A day on the middle Taw

I was lucky enough to be invited by Pete Tyjas from the Devon School of Fly Fishing to fish the Middle Taw. The Taw is a lovely river and I try to fish it at least a couple of times each season. As I had not managed to fish it in 2011 I was really pleased to be visiting this lovely river once again.


Arrangements were made to meet at the Fox and Hounds Hotel in Eggesford. The hotel has a variety of beats on the middle river and provides a good base for fishermen.

The middle river really is a back end spot and low water would not be very promising. I awoke at 5.30 in order to sort out my gear and copious amounts of strong black coffee. I put everything i needed in the car boot and was ready for the off. Upon shutting the car boot there was a click and the central locking engaged- oh dear! (censored text). As the car is a super secure thief proof vehicle i had that sinking feeling and the realisation of fact that i was not likely to be going fishing sunk in. It was my wife's car which doesn't have a spare key. After much ranting and pointing out what an idiot i was my wife went back to bed muttering obscenities. i waited 2 hrs for the breakdown company to arrive only be be told that there was no chance he could get in without causing damage. His mate, however, has a skeleton key that may work for this brand of car. His mate arrived and 10 minutes later - hey presto! I was on my way!

Upon arrival i was met by Pete and we tackled up and made our way up the beat. It really is lovely water with a variety of fishy looking pools and runs. The water looked like perfect Sea Trout territory and given water can give up a Salmon or two.

We fished down through the pools to the bridge and saw a couple of good swirls but sadly no fish. After a quick lunch at the hotel we made our way back to the beat and fished back down through the pools. There were some lovely Trout in this beat, the main quarry of visiting fishermen. I had a good take halfway down the beat which turned out to be a feisty little Brown Trout.

I continued to fish my way up river and found some classic Sea Trot water but sadly failed to connect with anything, it is a great stretch of water and a big thanks go to Pete for inviting me to fish this lovely beat. I had another trip planned a couple of days later on a lower river beat, more of which later......