Paul guiding ITV News West Country reporter Bob Cruwys, July 2019
"The sheer joy of catching a wild trout… a must-watch and a lovely snippet into how much the West Country Passport Scheme offers. Fair play to all involved. It brightened up my day big time." Garrett Fallon founder of the print magazine Fallon's Angler
We hope the monthly Video Diary, numerous written catch reports, comments and pointers to successful tactics on this page help you enjoy your trip.
Check out the Fly Library
Tight lines, enjoy your fishing. Paul Kenyon & Russell Weston
The Upper Yealm Fishery is part of the Westcountry Angling Passport scheme.
9th August
Each year on Paul's birthday, Geoff and Paul fish together. This year we shared a rod on the Upper Yealm under "Ghillie's Rules" - a compex arrangement governing when an angler hands over the rod to his fishing companion. Rules so complex that they can be added to, or discarded, without a moment's thought. As usual an unsuccussful attempt was made to remember the number of fish brought to hand, long-range-releases, failures by the fish to progress closer than a splashy inspection of our flies, and sheer incompetence - called operator error in more polite circles. This year was unusual in that Geoff was allowed to use Paul's Orvis Superfine 7'9" Far & Fine unsanded graphite rod and Battenkill 5/6 reel (stamped made in England). To borrow from Charlton Heston: "I'll give you my rod and reel when you pry them from my cold, dead hands" Geoff's younger eyes counted 9 sea trout lying in the usual places above the weir. A kingfisher made an appearance; Paul only saw its backside !
27th July
2020 Wild Trout Trust auction winners fishing on the Upper Yealm (Devon UK) guided by Geoff Stephens and Paul Kenyon of Fly Fishing Devon. Eight brown trout to hand under difficult conditions. Weather forecast: 40 mph winds, 80% chance of rain. V. few fish rising. 2 sea trout seen. Successful flies included Antron Caddis and pheasant tail 'flymph' fished duo-style.
Here is a description of the day from one of the auction winners.
26th July
A Westcountry Angling Passport visitor reported ".. went down to the Yealm again yesterday, 8 fish caught with about 6 missed takes all on black midget buzzer, one sea trout spotted under tree in far bank opposite 5 trees, several roe deer in field other side of the river at the left hand bend where I left you the other day. A very pleasant afternoon.
21st July
A Westcountry Angling Passport visitor reported 2 trout to hand on gold beadhead. 8 splasy rises to Elk Hair Caddis . Paul Kenyon reported 1 trout to hand on dry midge pattern, 1 long range release, 7 splashy rises to Antron Caddis. Water height 0.24m. Warm sunshine + occasional cloud. Caddis, stoneflies, midge and a few upwings. Fish rising.
17th July
A Westcountry Angling Passport visitor reported 4 brown trout to 7 inches
15th July
A Westcountry Angling Passport visitor reported 2 good fish, a great day.
14th July
A Westcountry Angling Passport visitor reported "Had a great afternoon on the Yealm fishery today, not many fish rising, but had 14 fish to hand with only 4 missed. Fished with a Black midget buzzer (12 fish), floating fly was a pink indicator (2 fish) Size ranged from 5” to 8 “."
11th July
Paul Kenyon fished 3:30-6pm. Water 0.28m. Sunshine and clouds. V. little surface activity. Midges swarms at head of pools. 2 fish caught- 1 to hand 1 lost.About 4 splashy rises to Antron Caddis, none to flymph.
10th July
A Westcountry Angling Passport visitor reported catching 2 brown trout, best 8 inches.
8th July
A Westcountry Angling Passport visitor reported catching 10 very small brown trout on a nymph
8th July
A Westcountry Angling Passport visitor reported catching approximately 10 small brown trout and loosing a 1/2 lb fish.
1st July 2020
Paul Kenyon fished 3-6pm. River falling back after rain, height 0.28 m still retaining a little colour. Overcast, temp about 18 C. Two true Mayflies seen, a few smaller upwings, some caddis and midge. Relatively few rising fish. Three to hand on Antron caddis and 'flymph'.
26th June 2020
Westcountry Angling Passport visitor Graeme Webster fished 10am to 4pm. Three trout to hand 5-9 inches. Graeme reported seeing two sea trout - the first sightings this season. Weather overcast. Occasional fish rising.
20th June 2020
Paul Kenyon fished 2:45-5:30pm. River falling back after rain, height 0.3m still retaining a fair bit of colour due to suspended solids, noticeably grey colour on right hand side - due to input from R. Piall - middle and left side colour of milky tea. Sunshine & clouds, temp about 18 C. Four true Mayflies seen, a few smaller upwings, some caddis and midge. Relatively few rising fish. Five to hand on Antron caddis and 'flymph'. About 4 long range releases. Fish were eager - splashy rises to Antron caddis by small fish.
