Challenging Trout (Fly Fishing the river Yeo)

[@DaviekFlyFishing]

As ever Chris, really enjoyable wee day on the River, things are picking up a little for you. Such satisfaction having a rising fish take your fly, cheers!

[@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724]

Cheers Davie, let's hope for a bit of settled weather through June. My rivers have been up and down like yo-yos since Christmas!

[@RickLohrey]

I really enjoyed that Chris …as always a master class in small stream fly fishing ..bugger about the weather mate …there’s always a next time 👍

[@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724]

Cheers, Rick, all we can do is hope for things to improve. All fishermen are eternal optimists. We have to be.👍

[@joosepflies]

Lovely video, thank you for sharing.

[@UK-Blue]

A lovely day on the river. Some nice trout there. 🌩🌩🌩yeh, put that blummin rod away!

[@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724]

Yep, I was glad to watch from indoors instead of running for cover from the river.

[@MaHa-mr4rn]

Beautiful small river, the kind I like very much. Thanks for sharing your wonderful day with us !

[@robertalp3878]

Cracking video Chris, that first one on the mayfly was an amazing take! ❤

[@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724]

Thanks Robert that's what it's all about right there👍

[@wildfisher]

Great to see you getting out again Chris! Let's hope the improved weather brings some better fishing for the rest of the season.

[@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724]

Hi Fred, have you got out yet? The weather has been lousy this spring, hasn't it? We'll be into the dog days of summer before you know it.

[@wildfisher]

@@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724 Still not been out Chris, kinda lost my fishing mojo right now. It will return though! 😄😄

[@Mikeyreelsandwheels]

Another great vid, good to see an experienced angler work a river. Sadly rivers here have gone into flood again just as the fish were settling in ☹️

[@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724]

Yep, it's a real pattern this year. No chance for the fish or fly life to get going before another flood.

[@caorach3354]

Great video Chris, though a thunder storm doesn't half make you nervous if you happen to he holding the fishing rod :-) Kingsmill-Moore was of the view that as a thunder storm approached the fishing was never good but that sometimes it could be very productive after the thunder passed. I've certainly never had good fishing before a thunder storm but I've never hung about during and after to see how that went.

[@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724]

I wasn't going to hang about either caorach. I have heard that the Mayfly can start hatching before a thunderstorm. Perhaps I should have stayed a bit longer? After the storm, the river was up and coloured, so it was pretty much unfishable.

[@ianphilp7423]

Loved it a great days fishing 👍👍👍

[@thecosycamper7088]

Awesome days fishing with some really nice fish. New subscriber, amazing content 👌🏻 🎣

[@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724]

Many thanks👍 it's actually quite good fun filming and editing some of my fishing days, but it's also nice to know that people enjoy coming along.

[@JoeQuinnFollow_the_fln]

Nice video to watch

[@carlhughes9584]

You getting out more than me and I'm single!!

[@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724]

You've had it worse than us though Carl up your way. Where you in the Amber alert zone?

[@carlhughes9584]

Yeah real bad ​@@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724

[@oldsmugglerflyfishing]

Great video

[@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724]

How is the fishing in your part of the world? Is it closed season now?

[@chrisanning1037]

Thanks for another vid 😊 Was that Tue? I was out on the Cherrybrook and it rumbled all afternoon.

[@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724]

Yes Tuesday, pouring down by 4pm but dry just down the road? How did you get on on cherrybrook? Not many reports yet from the Duchy.

[@chrisanning1037]

@@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724 I only caught one (Dry fly) but, another more experienceed fly fisherman was doing well on wets. I've found the West Dart from two bridges up quite reasonable. Monday it was fishing great, wherever I cast I got rises. I fished it again today, much tougher.

[@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724]

Funny isn't it how it changes. That's what keeps us coming back I suppose.

[@PAULOatham]

Hi Chris. Lovely as usual, the river looks great. Im back next week (from our tour) - cant wait to get out there.... Finally fished the River Dove yesterday at Milldale, the weathers been crazy with rain here too!! Had a brilliant day, caught 6 all averaging 1 ½ lb and took 4 of them on the Mayfly - a dream come true!!! Thanks again. See you soon!

[@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724]

Sounds fantastic Paul, I think you might have timed it right because surely things will pick up here soon?

[@PAULOatham]

@@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724 i do hope so. I can’t wait to get on them.

[@carlhughes9584]

Tiny trout though.......dont say size doesnt matter. We all know it dies!

[@voidspeed9967]

May i ask where the spot is at the start of the video?

[@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724]

Yes, of course, that is Dunscomb bridge on the river Yeo, just above the confluence with the river Creedy.

[@voidspeed9967]

@@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724 Okay thank you very much

[@carlhughes9584]

I think this season is going to be even worse than last year. I suppose you've heard the news, that predictions are it's going to be one of the wettest summers on record!! If feels autumnal now, and it's end of May 😢

[@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724]

I bloody hope, not Carl. My other job really needs some good weather to get the bees going and up our sales! The weather does look better for the weekend? I did see the story about "50 days of rain" from the met office, but according to their latest video, this was made up by the media. Who'd have thought it!

[@carlhughes9584]

@@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724 I sympathise if weather effecting your work. Ah so it's fake news then?? I just want it to stop feeling bloody autumnal! That's what we've pretty much had from August 2023 ffks!

