For much of the time, our beats are booked up by hotel guests, but occasionally we’ll have an opening for local anglers. Mark Lamude and Nick Britton, contacted us to ask about such a possibility and they were so nice, we just couldn’t say no.

Mark and Nick are fanatical about fishing and both are good all-round anglers, and very keen fly fishermen. They have spent many years angling in various disciplines and have a wealth of experience, from fishing big seas for bass, float fishing for tench, to chasing big pike. But in recent years the call of the river and fly fishing has taken over their fishing lives, and they are glad it has as this quote from Mark says…

“This is truly one of the finest rivers I’ve ever had the pleasure of fishing, if you’re a trout angler then this is what you dream about, world class.”

Mark and Nick fished Home Beat and Church Beat on the River Taw, landing several brown trout between them. With the water levels up slightly, they headed out in high spirits, equipped with Nymphing gear on New Zealand wool indicators, and of course a dry fly rod.

As there was little evidence of a hatch, they decided that nymphing would be the main approach. On this occasion it was Nick who was top rod. He worked the water methodically and patiently, this eventually paid off when his line tightened into a fine Brown trout that fell for his classic Gold Headed Red Tag Nymph.