14th June 2020
Paul Kenyon fished 3-6pm. River falling back after rain, still retaining a slight bit of colour. Weather: sunshine & clouds, about 19 degrees C. Three true mayflies seen, small upwings, a few stonefly, several small brown caddis. An increasing number of rising fish - the most this season to date. Eight fish to hand on an Antron caddis as an indicator and pheasant tail nymph / flymph fished as a duo. About the same number of fish hooked but lost after various intervals. Several splashy rises to dry fly.
There's a temptation to think that fishing a nymph beneath a dry fly is a recent development. In fact the Dry-Dropper duo method was first described in 1939 in a book by William Lawrie (Border River Angling, Oliver and Boyd). And of course going back even further, North Country spiders were fished as a team of three flies or more. There are several ways of attaching the dropper to the dry fly: e.g. New Zealand Style or hooks with a tippet ring on the bend. Today's video illustrates my method of rigging the Dry-Dropper duo, but it is very fiddly if you have to replace the dropper. In this video Stephen Cheetham describes a knot that avoids this problem.
8th June 2020
Paul Kenyon fished 2-5:30pm. River low c 0.21m and clear. Overcast. 18 degrees C. Four true Mayflies seen. Midge clouds in places. Upwinged spinners seen from 4:30 pm. More rising fish seen than on previous visits this year. Seven fish to hand, caught on Antron Caddis and pheasant tail 'flymph'. Several splashy rises to dry fly.
2nd June 2020
Water height c. 0.21m, bright sunlight.
A guest reported "4 brown trout ranging from 5 - 9 inches.
2 others got off the hooks and tons of missed strikes.
The fish were going for Klinkhammers, Wickhams Fancy and big Mayfly. Dry flies all session. "
26st May 2020
Paul Kenyon fished 2:30 to 5:30 pm. River low (0.22m) and clear. Bright sunshine v. little breeze. Two true mayflies seen, and v. few other insects about. Midge clouds in places at head of pools. Some small glossosoma caddis cases on stones on bed of river. About 6 fish of various sizes to hand, 2 lost to extreme operator error !. I used a wet fly suspended about 1 foot below a dry deer hair and antron winged dry fly. V. difficult to rise fish in slow sections, best chance in faster popply water at head of pools.
21st May 2020
Paul Kenyon fished 3 to 4:30pm. River level 0.22m running with slight discolouration. A few sedges and stoneflies seen. Occassional fish rose. 3 trout in good condition to hand caught on Grey & Black Comparadun cast downstream in very slow flow. Several splashy rises from small fish.
Summary of 2019 brown trout catch
number caught |
number returned |
number of days fished for brown trout |
Catch Per Unit Effort
|
180 |
180 |
67 |
269 |
“ Catch per unit effort (CPUE) measurements are widely used in fisheries management and are generally seen as a better indicator of true abundance than catches alone. CPUE worked out as for trout = (100* ([total number of trout caught] / [total number of days fished for trout])”
October 2019
Video Diary for October 2019
The Video Diary consists of a Playlist of YouTube videos taken
whilst fishing on the Upper Yealm this month
Click the Playlist icon on the top right of the video to reveal a list of all this month's videos
Mike Weaver reported in November's Trout & Salmon magazine that:
"An angler who fished the Yealm at the Upper Yealm Fishery, one of the beats in the Westcountry Angling Passport, enjoyed a good day with the brown trout. He caught over 10 fish up to 12in and lost many more. He was fishing New Zealand-style with a sedge on the top and a variety of beadhead nymphs on the point and found trout moving throughout the beat. He saw one large fish of over 3lb, rather dark and almost certainly a sea-trout."
29th October
Westcountry Angling Passport visitor: Nil return
24th October
Paul Kenyon fished for salmon from 3-5pm. River height 0.47m clearing after recent rain. No fish caught.But the very short video in the October Video Diary has a tale with a message about 4 old boots
20th October
A Westcountry Angling Passport officer reported:" I managed to cast a fly about on the Upper Yealm this past weekend. I tempted an enormous salmon in the pool bellow “5 trees”, panicked by the sheer size of this fish I believe I struck early and missed the take. I will be back another day for that one! "
Paul Kenyon fished for salmon in the afternoon. River height 0.64. One small trout released.
15th October
Paul Kenyon fished for salmon 2:30-to 5:30pm. No salmon seen, 2 trout released. Water height 0.63m Weather: Overclouded with sunny intervals. Temp 16 degrees C. Leaf fall starting. Video diary entry shows river falling back after recent rain.
