Spate · Sandstone · East Devon

River Otter

The Otter rises in the Blackdown Hills and runs quietly through east Devon's red-sandstone country — Honiton, Ottery St Mary, Otterton — before reaching the sea at Budleigh Salterton.

Species

Prime conditions — go now

Low and clear — careful approach country. Cover the water properly, fish each lie once.

75% confidence in this read
Water temperature for sea trout
Ideal
9°C est.ideal 8–15°C
0°14°28°
Why this score · for sea trout
  • Temperature10028% weight
  • Flow8022% weight
  • Clarity8518% weight
  • Feeding Time9513% weight
  • Pressure857% weight
  • Insect activity4812% weight
Conditions
Level
Dry recently
No gauge reading
Water temp
9.3°C
Estimated
Clarity
Clear
Air temp
12°C
Wind
NW 11 km/h
Light breeze
Pressure
1022 hPa
Rain · 48h
0.0 mm
No meaningful rain
Rain · ahead
0.0 mm
No meaningful rain · next 48h

Live readings — water temperature is an estimate where the gauge does not record it.

How to fish it · for sea trout
When
From dusk into the first half of the night.
Where
Deeper pools and slower glides · hold water and current seams.
Method
Fish dark patterns on a sink-tip or lightly sunk line, especially near structure.
Kit
10 ft #6/7 rod, floating line with a sink-tip option, 8–10 lb fluoro tippet for the swing.
Why this works
Excellent — water temperature is right today, though insect activity could be better. ⏰ Sea trout become most active after dark, but this stretch closes at 20:59 — before that window fully opens. Fish hard in the last legal hour: overcast skies and warm evenings can bring fish on early even in fading light.
Through the year
0–3 scale · May highlighted
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Trout seasonSeason
1
2
2
2
2
2
1
March BrownHatch
2
3
2
GrannomHatch
2
2
Large StoneflyHatch
2
3
2
Yellow SallyHatch
2
3
2

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

Directions
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About this water

The Otter rises in the Blackdown Hills and runs quietly through east Devon's red-sandstone country — Honiton, Ottery St Mary, Otterton — before reaching the sea at Budleigh Salterton. It is a wild brown trout river of modest scale and modest pretensions: small fish, sober hatches, sparsely fished beats through woodland and water meadow. The Lower Otter Restoration Project, completed in 2023, returned the lowest reach to its natural tidal channel and the river now finishes in a proper estuary again. The famous reintroduced beavers — the River Otter Beaver Trial ran 2015–2020 and the population is now naturalised — are part of the modern character of the place; they have shaped some of the upper-river habitat in ways that have been good for fish as well as for the beavers themselves. Sea trout (peal) push up to the middle river from mid-June; salmon are rare and incidental.

  • Sandstone
Seasons & zones
  • Trout15 March → 30 September

Sea trout: Variable seasonal (2026)

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