Thursday, March 19, 2015

We're off...our trout season begins in Eden

As I'd feared after the previous Thursday's rain and subsequent lift in levels; my options were limited for opening day. 
We're lucky in this part of the world though. We have a main river - The Eden - that's approximately 90 miles long. Then we have it's main tributary the river Eamont which is fed by the river Lowther, Dacre beck and Ullswater. We also have smaller rivers - the Petteril, Lyvennet, Leith and Troutbeck - flowing into the Eden. With all this choice it's rare that you can't find somewhere to cast a line, and so it was on opening day. Most rivers were a touch too big and so was my chosen destination - but it was fishable.
I didn't rush to the river as I would have many years ago. While we remain on GMT our spring olives will be hatching around lunchtime or shortly after, depending on the weather, so I left home at 10:00 for a 10:30 - 11:00 start. On opening day they started to trickle off at 12:40 but they didn't manage to stir many fish. Only two in fact: one rose twice and took the nymph I cast to it and the other rose three times, by the time I'd changed to a dry it had stopped and despite me waiting and a procession of duns drifting over the area it had been in, it never came up again. 
The lack of surface activity was certainly made up for by plenty of action to my sub-surface offerings and the nymph produced fish throughout the afternoon...





With their closed period only a day old, even an out of season Grayling joined in the fun


The rivers were still a touch big on the second day of our new season and this time the olives graced us with a show at approximately 13:00. This and one fish sticking it's head out of the water prompted a change to a pair of our North Country spiders and a nymph. My all-time favourite 'The Waterhen Bloa' took the dropper positions and my 'Olive nymph' went on the point. While the Large Dark Olives (Baetis rhodani) trickled off throughout the afternoon my team produced a steady stream of fish, and offers, with the nymph scoring slightly better than the rest...


It's been a good start to our season in Eden. I even saw my first March Browns (Rhithrogena germanica) of the year on the 18th. This is the earliest that I've seen them since they've started to reappear on the parts of the Eden system that I frequent. Last year I had to wait until the 31st March before I saw my first and the year before it was early April. Hopefully this bodes well and next time I'm out the trout will be on these meaty morsels.... 


6 comments:

Peter said...

Lovely write up Geoff. Spring has almost sprung on this side of the Pennines and we're - off in a couple of days. Always enjoy the blog. Tight lines and have a great season

Geoff Johnston said...

Cheers Peter, all the best for the new season...

Paul Procter Fly Fishing said...

Nice one Geoff, I've yet to see MBs, but plenty of LDOs about. Let's catch up soon, P

Baslowfisher said...

Geoff,you have certainly put me in the mood! We start on 1st April can't wait now after reading this. Tight lines for the coming season, Regards, Colin

Geoff Johnston said...

Cheers Paul, it's my earliest sighting of MBs in my neck of the woods....Must be a couple of years since we last met up and even longer since we fished...

Geoff Johnston said...

Cheers Colin, hope you have a great start to your season....