I've just returned from a few days fishing Dartmoor and the River Taw. I stayed in the Fox & Hounds hotel in Eggesford, which I can highly recommend and was guided for a couple of days by PeteT from this forum. This was my first trip to fish Dartmoor.

After meeting Pete in the hotel bar we discussed the plans for the next two days. We decided to fish local to the hotel on the first day and then head to Dartmoor on the second day.

The first day was spent on the hotel's water. Not easy fishing on a very low and clear river but Pete put me on fish straight away and the morning led to about a dozen brownies, all between 4 and 10 oz. Just before we stopped for lunch I was running a small nymph through a deep hole under some trees when I hooked into something much bigger. After a really good scrap both Pete and I were surprised to beach a rainbow trout of over 5lb!! This fish was way too big to go into Pete's trout net, so it was released in the water.....no pictures I'm afraid. This was my biggest trout from a British river, some start to the week! Five minutes later, fishing the next pool I hooked into another hard-fighting fish.....my first sea-trout, caught at midday on a pheasant tail.



So, my biggest British river trout and then first sea-trout in the space of five minutes. Not a bad mornings fishing.

The next day we headed up to Dartmoor, to fish little rivers like this:



These rivers are very clear and full of lots of wild, feisty little trout.



There are at least three of the little chaps in that picture, which gives you an idea of hour low and clear the water was. And how well they blend themselves into the stream bed.

However, by keeping low, being stealthy and flicking small dry flies into likely looking runs there is plenty of action to be had:



I finished the day with about 30 of these little chaps, mostly all around the same size

However, the "last cast of the day" was to a better fish we'd seen rise a couple of times by some rushes. After drifting over it a couple of times and a change of flies I managed to induce the fish to take a small sedge pattern. On a 2wt rod it gave a lovely scrap and after a couple of minutes Pete netted the biggest fish of the day, 14 1/2 in of beautiful, wild trout:



A wonderful wild fish from a truely wild habitat.

I spent the rest of the week either fishing back on Dartmoor or on the hotel water on the Taw. This really is a lovely part of the world, with crystal clear rivers that seem to teem with wild trout. I lost count of the fish I caught during the week. It doesn't really matter. Just being there is what counts. Being on a river while kingfishers flash by in the sun and seeing Red Kites circling over head is a privalege. The fact that wild fish honour you by rising to your fly is simply a bonus.

Finally, I must thank PeteT. His intimate knowledge of the rivers consistently put me on fish and when things went quiet, as they do during the day, he wasn't afraid to change tactics, flies and location when required. I can hugely recommend Pete to anyone who wants to go fishing in truely wild places to catch truely wild fish.

This is somewhere I will definately return to next year.

Lovely report. I am jumping into my car and heading there for a couple of days tomorrow. You've certainlywhetted my appetite

An excellent report, many thanks. I have asked Pete a couple of times to marry me but he always finds an excuse!

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"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers"
Henry VI, William Shakespeare

Nice report. I'm envious - my trip last month was very wet and stormy and I resorted to the shelter of the Teign valley.

Regards
Peter

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Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans
John Lennon

http://walksandfishes.blogspot.com/

Hi Daran,

Many thanks for the kind words, it was an absoloute pleasure to take you out. You are an excellent fisherman and I am so pleased you liked our rivers, fish and the 2wt.

Blithfield2, hope your bro is enjoying Dartmoor too. Marriage?...you'll have to stop asking me to sign a pre nup!

Peter, hope to see you down in Devon.

Pete

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www.devonschoolofflyfishing.com - Fly Fishing in Devon

A belated report due to work and unfortunately deficient in the picture department as well.

I arrived at the F&H about lunchtime in bright blue skies and by the time I had finished an excellent lunch there was a full blown thunderstorm in progress. The 4th thunderstorm I had seen that week. We checked into a very comfortable family room and I spent the next hour with my nose pressed to the window, just like an 8 year old kid. Eventually, I kidded myself it was easing off and kitted up.

As I arrived at the river, the rain had eased from cloudburst to torrential. The water was coloured and rising but I was there now. In the absence of any clues, I started with a heavy nymph in a deep pool and had a solid tug very soon after, that I did not connect with. Moving up river, the odd splashy rise could be seen in the shallower water when the weather had eased to sunny drizzle. With a ballon caddis, I managed to pick up some small parr. The takes were hard to pick up because of the big rain drops falling from the trees and turbulent water. I tried klinks, unweighted nymphs and spiders to try and make detection easier but the caddis was all they wanted. Approaching beer time I decided to wait for better conditions on the following day.

I met Pete in reception the following morning and he gave me the brief for the day, in short it was be flexible. The river was coloured and the water cool after the rain which had gone on most of the night. He took me on to one of his beats, the water was chocolate covered but we covered fish. He showed me a pool where there are some resident sea trout, I could not see them but they were agitated by our approach and started bow waving around. They were either big fish or crocodiles. We moved quickly up river, finding better water conditions and eventaully I picked up a fish. When the cold breeze dropped and the sun broke through, there were sporadic rises. Pete made a tactical decsion to go for an early lunch so that we could make the most of the improving conditions.

After gorging on another serious lunch, we returned to the river. The water was clearing and the temperature had kicked up a notch or two. Pete put me straight onto fish, with 2 coming to the fly in the first few casts. Soon after, I took a fish of about 10 inches. The afternoon passed in a blur, lots of rises some taken, many more missed. We were dipping in and out of some intimate pools, with me leaving the contents of Petes fly box scattered in the foilage. We took a gymnastic route to a weir pool that was stunning to look at but on this occassion there was nothing doing. At one pool there were a lot of fish rising in a bubble run, close to some trees. I had a case of the yips and could not put a fly into the run but still took 3 fish.

The day was over too soon and I could not have found a better way to spend my 50th birthday. As ever, Pete was a joy to fish with; encouraging , entertaining and tolerant of my fumbling efforts.

However, before I went for dinner, he did suggest that I visit a pool near the hotel. With some leeway before my wife noticed I was overdue, I went for it. Fishing my way up to the location, I was still picking up fish. At the appointed spot, afish rose. Unlike the splashy rises encountered all day, a neb slowly emerged from the water and confidently sucked in the caddis. It was a beast but the ensuing fight was a one punch knockout and I lost... but I'll be back for him.

My thanks again to Pete for a top day.

PS Still waiting for that beer DW

Sounds as if you had some fun.


In the pipe line...

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Dave Wiltshire

River Fly Box

Vince ,belated birthday greetings ,you'll be catching up with me shortly ,age wise i have cancelled my next few birthdays

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Andy Wren
Winter grayling taking a year off !
Claret not just a great dubbing colour!

I've printed that off Dave, its legally binding

Andy

I'll take your lead on counting birthdays. I'll need to invest in a face iron though