but I couldn’t go into the last month without bringing this back into the mix. It’s probably my favourite fly in my collection and I’m sure it will not let me down.

So that concludes the last of my flies for the season. I have some catching up to do so I’m going to be getting out as much as possible [ed. I forgot to tell Tom he was ahead and could coast for a bit], I’m going to be fishing for some late salmon and hopefully we can get at least 1 on the board for 2025.

Matt’s Brown Trout Flies for September

Matching the hatch really didn’t work out that well for me in August. Standing in the river watching near-identical flies to the ones I’d tied up, float past undisturbed by any fish, was a little disappointing. This, combined with a bit more flow from the recent rain is pushing me back towards a nymph-heavy selection for this final month. I’m more confident with them than with the dries anyway, and while there isn’t much in it, I’ll take every advantage I can get in this last month of the competition!

I’m going to include a dry that has a chance of being hit, for my klink and dink combo, moving towards pale olive rather than the pale yellow of last month. Then, black, olive and hares ear nymphs for the core of the pick. I’m torn on the last fly as I would quite like to include a spider pattern; a small terrestrial, like a Griffiths Gnat; a PTN as well as a caddis of some description. I’ve also seen several people talk about black daddy patterns on their rivers. I’ve yet to catch a fish on a daddy on the Taw, but will try it out. I’ll carry and fish all of these patterns, of course, but for the competition, I think I’ll go back to the Elk Hair Caddis. There’s still a good number of caddisflies around and this new water may make the fish more active – plus there’s still some sea trout around and it’s proven a good fly for them.

Pale Olive Parachute (14)

We’ve got the Pond Olives, Pale Watery, Small Spurwing and other small mayfly around. I’ll still fish the pale yellow, but for my competition choice, I’m going to edge towards a light olive colour and try to cover a few more of the species we’ve seen floating by.

Maybe a few wraps of red-brown at the head of the fly to suggest the eyes of the male will be the secret ingredient to bring a few more fish up.

Elk Hair Caddis (14)

Still on a size 14 hook, I’m tying this with a slightly longer wing and a light coloured body compared to the July pattern. I’m hoping to more closely emulate some of the larger, lighter species we expect to see, including Caperers and some of the Cinnamon sedges with an Autumn hatch.

I’ve also kept the mico-zelon underwing which does seem to help a bit with buoyancy, and the back facing horns give a visual cue without wrapping around the line.

Core flies for my September pick are going to be the nymphs. All pretty much identical profiles tied in different materials (all incorporating peacock somewhere!). From left to right the beaded Gold Ribbed Hares Ear in Olive, natural and a plain bead headed black nymph, with a few strands of flash tied in with the scruffy thorax – perfect for a passing sea trout, I hope!

Towards the Finishing Line

I think both Tom and I are somewhat relieved it’s the final month of the season. It’s been a great exercise and a lot of fun, but also a fair amount of work, especially with everything else going on! It’s definitely made us examine fly choices much more closely and the more formal recording of results, study of insects and analysis of results will be a good foundation for more informed choices and advise to guests in seasons to come.

Since we’re a bit late again, we’ve discovered that the orange bodied sedge patterns are doing well at the moment, and catch numbers are moving up again. Tom’s standing out in the rain right now, as I did have a few good days while he was off in Cornwall and have pulled into the lead. Apparently he’s doing quite well, so I better finish up here and go and do some vigorous kick-sampling in the vicinity.