First Outing

We managed our first outing of the winter on the Eden this weekend and were rewarded with eighteen fish between us and a few missed and lost.
The river was relatively low and clear, and with no sign of any surface activity we both set up with bugs - the starting method was short line or Czech nymphing.
I nearly had the perfect start with a fish second cast but it dropped off as I brought it to the net, this was quickly followed by a 15 3/4" (39cm) grayling, then another dropped - three chances in the first six casts, the fish in excellent condition and fighting hard - this had the makings of a good day.

We saw our first trickle of olives at about 1230 and the odd fish started to show an interest in them, sport on the bugs had slowed and I was contemplating a change to a team of spiders when Andrew beat me to it, so I decided to persevere with the bugs as I was still picking up the odd fish.

Andrews change was justified when he took a fish on a Greenwell's spider and rose two others before they started to ignore the spiders - a quick change to a dry fly produced a missed take.
Fish continued to rise sporadically throughout the afternoon but on closer inspection we found that there was midge on/in the surface and after watching several olives float downstream untouched we decided that the grayling were more than likely on these.

I continued to take fish on the bugs right up until dark, although since early afternoon when we first saw fish rising, they did seem to want the bug higher in the water with most fish coming to the top dropper as the team swung downstream and began to lift.