Fishing The UK, Fly Fishing in Devon, Exeter, South West

The River Culm has provided me with many hours of enjoyable fishing and is one of my favorite places to fish in the winter. I hold an Exeter and District Angling Association permit giving me access to 3 stretches of the Culm all of which contain a good head of pike, dace, chub, roach & gudgeon, brown trout, the occasional carp and if you are very very (I am placing an emphasis on very) lucky some barbel. I have had great success fishing for pike during the winter months with my biggest being a little over 17lb. I have had a number of 1lb+ Perch and Roach with some nice chub up to 3lb. This Sunday afternoon I had a few hours to spare so headed out to see what I could catch.

Being an impromtu decision to fish the Culm I didn’t have my favorite baits of Worm and Maggots so settled for some Halibut pellets of varying sizes, luncheon meat and bread flake. The river looked great, not too low with a little colour to the water. Looking below the bridge I could see a few chub and dace, none of which huge but fish I wouldn’t mind catching. I walked down the left side of the River to the first bend. This spot has a large area of deep slack water, plenty of cover, and other features making it ideal for pretty much all species.

Today I would be using a Chub Outkast Twin tip rod along with a Shimano Exage 4000 FA reel. Both are awesome pieces of kit, the Outkast Twin tip I use for 90% of my coarse fishing.  As the name suggests the Chub Outkast consists of two tip sections. One a full length Avon top and the other quiver tip carrier section making it extremely versatile and great value for money. It has a great amount of power when needed but also can be very sensitive detecting the smallest of bites. The Shimano Exage 4000 FA is a front drag reel, extremely smooth, robust and reliable. A perfect combination.

River Culm - Chub Outkast Twin tip

River Culm - Shimano Exage 4000 FA

When fishing a river for the first time it is a good idea to keep the end tackle as simple as possible. My first visit to the River Culm resulted in losing a great deal of end tackle before I found the areas free of snags. I started with an 8mm halibut pellet and a small PVA mesh bag of smaller pellets.

River Culm - End tackle

From the picture above you can see everything is very simple, 1 ounce fox lead that can run freely up the main line, a bead protecting the swivel, a 4lb fluorocarbon hook link and a Korum quick stop size 12 hook. The halibut pellets are pre-drilled and fed onto the quick stop with a small needle that comes supplied with the hooks. I like to use a snap link & swivel so I can quickly change the lead or swap it over to a feeder. I used the carrier section of the rod with a 2 ounce quiver tip.

My first cast was into a tree, the last time I cast a lead was at Morecambe bay and that was a matter of casting it as far as I could so trying to be accurate over a few meters was hard to get back into. The next cast was a lot better, placing the rig nicely under an over hanging tree. I waited for a around 30minutes, a few bites but today it seemed like a change was in order. I pinched some bread onto the hook and cast to a different spot just before a fallen tree hoping that the bait would waft gently just below the branch. As soon as the bait had settled the rod tip started to twtich non-stop, an abundance of small fish had great fun chewing the bread.

After some very small chub and roach I moved a few meters down river so I could cast across into a deep channel with a lot of cover. I also decided to try luncheon meat, although the bread was getting bites it simply wasn’t robust enough to stand up to the 10billion strong gudgeon and minnow assault. I made a few more casts into some trees and bushes but was soon into a decent sized chub. The end of my session was drawing to a close, it felt good to be back on the bank of the River Culm.

The River Culm offers some great fishing to the mobile angler, bating up a few swims with some bread mash and then fishing each spot for a short period of time often is the best tactic. Trotting can be productive but finding a long stretch of river uniform in depth and free from snags can be difficult. I prefer to fish during the autumn and early winter when the water is high and the River banks are not as over-grown. Chucking a big worm into a back eddy when the water is coloured is great fun, pike, perch, chub and roach all seem to love it. For pike dead baits are reliable (sprats, brown trout, roach all work) and preferably I only use one set of trebles striking as soon as I get a run to avoid deep hooking. I even caught a 5lb eel on a sprat while fishing for pike.

Please take a look at the Exeter and District Angling Association website for further information about this stretch of the River Culm.

View River Culm – Killerton Estate Stretch in a larger map

River Culm

River Culm

River Culm

This weekend I decided to visit the Exe Valley Fishery in North Devon, after speaking to James at Exeter Angling. He assured me that although relatively small in size Exe Valley fishery would provide me with some excellent sport on light tackle.  Sounding like my kind of place I loaded up the Turbo Wagon and set off early Saturday morning.

Exe Valley Fishery has been hatching and rearing fish on a large scale for more than 110 years. As well as the hatchery / smoke houses it is the home to Nick Hart Fly Fishing and the Hart Fly shop. Nick Hart is an extremely accomplished fly fisherman and a AAPGAI casting instructor which you can benefit from by taking up one of his fly fishing courses.

The location of the fishery is probably one of the best I have seen. The River Exe forms part of the fishery boundaries giving you a great view of the Exe bridge and a chance to see many of the wild fish rising (which can be fished for on a separate permit).  The walk to the main lake takes you over a small stream running adjacent to a series of houses with beautifully landscaped gardens.

Exe Valley Fishery- On route to the main lake

Exe Valley Fishery- On route to the main lake

Before fishing I took a walk around the main lake and was pleasantly surprised by the clarity of the water and a very interesting feature. The lake is supplied by a fast flowing small stream through a channel at the shallow end of the lake. This creates conditions very similar to that of a river and a number of nice fish could be seen sat in the slack waters next to the faster flowing water waiting for food to come their way. This ‘flow’ continues across almost 1/3rd of the lake until the water deepens. Having such a high rate of water flow should mean that the fish benefit from the higher levels of oxygen and should be of quality in terms of taste and fight.