[@peterlaidler3895]

Some nice fish Chris. Very slow start up North especially on our small becks.With regards to the Sparrowhawk, Davie Mcphail on his KZbin channel caught a shot of one chasing a Kingfisher. Astounding aerodynamics, but the Kingfisher was just too wily and headed for cover, diving like a bullet hitting the water. Hope things improve for us all as we move into Mayfly time.

[@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724]

I saw the same on the Taw a few years back, and again, the kingfisher got away. The sparrowhawk gave up and turned into a nearby thicket, and there was the most tremendous commotion. I'm not sure if it caught anything, but the racket from the other birds was quite something.

[@fieldsman3307]

Another lovely video well done Chris, I had a severe lesson yesterday with lots of mayfly about the big un's were rising and I hooked one which wanted to get into fallen branches and with my 9ft almost bent double the 5lb tippet gave up the battle, I did get a glimpse and it was huge and would guess it at over 6lb also hands were shaking 10min later.

[@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724]

Bloody hell Mike 6lb!!! Your river isn't stocked is it? These are wild trout? I've never had the need but others have shown that you can fish much heavier at Mayfly time so you might have to up your tippet!

[@thetattooedangler]

Nice wee session. Sadly, my local rivers aren't getting time to recover between downpours, and haven't come to just yet. I've still not caught a fish on a mayfly pattern.

[@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724]

That's the problem this season, the rivers are just seem to be settling down when another flood hits. Bloody annoying.

[@fieldsman3307]

Chris I think the population of big trout is on the up in this river due largely to a plentiful diet of crayfish, a well known guide who visits here had a 7lb one recently

[@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724]

Is it a long drive from crediton?

[@soultrader57fishingandmusi25]

Nice session. It seems like summer already! Quite a few mayfly around on my tiny lancs river last week (I'm in Scotland ATM) and some better than usual trout showing! Still editing the vid from my holiday apartment! Thunder coming here as I write!! Take care Chris 👍🙂

[@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724]

I'll look forward to it Dave👍 The weather is all over the place atm. One minute boiling hot then a bloody cold wind then thunder and lightning! I do feel like I've hardly fished at all this season and it's nearly June.

[@soultrader57fishingandmusi25]

My dillema is what to do here, theres some nice trout hill lochs but theyre stocked! Hardly the Highland brown experience! So it's probably a 99.99% certainty of a blank fishing the open sea for sea trout 😂

[@bossamood6536]

Chris, have you ever fished the Crediton water, the Culm at Willand? And will you be doing a video on that? Didn't notice one in your current video collection.When eventually I am down fishing the Dulverton waters (as a member of the DAA), I thought about a day ticket on the Culm as well, Steve

[@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724]

Hi Steve I'm ashamed to say I haven't filmed there yet. I did try last season, but it was roaring through and unfishable. I have promised myself that this year I will get up there. I have fished it a few times with varying degrees of success. As it says on the club website "the fishing is easy it's the catching that's difficult " it does have coarse fish in it ( chubb, dace and roach) that can be caught on the fly, and produces bigger fish than any of our other rivers, up to 20" but I've never managed anything like that. If you catch it right and the fish are rising, it can be great, but at other times, I've found the fish to be utterly uncatchable!

[@bossamood6536]

@@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724 Can well imagine, the trout will have a much more honed and refined sense of survival at that size! As I live in south-west Birmingham I also have to catch the river right for the pleasure and from the point of view of travel etc, but I don't think you can beat 'really wild' fishing; its often hard work with a lot of effort and sometimes dissapointment but when that next fish takes, you never know whether it will be 4" inch or that 20" which lets its guard down momentarily, which is the driver, not to mention the environment such rivers are in; so yeah will keep an eye open, hopefully for a Culm video and getting down there myself at some point, cheers.

[@carlhughes9584]

Weather forecast has changed next week, to more heavy rain, especially on Tuesday. Im absolutely sick of it myself. Its effected my mental health for sure. Heard other people saying weather has been so bad its made them depressed too. We put up with the shite winter, to feel at least we have a Spring and settled westher to look forward to, and thats it......Spring just about over. And its been crap. Like last Spring.

[@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724]

Yeah Carl, I spoke to club secretary in April and he commented that this May couldn't be as bad as 2023! Apparently not.

[@carlhughes9584]

@@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724 Jesus, what if this is the new norm.............am I too old to emigrate??!

[@eastsussexbeesandwildlife5801]

Lovely river and trout. So good that yoy show the fish so much care and respect. Have just got a mini rod so that i can get on my local and very overgrown river to try for the small trout there.Hope your bees are doing ok😅

[@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724]

I look forward to seeing the mini rod in action, Peter. My 6'6" 2 weight is great fun👍 Our bees are at best, OK? We're having to feed some of the smaller colonies because they just haven't built up in all this lousy weather. I think all of nature could do with a nice settled spell. I expect this year it will arrive just as we hit the June gap☹️

[@eastsussexbeesandwildlife5801]

@@chrismatthewsflyfishing7724 Ta Chris. Will do a clip even I get out on the bank! I think our proper seasons are sadly a thing of the past, guess the wildlife will have to adapt.

[@Devonhoneyandcandles]

what a lovely spot you found.