June and July have seen some of the best days flyfishing this year on the river Taw and Torridge, as well as a couple of the slowest, when the weather has been at its most changeable.
In early June anglers were still seeing double digit returns, but the expected cold snap saw temperatures drop by nearly 10 degrees and slowed the fishing considerably. It warmed up towards the middle of the month accompanied by some much needed rain which added 35cm to the Taw and 85cm to the Torridge. We headed out very excited at the prospect of some salmon and sea trout. There were certainly a number of big fish seen rising or pushing up through the skinny water, but we were unable to connect. However, we did manage a good number of brown trout 12-15″. The ongoing changeable weather throughout the summer has made the fishing somewhat unpredictable, with the same angler getting 20+ one evening and just 2 or 3 the next.
Fortunately, a few bouts of rain have helped keep the water levels reasonably high for the time of year and as we move into August (typically our slowest month) we’re continuing to get good catches often in the mid-teens or low 20’s. We’re also seeing higher than usual numbers of bigger fish to 15” which are getting very fat! Numbers for the year are now just shy of 1000 for brown trout on our beats – nearly three time the total of last year. Still only 3 sea trout and no salmon yet for the Taw, but over on the Torridge we’ve had a couple of salmon and more than a dozen sea trout.
Dries have definitely been outperforming wet flies over the past 4 or 5 weeks. Regular Mayfly hatches are continuing with reddy-brown and light yellow/olive matching the duns, and calico colour flies for some of the larger spinners.
Sedge/caddis patterns such as sedgehogs have also been performing well and responsible for rising some of the larger fish. Body colours of grey, cinnamon, dark brown and olive work well at different times, and a bright green butt can sometimes be the thing to switch the fish on.
If the mayfly and sedge patterns aren’t working, try switching to small midge patterns especially CDC buzzers in black or light olive may be just the ticket. The aptly named Infallible has also helped to turn things around on tougher evenings!
For nymphs, olive and pheasant tail colours have been doing well as well as very small (16-18) simple black patterns and the ubiquitous gold ribbed hairs ear. Stoats Tails and Pilk’s Bumble have also been responsible for a fair number of larger brown trout that we’ve picked up while chasing the more elusive sea trout.
It’s difficult to say how August will play out, but it has started well, and we’ve certainly got a bit more water than previous years. There are some bigger fish lurking in some of the deeper pools and we’re keen to push through the 1000 mark, so we’ll certainly be out there giving it our best shot and hope that you’ll be able to join us.
Our fishing reports from earlier months are also available:
