It had been over three weeks since Sandy, Lee and I returned from America to a backlog of work, both in the house and in the shop.
I was really glad that my friend Michael rang and asked if I fancied a couple of hours flyfishing in the Teign valley for little wild brownies. I had never tried fishing there and so was delighted to accept his invitation the following day. Devon is a large county and it took nearly 50 minutes to find his house in South Devon from home in the North. It then took another 45 minutes to get to the tributary of the teign, the last 20 minutes was across a track where you could only drive in first gear in his 4x4.
We then reached our destination a small river, a tributary of the Teign which bubbled down the Dartmoor slopes through rocks making an occasional pool barely ten feet long. Michael, who is a far superior fly fisherman, suggested we upstream nymph fish as he had caught a dozen in a couple of hours a few days earlier.
We worked our way upstream for over a mile taking it in turns to fish the pool although the fishing proved difficult. Michael has a couple of little trout and a parr, but my technique was lacking as I hadn't been flyfishing since last year and it took most of the time to establish any sort of rythm.
As the day progressed, the mist descended and fortunately, we only had to follow the river downstream to reach the car. Had we had to go across the moor it would have been very difficult without a compass and map. You can see why a maximum security prison was built nearby.
having enjoyed that day so much, I decided to fish the Torridge a couple of days later. The river is well down, probably nearly a foot and so the flow is really slow. I sat and watched the river as I was back to my preferred dry fly fishing but there were no rises. There were still a few mayfly and sedges about but the only fish breaking surface were tiddlers.
Deciding there was little point waitng for a larger fish to rise, I started in the castle beat moving slowly upstream to Orford Mill (to the locals it is Town Mills bridge). I had plenty of takes, many from dace which were just too fast for me, but managed a parr and a trout. Whilst they weren't big enough to be used as bait in the States, they were beautiful. This type of fishing is such a contrast to my previous trips but I find it equally enjoyable in the tranquil scenery. it makes me so glad that I live in such an area.
However, we really do nee some rain to help the salmon and sea trout get upstream. You can see the leaping in the estuary, but without more water, this is going to be a barren season.