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FISHING

2025 River Taw Devon Fly Fishing

The Fox & Hounds Team
April 1, 2025

Season Opening Report

We’ve been counting down the days since the New Year to the start of fishing, and with the River Taw being in better condition for the start of the season than anyone can recall in recent years, we were excited to get out.

No salmon to show for the first couple of weeks before trout season opened, although we hooked something large and very silver for a couple of moments of exciting aerobatics and two guests each got into salmon on the Torridge but weren’t able to land them.

Brown Trout

Trout fishing at the start of the season was challenging but fairly steady. We’ve seen several decent size (for our beats) fish caught in the 12-16” range as well as a lot of smaller fish. In the early days of the season temperatures were low and action was very focussed around the hatches. We’d have nothing at all for a couple of hours, then when we saw a few fish rise, we’d get two or three in a row.

As temperatures have continued to rise with the glorious weather of late March, we’ve been seeing more and more hatches and the action is slowly picking up. It’s still a challenge and we’ve had a couple of blank days but generally anglers are getting one or two and up to half a dozen in a morning or evening. During the last few days of the month, anglers have been catching up to a dozen fish, bringing the number of trout released for the half-month to 78.

March Flies for Brown Trout

During the first couple of weeks of March, we had a few ambitious brownies take our large salmon flies and that has continued as progressed into the month, when we’ve been targeting the salmon. During the first several days of trout season, the fish were very picky, targeting very specific flies. In fact, during the first four days, we only caught one fly; a black nymph that Tom found at Fly Fishing Tackle in Crediton. Not even similar patterns would work, so we tied up a few more exact matches and started landing the odd fish. The bite would be limited, corresponding to seeing a few fish rising and only on a dead drift – all very frustrating given the number of flies tied and purchased throughout the off-season!

As the weather warmed up and insects became more abundant, several fish were taken on a March Brown Spider pattern (Hare & Partridge style) we found over on Andrew Overend’s website, which is a great resource. We also tried tying a few of Davie McPhail’s variety, whose flies we love, but haven’t had any luck with those yet.

Over the last few days of the month, we’ve also had some success on size 16 GRHE’s, size 14 olive GRHE’s and most recently, size 14 Pheasant Tail Nymphs. But in all cases we’ve found the fish to be highly selective, going after a single pattern/size on a given day and ignoring everything else.

March Bug Life on The Taw

Under the rocks we’ve predominantly been seeing mayfly nymphs. These have been predominantly very small, only 2-3mm in length (hence our surprise that the 16-20 flies haven’t been performing), with a few up to 15-18mm. The nymph pictured below is beside size 14 flies, so perhaps a size 12 would have been closer, but the larger flies didn’t produce.

We’re occasionally seeing cased caddis larvae and more rarely, Simulium larvae, in the faster flows. The rather scary looking Calopteryx splendens nymph of the beautiful blue, black winged, Banded Demoiselle we have in this area has also been spotted a couple of times.

Above the waterline, it’s only been in the last week of March that we’ve seen much in the way of flying insects. Small brown mayflies that we presume to be March Browns and small light-olive mayflies, along with midges have been the most obvious, with a few sedges, but nothing in any numbers yet.

Summary

We’ve had some great days out on the water for the opening of the season, with both the Taw and Torridge being in wonderful condition. With the temperatures pushing up into the mid to high teens and plenty of sunshine, its been a pleasure to be out.

With each passing day the hatches are increasing and the fishing is improving. Nymphs and spiders have been the way to go, and rapidly cycling through the fly box to find the right colour and size to produce takes.

As we move into April, it looks as though temperatures are continuing to trend upwards for unusually dry and warm start to Spring. The rains will no doubt be with us soon enough, but for the moment we’ll just have to put up with the warm sunny days out on the river!

Tom vs Matt Series

If you’ve stayed with us before, you’ll likely be aware of the friendly fishing rivalry between Tom, our General Manager and Matt, the owner. Following last year’s hard fought and down to the wire competition, we’ve decided to change things up a bit and document our progress.

Each month we’ll both choose 5 flies and only fish caught on those flies will count towards the competition numbers. We’ll also be discussing our preferred set ups, fishing techniques, pools and runs, all of which we hope will be fun and useful information, especially if you’re fishing with us for the first time! You can keep up with all the articles in the series here.

As a reminder, you can add on fishing to any stay with us and for single anglers we have a great Fishing break package that includes dinner, bed & breakfast along with fishing, which you can see over on our Offers page. We also have general information about fishing in Devon and flyfishing on the river Taw and Torridge, including what to bring and beat information.