The Taw, Tamar, Torridge, Exe, Plym and Dart along with their tributaries all enjoy runs of salmon. There is nothing more exciting than catching a Westcountry salmon.
We are often asked when is the best time to be on the river fly fishing for salmon but we always believe that if your fly is in the water you are in with a chance!
That having been said the Taw does have a spring run of salmon along with an autumn run too. That doesn’t mean you should just be fish May and September as rainfall will provide the higher water needed for the salmon to continue their move further up the river to their spawning grounds.
If water is at a constant level then we will be fishing for resident salmon that are holding in a pool waiting for higher water to allow them to head further upstream. We usually like to fish more sublte, smaller patterns and then to scale things up to try and stir them up a bit.
It is worth remembering that salmon have been at sea feeding, building up enough strength to last their time in the river so when offering them a fly we are trying to remind them of what they were feeding on or just to simply annoy them or perhaps to make them feel territorial so that they snap at the fly.
If you are fishing and the river is rising due to rain or just fining down after a spate then this can be an exciting time to be on the water. When this happens we are targetting, primarily, salmon that are looking to head further upstream and are something we call “runners”. When fishing for runners it is not always the case that a travelling fish will take a fly but the one that has stopped for a breather after negotiating an obstacle is a more willing fish.
A Devon salmon is a special fish and one that you will not forget in a hurry!
