July Review
July really turned into a two-fly month. Fortunately both flies were in our joint pool of flies that we picked for July, so even though we caught far fewer fish than previous months, most of them counted in the competition! Like many places, we decided to close fishing during the hot weather to give the fish some peace and quiet. You can read the full July Fishing Report in a related article.
Back on the first day of July, Tom proved it was actually possible to catch a fish on a sedge pattern in 2025, as long as the fly was small enough. Since that day neither of us has used much else throughout the month. We did supplement it with a small beaded black nymph tied onto the bend of the sedge hook, which proved to be a deadly combo.
The biggest bonus was that it also worked marvels on the sea trout, with both the sedge and the nymph accounting for roughly equal action. By the end of the month we’d landed 10 sea trout and lost a few more (last year we got 3 in total). We did toy with a multiplier value for sea trout caught in the competition, but as Matt pulled ahead, Tom seemed less keen on the idea, pushing more for a size multiplier! In the end we decided a fish was a fish (apart from Matt’s Dace, which is apparently -1).
The deep slow waters of Church Beat gave up some big fish this month
The Klinkhammers in both the Brown-Olive and Red-Brown got a couple of fish but may have done better tied on a 16 and last month’s superstar Stimulator didn’t fair much better. Tom’s choice of a Green Drake Wulff may have caught a fish if he’d ever managed to get one, but apparently the fly shops “were out”, so we’ll never know. On the whole, the number of Green Drakes we saw were down significantly anyway.
Of the flies we did see on the water, caddis, including Brown and Black Silverhorns, were the most common, and the few mayflies we saw were smaller species. BWOs were the most common and while we didn’t identify the following with 100% certainty, Pale Watery, Yellow May Dun, and Ditch Dun were among the flies we saw. From our kick samples we were also able to identify species of at least five different genera of mayfly nymphs.
The deep slow waters of Church Beat gave up some big fish this month
In the final tally, Tom caught 46 fish and Matt 41. All were caught on the July competition flies bringing the overall totals to 261 for Tom and 260 for Matt as we head into August.
Chenson and Church Beat have plenty of waist-deep water throughout summer
Home and Bridge Reeve beats are low with some deeper pockets
August Fly Selection for Devon Rivers
I can’t decide if we’re getting better at this as we progress through the year, or worse. We started off catching on the majority of our choices, but last month really only caught on two flies. Let’s blame it on the picky fish and be glad we have a more rigorous record to refer to next year!
Tom’s Brown Trout Flies for August
As I expected , July was a hard fishing month. The river levels have stuck to their very low levels so we have been fishing the deeper pools where fish seem to be hanging.
We have been fortunate enough to be catching several seatrout throughout July, Matt was very excited to have caught his first river Taw seatrout, which he was quick to share via a WhatsApp picture message, I was chuffed for him and I felt awful (only a small amount) 12 minutes later when I sent him a picture of the seatrout I caught to which I received a colourful message back, understandably.
I suppose payback was necessary so he put me on several double shifts and proceeded to catch more Seatrout than me, only fair I guess!
Looking into August and with no sign of any rain on the horizon, it looks like it’s again going to be a hard month. I’ve gone a bit rogue with my fly choices this month because in all honesty I have no idea what to do! With this said, these are my my choices for August.
Dj Rocket (12)
This fly looks a bit mad and I’ve never used one but its a tungsten beaded nymph so will get down into the depths fairly fast, the glitzy tails will hopefully attract some interest!
Tungsten River Streamer (black) (12)
With the river levels staying the same (low) I’m going to try something new and fish deep in the pools with a streamer pattern and hopefully initiate a strike from a lazy fish, potentially going to annoyingly some seatrout as well. I haven’t done a lot of streamer fishing so this will be an interesting learning curve I’m sure!
Beaded Gold Ribbed Hairs Ear (12)
Changing it up slightly, I’ve gone for a hairs ear pattern instead of a Pheasant tail, no reason for this just going out on a whim and trying something different.