Exe Valley Fishery - Stream supplying water to the main lake

Exe Valley Fishery - Interesting lake feature

Without wanting to miss an opportunity I quickly assembled my 4wt Wychwood Truefly rod and attached a black Diawl Bach. It is always magical to watch fish oriented against the flow of water, and even more so being so close and with the chance of catching them many times over. I made a small cast and watched the Diawl Bach drift slowly through the slack water against the flow of the faster water. The fly drifted a little too far in front of the fish so I gently retrieved the line and made another cast. Disaster, the line brushed against one of the fish spooking it into the fast water. I made a third cast. The fly gently drifted towards the fish and with an extremely small tweak I induced a take. I struck and the fish exploded out of the water, jumping straight into the faster water. After receiving a face full of fly line and spooking everything (including myself) within an 8 mile radius I moved further down the lake to the deeper water.

Towards the middle of the lake there was a lot of fish activity and when the sun came through the cloud dark shapes could be seen moving. There were so many fish concentrated around this area I was constantly casting over fish and spooking them. To reduce this I decided to start with a short cast, increasing the distance each time. Despite the large number of fish I was struggling to get any positive takes and after 2 hours, some swearing and trying quite a few sub surface patterns I thought it would be a good idea to try a dry fly.

My favorite dry fly pattern has to be the Klinkhammer. For me it has always been extremely effective and consistent on rivers, streams and still waters. It remains buoyant, easy to see and if using a foam topped Klinkhammer is robust enough to be able to catch more than one fish. I started with a black Klinkhammer, applied a small amount of gink to the emerging part of the fly and made a short cast to some fish moving. As soon as the fly hit the water a fish burst from the water, I wasn’t expecting such an instant response and stuck into all the slack I had in the line.

After missing another take I struck into a fish that felt rather solid. It started to swim towards me and I had trouble keeping in contact, it turned and made a series of lunges stripping enough line allowing me play it on the reel. The fish happily swam around making my Pflueger Trion scream. After a nice 5 minute fight I had a 7lb rainbow in the net.

Exe Valley Fishery - 7lb Rainbow Trout

Over the next couple of hours I managed to catch (and lose) some great fighting fish all of which greater than 3lb in weight. My favorite fish of the day had to be a 4lb’er that was very dark in colour and in great fighting condition.

Exe Valley Fishery - Dark coloured hard fighting rainbow

Exe Valley Fishery - Trout taking a Klinkhammer

As mentioned in previous posts small trout fisheries can prove to be quite tricky to fish and many people come away disappointed because they have failed to catch. Even though they contain a large number of fish in a small volume of water they can become very wary especially after a day of fly lines slapping the surface. If you find that your are struggling, talk to other people who are catching and see what a change in approach can do.

Exe Valley Fishery provided me with a great day of sport amongst beautiful surroundings. I opted for a 5 fish ticket at £25 which is very well priced considering the size of the fish and the oxygen rich environment they have been given. Amongst the small fly fishing venues in Devon the Exe Valley Fishery is one of the best. If you are new to fly fishing, looking to improve / gain confidence or just for a place to relax and have some fun then you should definitely visit the Exe Valley fishery.

For more information on the fishery and Nick Hart take a look at the following websites.

Exe Valley Fishery – http://www.exevalleyfishery.co.uk/
Nick Hart Fly Fishing – http://www.hartflyfishing.demon.co.uk/
Hart Fly Shop – http://www.hartflyshop.com/

View Exe Valley Fishery in a larger map

Exe Valley Fishery

Exe Valley Fishery

Exe Valley Fishery

Exe Valley Fishery

Exe Valley Fishery

You can purchase the Wychwood Truefly SLA reel from Hart Fly Shop

In a previous post (here) I mentioned how Wychwood provided quality tackle, clothing and accessories of extremely high quality in terms of finish and detail for an extremely affordable price. I couldn’t help getting excited when I stumbled upon the news of them releasing a large diameter cartridge style fly fishing reel. A few pictures floating about confirmed my suspicions that it would certainly look the part but also looked like it was going to be at the higher end of the price scale. This however wasn’t going to be the case.

The Wychwood Truefly SLA is made from die-cast aluminum and has been engineered to be as light as possible without sacrificing functionality and strength. The result of this approach is a spectacular looking reel, simple, certainly unique and innovative.

The reel Wychwood Truefly SLA boasts the following features..

• - 7/8 Large arbour cassette reel
• - Black or warm grey finish
• - Custom built EVA protective case
• - Two spare polycarbonate spools
• - Hidden counter-balance design
• - Aluminum Die-cast frame and cage
• - High density polycarbonate cassette spools
• - Unique dot alignment cassette spool fixing mechanism
• - Capacity – 100yards micro backing + WF8

The Wychwood Truefly SLA reel should be available from September.  The price is ridiculously low at £69.99 for the reel + two cassette spools. Extra spools are available from £6.99.

Owing a great deal of Wychwood products myself I am confident that this reel will perform as well as it looks. As with every other Wychwood product I think it will be extremely hard to find a better performing reel, of such high finish and detail for anywhere near the £69.99 price tag.

I think I am going to put my money where my mouth is and purchase one when they hit the shops.

You can purchase the Wychwood Truefly SLA reel from Hart Fly Shop

The following photos are from the Wychwood website available to download in zip files at high res – http://www.wychwood-game.co.uk/

Wychwood Truefly SLA

Wychwood Truefly SLA