11th October
Westcountry Rivers Trust staff. Nil return
10th October
A short video in the October Video Diary playlist shows how overhanging tree branches on the Upper Yealm have been trimmed back to improve the fishability of the upper section. The work was carried out by James Christoforou (Westcountry Rivers Trust Fishing Development Officer) and Paul Kenyon (Fly Fishing Devon instructor and guide) on the 10th October 2019.
6th October
Paul Kenyon fished 2:30-4:30 pm. One fine brown trout and one sea trout (school peal) to hand.
Short video added to October's Upper Yealm Video Diary. Water height; 0.45m. Sunny with light breeze.
Tackle: rod 9 foot with AFTM #7 floating line. To get the fly down I attached a 1 foot long Orvis Mini Lead Head and 3 feet of Maxima leader. Both fish caught on a red and black salmon fly tied on a double debarbed hook.
Tactic: The S-Mend technique was used to deal with the overhanging vegation above the pool where the sea trout was caught. A video describing this technique has been added to October's Upper Yealm Video Diary.
September 2019
Video Diary for September 2019
The Video Diary consists of a Playlist of YouTube videos taken
whilst fishing on the Upper Yealm this month
Click the Playlist icon on the top right of the video to reveal a list of all this month's videos
13th September
Geoff Stephens and Paul Kenyon fished 3-5pm. Geoff had 4 trout to hand, rose many others, and long-range-released several more. Several of Geoff's fish were caught on an ex-X Caddis (i.e. an X-Caddis minus its deer hair wing as a result of Paul's sloppy fly-tying). The less said about Paul's performance the better! Water height 0.25m. Bright, warm, no wind. Several sea trout seen - mostly school peal.
10th September
Westcountry Rivers Trust staff member commented:
The fishing was great, I landed at least 10 Brown Trout and lost countless
more. They ranged from 10-30cm in length. There was fish activity in nearly
every swim. I also witnessed a large fish, located in the 1st or 2nd pool
bellow "5 trees", the fish was easily over 3lb, dark in colour, I couldn't
make out any distinguishing features, but I believe it to be a Sea Trout.
The most appealing aspect of the Upper Yealm Beat is that the two separate
stretches have a large habitat variation between them, this allows a variety
of fly techniques to be applied. I used a 7ft 2wt Greys grxi with a Rio
Gold floating wt foward line. I used the Dry Dropper technique, 7ft leader,
with a dry Deer Hair Sedge pattern and a mix of different beaded nymphs
size 14-18.
Beat Rating 5
Photo by James Christoforou
Photo by James Christoforou
Photo by James Christoforou
Photo by James Christoforou
Photo by James Christoforou
River level on 10th September
10th September
Westcountry Angling Passport visitor rose 3 trout to an Antron Caddis
7th September
Paul Kenyon fished 3-5pm. No fish caught. Two splashy rises to Antron Caddis. No interest shown to Krystal Flash midge or Pheasant Tail Nymph fished as dropper. Sunny, water height 0.23m and clear. V. Few rising fish or obvious insect activity. Spent more time observing sea trout. At first I thought they were absent from the usual lies. But then - after I remained in one spot for a few minutes - I spotted two or three sea trout lying virtually motionless. Their movements (flashing and repositioning) confirmed their presence. Two fish were lying side-by-side, and moved together along an elliptical route. Is this a courship / pairing behaviour prior to spawning? I don't know. Video added to September 2019 video diary
7th September
Westcountry Angling Passport visitor caught 3 brown trout. Best fish: 7 inches
Ist September
Paul Kenyon fished upper beat from 3-5:30pm. Two trout to hand, one lost, several splashy rises. Trout in this section tend to be dark. All to Antron Caddis.Water height 0.22m. River very clear. Temp about 19 C. A few midge and caddis seen. V. few rising fish.
Ist September
Westcountry Angling Passport visitor: Nil return. He commented "Sea Trout everywhere. Ignoring everything I sent their way. Wet, dry, buzzers. Everything. Jumping for real flies and at one point has a couple of bumps but nothing meaningful."
August 2019
Video Diary for August 2019
The Video Diary consists of a Playlist of YouTube videos taken
whilst fishing on the Upper Yealm this month
Click the Playlist icon on the top right of the video to reveal a list of all this month's videos
27th August
Westcountry Angling Passport visitor: reported "Nothing caught"
Paul Kenyon fished 3:30-5:45pm. One small fish to hand, 2 others risen but not hooked on a soft hackled Pheaseant Tail Nymph cast upstream into faster water. No response to Glister Nymph suspended below Antron Caddis. No rising trout seen. Overcast with very light rain. River height 0.24m. Two sea trout seen. One larger (coloured) salmonid, possibly a salmon filmed: video added to August video diary
26th August
Westcountry Angling Passport visitor: Nil return
21st August
Westcountry Angling Passport visitor returned one trout and wrote "Hooked a good size sea trout too but slipped the hook before I could net it. :(
Thanks for submitting this photo Graeme.