Greenwells Glory (16)
I couldn’t go through into August without a dry fly in my selection so I’ve gone for this, the fish seem to have been interested in the green olive colour so this is going to be a strong contender I recon, I think Matt has gone for something similar so be interesting to see who catches!
Parachute Greenwell's Glory (16)
This is essentially very similar to the above selection, however I will probably use this as an indicator fly with the ribbed hairs ear hanging underneath early evening for those seatrout hanging around in the 1-2 feet of water am I confident in the selection … yes confident!!
Matt’s Brown Trout Flies for August
Ever since we’ve had our peacocks, we’ve had a steady supply of peacock herl and other interesting feathers. What’s more, feeding the peacocks has attracted ducks, magpie, pigeons and other birds, so I’m keen to use some of those up and work them into this month’s selection.
While there are far fewer hatches at the moment, my selection focusses on the naturals we’ve been seeing above, below and on the surface of the water. Namely small, pale mays, light and dark sedges, small nymphs and terrestrials.
Elk Hair Caddis (16)
I’m carrying this over from last month as there are still plenty of caddis with lighter wing colours around. The Micro Zelon worked well to keep the fly afloat, even with the suspended bead head.
Having to dry and dress flies is one of my least favourite things about dry flies, but I’m finding the rubber band trick is helping. I’ve also just started using Lochsa (Loon) which to me seems to work better and last longer than Gink, FM’s Dry Sauce and Loon’s Aquel. I’m also using it in preference to the powders, which are great for a few casts, but leave a white film on the fly.
Tupps Indispensable (14)
I wanted something for the several species of small yellow and pale mayfly we have around at the moment. Tupps Indispensable seemed to fit the bill, but I didn’t have quite the right materials, so tied up a few minor variants for some “Not Quite Tupps Indispensibles”.
Tom’s Greenwell’s Glory (which I swear has been tied in a yellow but he insists its olive) might have been a better bet for the materials I had to hand.
Black Sedge (14)
The majority of caddis flies around at the moment are the Black Silverhorns. I couldn’t find any great patterns, so I’ve tied up a few variants of Davey Mcphails Coffin Caddis to see which works best.
I do like the horns and I’ve being tying them in backwards on my Elk Wing Caddis flies. The fish don’t seem to mind and it they sit better in the box and don’t get wrapped around the line. I was also able to use some dark peacock feathers for the wing.
All Purpose Terrestrial (16)
I had some fish with this fly earlier in the year, so decided to bring it back for the height of summer. I’ve tied a few with the wing in CDC and others with Micro Zelon and have some 14s as well as the 16s (promise to only count the fish caught on the 16s, honest!)
To get the peacock in, I’ve twisted real herl with the Semperfli peacock quill subs called for in the original recipe.
Bead Head Black Nymph (16)
Not quite a carry over as I’m down sizing to a 16, the bead head black nymph performed well last August and has taken an increasing number of fish throughout July.
I’ve tied these ones with copper head and rib, but other than the very start of the year when the fish were incredibly picky, I haven’t noticed them being particularly discerning about rib, head colour or hook shape. But if I’d had small silver beads, I probably would of used those, with silver rib.
I used peacock herl for the thorax to keep up the theme, but a bit of seal or straggly dubbing works well too.
Along with all the usual suspects (PTNs, Klinkhammers in different colours, GRHEs in natural and olive, etc) I’ll be trying out a few more micro nymphs and small emergers in August. The other night was tough and I hadn’t had a touch, but switched to an olive spider for the last couple of casts and picked up two fish. It’s not a pattern I often use, but did very well back in March and April, so I’ll tie some up in a few more colours and see how they do.
Wrapping up
We’re more than a week into August as we publish this and the fishing has been tough so far. We’re tending to catch 2 or 3 fish in an evening with not much rising. We have some warmer evenings coming up so hopefully we’ll see some more late hatches.
The one good thing about the low water levels is that the big fish have been staying put so we might even get a few more sea trout numbers on the board this month.
Related Posts
River Taw, Devon – May Fishing Report
Fly fishing report for May 2026 at The Fox & Hounds, Devon
