Sunday, August 3, 2014

Some rain at last....

I don't suppose anyone that's on holiday in the lakes will be very happy, but from a fishing point of view, we're having a very welcome spell of unsettled weather at the moment.
It's not putting a massive amount of water into our local rivers - although a lot more would be welcome as the system is in dire need of a good flush - most lifts have been no more than an inch or three, but what we have had has perked the fish up providing some good daytime sessions on occasions.
 
Yesterday (2/8/14) was one such occasion. Within ten minutes of me hitting the river, the heavens opened. I sheltered under a tree for a while, but with the rain bouncing off the water and no sign of a break, I eventually succumbed and went back to the car to sit it out in comfort. The wash-off from the roads was bound to colour the river at some point but I figured that I might get a bit of fishing in before it got too dirty and sometimes a touch of colour can be good.
 

The rain cleared, the river coloured slightly and the fish came on. Sport came thick and fast in the afternoon. I worked the river alternating between the dry fly - if I came across a riser - and the nymph, with a good number of fish to 42cm coming to both.

 
Evening sport was very good throughout July. I was never lucky enough to hit a good fall of Blue Winged Olive spinners but witnessed some very good hatches of Small Dark Olives mixed with sparser hatches of Blue Winged Olives. Even though the BWO's were massively outnumbered by the SDO's the fish seemed to show a definite preference for the larger of the two on some evenings. The water was littered with the smaller duns on some nights but there'd only be the odd intermittent riser. My smaller offering would be refused and then I'd spot the odd BWO being taken, step up my fly size and get sport right up until the hatch petered out and a few fish turned onto the Sedge. It wasn't always like this, on some nights the fish would happily feed away on SDO's and happily accept my smaller offerings.

 
Daytime sport has been tough for my clients but not impossible. Many were concentrating more on improving their casting skills but those that did fish managed to get into a few, as Mike shows as he is about to net a fish (above) and shows off one of his catches (below).
 

Jason draws a fish to the net

So, hopefully, if our long dry spell is over and the unsettled weather continues, we won't have the age old issue of the 'dog days' of August to contend with. Although that isn't as big an issue as it used to be now that we have an array of modern techniques at our disposal that will cope with almost any condition.