River C, Devon

I arrived on a fairly bright but blustery day to find the River C probably a little coloured but looking beautiful and alluring in the late spring sun. On the minus side it was fairly chilly (no better than 11-13c) and there was a fairly strong north easter blowing which is pretty much directly down stream on most of this stretch. Applying a little mucilin to my excellent new furled leader I walked up to the top section of the beat and decided to hedge my bets with a duo rig with a freshly tied Hawthorn up top and a size 17 gold head GRHE about 3 foot below. I reckoned this approach would allow me to fish the dry with good presentation as the weighted fly straightens the leader out just right. It’s also a good searching ploy when on new water. Despite the chill breeze there seemed to be enough warmth in the sheltered bends to encourage some fly life. From an entomological perspective I’m afraid I’m not yet learned enough to know what I could spot. Most of it looked fairly small and brown (gnats?) with the occasional small up winged affair (LDO?) bobbing down stream. No fish rising mind. The C. is a medium sized low land stream with some lovely classic pool and riffle sections and some very steep banked meanders combined with long slow sections which I’m sure look inviting if you are after the trout’s chubby cousin- the chub. Working my way upstream I fished some beautiful looking bends with some nice easy drifts and also allowed the gold head to sink into some inviting looking eddies and back currents for an hour or so with no joy. Recently I have had some quick success on streams so the slow start took me slightly aback.


Now it was time to walk to the bottom of the 1.5km beat and try working my way upstream to the road bridge. Doing my best to keep back from the water’s edge I walked briskly down stream only now noticing the sound of the very nearby M5 which my concentration and the high banks had earlier shielded from me. The water I glimpsed was very pretty with healthy looking ranunculus bright green in the clearing water. Arriving at the downstream end of the beat I think I was able to place myself correctly on the beat map though with no obvious end of beat sign on the nearby trees I couldn’t really be sure. With optimism perked by the sight of some rises from small looking fish in the pool below me I decide to change the Hawthorn for a small elk sedge fly. The pool in question was finished by a deep run in to an undercut right underneath a high red earthed bank. Casting in to the wind I was quickly in to lively 6 incher which I was forced in to lifting up the bank as the water was some 6 feet below me. Next cast right under the near bank and the elk sedge shot away again and my quick lift was met by a heavy feeling resistance and an almost immediate quick run by the fish towards the nearby sunken tree on the left. Some sideways pressure from me brought the much larger looking fish to the surface where it started the trademark rolling and head shaking that only wild brown trout seem able to do. That was pretty much it- the hook fell out. This all lasted all of about 2 or 3 seconds I would have thought. In the state of almost dream like hyper reality which rushes in when you hook a big fish I had just enough time to think “don’t go there – how am I gonna land this from such a high bank?” The fish looked very silver which made me think escapee rainbow but the fight suggested not. I don’t believe this river is well known for a run but perhaps I had latched in to an early season peal. It was on only so briefly though if forced to guess I would say it was at least a good two pounder- who knows though really? I’m not sure I was shaking at the loss but I do know that this excited but regret filled memory filled my thoughts right up until my head hit the pillow.

The rest of the afternoon was not quite so dramatic but was great fun. Seeing only rare rises, I persisted with the duo approach with occasional changes of weight and size of fly and leader length according to the depth and speed of the flow. I was lucky enough catch another 5 or 6 lovely wild brown trout (WBT) all of which were returned safely with the largest being around 8 or 9”. (I really must paint on the measuring scale to the top of my 4 weight to save all this guess work and to guard against unintended inaccurate estimates). The River C has some lovely water, most of it being very fishable both in terms of casting access and getting good drag free drift. I hope to be back but will I ever be lucky enough to latch on to such a nice fish there again?