I'm delighted that you have shown that sea trout can be caught during daylight on the Upper Yealm - well done.
Kenneth Dawson in his book "Successful Fishing for Salmon and Sea Trout (1951)" remarked that "... in the Yealm good sea trout up to 4-5 lbs. can be taken by day on very small flies ..."
20th August
Westcountry Angling Passport visitor checked in shortly after 10am. Awaiting confirmation and Catch Report from Westcountry Angling Passport.
18th August
Westcountry Angling Passport visitor fished in the morning and caught this beautiful 5in trout. Thanks for submitting this photo Graeme.
18th August
Paul Kenyon fished 3-5 pm. Five small trout to hand, caught on soft hackled Pheasant Tail Nymph. Cold blustery wind, water level 0.33m clearing after recent rain. Very few rises or flying insects
15th August
Two visitors fished from 7-11pm. Two trout to hand. Both caught after dark on Pilk's Bumble sea trout fly. One sea trout jumped at dusk.
12th August
Westcountry Angling Passport angler: Nil return
11th August
Westcountry Angling Passport angler fished in the morning and reported 2 trout of 6 inches caught on an F Fly - thanks for adding it to the Flybrary Collection in the ammunition box beside the Token Box.He added "I got a big knock on the buzzer [ Glister nymph] you gave me too but I took too long to get my act together so missed it.
Paul Kenyon fished in the afternoon. Two small brown trout on a Gister Nymph. Water height: 0.24m. Water clearing after rain - colour of weak tea. V. little fly life or rising fish. Gusty wind, sunny intervals. Saw a kingfisher for first time this year.
7th August
Geoff Stephens & Paul Kenyon fished on annual 'Guides Day Off' two trout to hand. Usual leg-pulling. Video available on request
3rd August
Two Westcountry Angling Passport anglers: Nil return
2nd August
Today Paul Kenyon was helping a friend who has recently taken up fly fishing sort out some casting problems. We polished Graeme's roll and overhead casts before turning upstream to put his new skills into practice. There is a good stock of sea trout in the Upper Yealm this summer. This provided an opportunity for him to focus on fishing rather than the mechanics of casting - which can become overwhelming - and instead think about moving with extreme stealth to avoid spooking sea trout which are notoriously difficult to approach in daylight, let alone cast a fly line anywhere near them.
The technique adopted is based on Nick Hart's advice
Lifting nymphs in an induced take style, just as if fishing for brown
trout, is highly successful, especially when several fish are grouped together
read more ...
Nick's advice is shared by Pete Tyjas
"Sea trout seem to like an induced fly so try this and lift your rod to
raise the nymph, or even try a slightly more aggressive twitch of your
fly line - this will make the nymph kick up a little which is usually irresistible
to sea trout."
Read more ...
Graeme wrote: Yesterday was absolutely amazing. Thanks so much! I've downloaded the app and added some credits so I'll be fishing Upper Yealm. Beautiful spot! Really feeling a lot more confident. Thanks for the flies too!
1st August
Paul Kenyon fished 2:30-4:30 pm. Five brown trout of various sizes brought to hand, caught on Elk Hair Caddis and Glister Nymph. One fish lost and several splashy rises to Elk Hair Caddis. Water level 0.23m but still carrying suspended solids after recent rain. Weather warm (21 degrees C ) cloudy with sunny intervals. Very little fly life or rising trout. One sea trout jumped but imposible to count sea trout due to cloudy water.
July 2019
Video Diary for July 2019
The Video Diary consists of a Playlist of YouTube videos taken
whilst fishing on the Upper Yealm this month
Click the Playlist icon on the top right of the video to reveal a list of all this month's videos
25th July
Westcountry Angling Passport visitor: Nil return
24th July
An accomplished coarse angler on his first experience of fly fishing (from 2-5pm) landed one brown trout on a Tups Sparkle Dun and had a brief encounter with a sea trout hooked on a Glister Nymph that also elicited numerous follows by trout of various sizes. Wading upstream with extreme care enabled him to see a number of sea trout of various sizes. Water level: 0.20 m. Weather warm with sunny intervals. Several sea trout jumped clear of the water during the afternoon. Relatively sparse numbers of upwings, some sedges and terrestrials.
