Fishing on the Taw and Torridge rivers on hotel beats has been excellent throughout May and into early June. The river levels have continued to drop with the occasional top up from the rain, and there’s still enough water to see predominantly double digit returns.

We’ve had a steady stream of angling visitors, many fishing with our guides, others returning or just going it alone on our Taw beats near the hotel, or heading over the the Torridge. GM Tom and owner Matt have also been getting out in the evenings – purely to see what’s working best, so they can advise guests!

Much of May saw the majority of fish being taken on small (14-16) simple nymph patterns in black olive and tan/hares ear. A bead head on the point and unweighted on the dropper, in another size or colour helped to quickly identify what the fish were taking. We had a couple of lovely warm spells in May and a lot of hatches, but it wasn’t until the very end of the month that the dries started to out fish the wet flies. 

At the beginning of June we crossed the 400 mark for catch returns for the year to date, passing last years totals. We also had a bit of a cold snap and a noticeable increase in the performance of olive coloured nymphs. The hatches have continued and dries are now regularly outperforming wet flies, even when there doesn’t appear to be a lot rising. Wulff style patterns and Elk Sedge patterns are doing well especially tied with lighter colour bodies. Tom loves this, as he prefers the dries and recently had a 39 fish morning, while Matt trailed with only a dozen on nymphs. 

We’ve had quite regular reports of larger fish in the 10-14″ range and local angler and guide, Fred Brown had great day recently catching 20 up to around 12″ and hooked a landed a lovely looking sea trout to top things off (pictured below and on his Instagram @flyfishing_uk).  

The Torridge is fed from sources further to the West, so its water levels can be affected very differently than the Taw. As is typical the fish from those beats were fewer in number but larger in size, with brown trout up to 1.5lb, several nice sea trout up to 3lb, the first salmon of the year and a 5lb grilse.

Both rivers have also has a lot of wildlife spotted in may including deer, kingfishers, heron, otters and even a beaver!

More information about fishing our rivers, guides, and what to bring is available from our main fly fishing page, and fishing can be added to any fishing package or using our great value fishing break package. Don’t forget to check out our fishing report for April, and if you’re planning on fly fishing on the Taw or Torridge soon, have a look at our suggestions for Top 5 Flies for Early Summer Fishing on Devon Rivers.