Spate · Granite · Devon / Dartmoor

River Walkham

River Walkham terrain map

The Walkham is a classic small Dartmoor freestone — a granite-bedded spate stream that drops off the west moor through Merrivale and Horrabridge before joining the Tavy below Buckland Monachorum.

Poor · Brown Trout
CDC Emerger · 14-18
Poorlive now
Not the day for it
River temperature is the limiting factor today, not the flow. This is not the day to push it. Check the thermal advice above before you head out.
80% confidence
What moved it
  • Level0.21 mLast reading 22h ago
  • Water temp21.9°C
  • ClarityClear
Today's fly
CDC Emerger
CDC Emerger14-18
Upstream dry, in the film
Conditions on the water
Live gauge
Level
Steady
0.21 m
Last reading 22h ago
Water temp21.9°C
ClarityClear
Weather21°C
WindE 12 km/h
Pressure1020 hPa
Rain · recent0.0 mm
Rain · ahead0.0 mm

The nearest gauge doesn't record temperatures, so we've estimated it — defer to the river keeper's advice.

Water temperature for Brown Trout
Warm — slow
22°C est.ideal 1016°C
0°14°28°
How to fish it · for Brown Trout
When
Nymphing can work through most of the day.
Where
Cover mixed depths.
Method
Start with tight-line nymphs and adjust if fish rise or drift higher.
Kit
9 ft #4 rod, floating line, 12 ft tapered leader to 4–5 lb fluoro tippet.
Why this works
Water at 21.9°C — above the brown trout caution line (18°C). Fish dawn or dusk only. Land it fast, wet hands, no air shots.
Hatch timeline · todayPeak at 6am

Hatch predictions

Today's headline hatch shown — see all 2 active hatches hour by hour with Pro.

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Sub-surface · on the nymphunder the surface

Hatch predictions

Top nymph shown — see all 2 guilds with Pro.

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Beyond the hatch · worth watchingambient prey

Hatch predictions

Top prey shown — see all 2 with Pro.

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Evidence
Survey-backed · regionalHigh confidence

Backed by regional invertebrate surveys; no sampling on this exact reach yet.

Through the year
0–3 scale · August highlighted
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Trout seasonSeason
1
2
2
2
2
2
1
Daddy Long LegsHatch
2
3
2
March BrownHatch
2
3
2
GrannomHatch
2
2
Large StoneflyHatch
2
3
2

Numbers are intensity 0 (none) to 3 (peak) — a guide, not a guarantee.

Ranked for today
Brown Trout fly box

Short-rod pocket-water fishing at its most distilled — a small Dartmoor granite stream of wild browns, fished cast by cast into every pocket and run.

Local classics: Half Stone·Blue Upright
BB
Black Beetle
14-18 · Pattern
Upstream dry, on top
What's coming
Plan ahead
5-day outlook
Water here around 22°C. Nothing cooler within range — carry a thermometer.
About this water

The Walkham is a classic small Dartmoor freestone — a granite-bedded spate stream that drops off the west moor through Merrivale and Horrabridge before joining the Tavy below Buckland Monachorum. It is the kind of pocket-water trout fishing the south-west does best: short broken pools, wild brown trout that rarely make a pound, hatches reliable enough to keep a dry fly honest from April through autumn. The Tavy, Walkham and Plym Fishing Club holds most of the rod fishing, and the Horrabridge gauge falls almost as quickly as it rises — a wet morning and you can be fishing the same afternoon. Small numbers of sea trout (peal) reach the lower river from mid-June via the Tavy confluence; salmon are rare strays.

  • Granite
The full read · show the working · for Brown Trout · confidence 80%
How the 14 is built — score × weight = contribution
Temperature7 × 28%2.0
Flow80 × 22%17.6
Clarity95 × 18%17.1
Feeding Time40 × 13%5.2
Pressure80 × 7%5.6
Insect activity54 × 12%6.5
Limiting factor: Water temperature (21.9°C) is outside Brown Trout's preferred range (10–16°C)= 54
Can you trust it?
Water temperatureair-to-water estimateestimated
Level / flowon-river gaugeobserved
Prey activitysurvey-backed invertebrate datasurvey
What would change the calculation
Cooler water — back toward the 10–16 °C ideal band — would lift the score and ease welfare.
The dawn and dusk windows score higher than the midday lull.
Directions
Seasons & zones
  • Trout 15 March30 September

Sea trout: Variable seasonal (2026)

Related guides
Casting instructors near here
Booking & contacts