Taw - Dead?

[grhe]

I was down on the CCFC beat of the Taw a few days ago.

Weather was good and I spent a couple of hours working my way upstream from the bridge with an Olive Klinkhamer but saw absolutely no fish activity, other than one rise. Inevitably the goldhead GRHE was tied on and fished back downstream but, again, nothing apart from a possible take just downstream of the bridge.

I bumped into another CCFC member in Crediton and he said that he had not seen any fish on the Taw beat recently but had heard a lot of Otter activity while fishing for Sea Trout at night. I know that we have to be tolerant of the cuddly otters but they do have a reputation for chomping through a wild trout population in short order.

How have you guys found the Taw recently?

[yeoman]

I often find the taw a bit like this,but there are definately plenty of fish in the river regardless of the otters.Fished it a few times this season-sometimes very good and sometimes poor.
At this time of year the fish can be very spooky-one cast can be enough to put the whole pool down.I think they also become suspicious of popular flies.I've done ok recently with a floating beetle pattern.cheers Yeoman

[treefella]

I agree with Yeoman the Taw can seem dead as a dodo sometimes. A couple of years ago I had a great day on CFFC waters with a bag of 30 odd fish all on dry fly , two days later went again same conditions weather etc not a fish .

[Pete Tyjas]

Just back from a couple of hours (1.30 to 3.30) on the Taw below CFFC waters. Height was good but still carrying a little bit of colour. I started off with a klink and ptn and had a couple of half hearted rises and picked up a fish on the nymph pretty quickly. Went quiet for a bit and then some light coloured sedges started. On went the elk hair caddis and off came the nymph and I caught a few fish.
It was nice to see some risers given recent comments and even nicer to see them hit the fly! Largest fish was 10inches but I hooked something that stayed deep and played dirty. It managed to wrap my line around a submerged branch but felt like a nice fish.
If it stays dry it should be pretty good tomorrow. Any one else been out today?

Pete

[Pete Tyjas]

Went down again on Sunday on a different beat and tried to time things with the caddis hatch of y'day. Luckily they were out again and I just fished a dry and caught some rising fish and also pulled some up. Had a nice one of 12 inches and a few around 10inches. Middle and tails of pools were best and a little twitch of the fly in the slower stretches seemed to help.

Hoping to get on the middle Taw for sea trout tonight but I guess depends on the weather!

[Pete Tyjas]

Popped down to the CFFC stretch of the Taw and fished upstream of the bridge. I only fished for 1 1/2 hours and got there just before 2.30pm.

The river was pushing through with some speed but was running pretty clear. I decided to fish a dry and was lucky enough to catch a hatch of sedge and found a few risers just beyond the first right bend. Throwing into slack water was the only real option but it was where fish were holding. Fishing across into the slack areas was fun but needed a big upstream mend and a further slack thrown in along with keeping the rod high but getting a good drift gave a really good chance of a fish that were really slapping at the fly and also naturals. I had a few in the 6 to 10 inch range and a really nice 12 incher somewhere along the last straight before the left turn towards the top of the beat.
It was one of those days when I wasn't expecting a lot but it turned out pretty fine. Sitting here writing this the rain clouds look like they are gathering...ho hum.