Tuesday, May 12, 2015

April days (part 2)


We had a decent spell of April sunshine during the third week of the month, which was perfect for Steve and Sue's visit to Eden and their very first go at fly fishing. They both coped very well on their debut - and both managed fish....


We saw our first Grannom (Brachycentrus subnubilis) of the year on Roland's day on the Eden. The Grannom love a bit of sunshine and given the right conditions these early season sedges can hatch in their thousands. They provide a good feed for our fish, but the adults are normally on the wing pretty quick, giving the trout little time to snaffle them. You do see fish sipping away at the odd vulnerable soul that struggles to break free of the pupal shuck, but I think the majority of fish concentrate on easier pickings: thousands of pupa ascending up through the water column. 
This seemed to be the case for Roland. There was the odd riser that proved difficult to tempt so we changed to a team consisting of a Grannom pupa on point and spiders on the droppers. This combination did the trick and provided chances and fish throughout the afternoon.

Grannom were still hatching on Doug's day, but with no activity at the surface we had to concentrate on sub-surface offerings to get any action


Hatches of Olive Uprights (Rhithrogena semicolorata) and Iron Blue duns (Alainites muticus) arrived hot on the heels of the Grannom and I was fortunate to hit a hatch of all three on a day off from guiding. The Iron blues were heavily outnumbered by Olive Uprights and the fish weren't slow in turning onto the latter. A good number of trout and a few out of season grayling came to Olive Upright emerger and dun imitations throughout the session....


The weather started to deteriorate towards the end of the month and threatened to spoil things for a group of first-time Eden visitors. We were lucky though, and the spell of wet weather failed to bring the river up too much.
Day one saw the group fishing a slowly-rising river. A trickle of Olive Uprights failed to entice any fish to the surface, but sub-surface offerings did the trick and all either caught, or had the chance of fish. The river leveled out for day two and although a touch coloured, it was still fishable. Sport was a touch slow in the morning but an afternoon hatch of Olive Uprights brought fish onto the feed. Nymphs and spiders produced offers and a few late afternoon risers responded well to dry offerings. I think/hope all left happy after a positive introduction to our great river....

Pete shows off  an Olive Upright feeder tempted to his dry imitation

The wet and cold end to April has continued into May. Let's hope it's just a minor blip and things will improve soon. It seems to have put paid to the Black Gnat falls for now. It will be interesting to see if they're just delayed, or, as in 2013, we'll have to wait until the end of August for the main fall....Either way, they'll come when they're ready and we'll have good fishing to look forward to when they do....

Thursday, May 7, 2015

April days (part 1)

In my last blog, I mentioned that there should be plenty to look forward to in April; it hasn't disappointed.

My first outing of the month was on Good Friday. It turned out to be a dull, miserable, showery day - perfect for our spring flies. There was a good hatch of Large Dark Olives interspersed with a few March Browns, and some good fish were feeding on one of our large Eden flats. It was an interesting session, fish were completely ignoring the duns in favour of the more vulnerable and easily intercepted emergers. The favoured species appeared to be the Large Darks and most fish covered with an Olive emerger pattern accepted it without hesitation, including my two best fish of the session....

The best of a Good Friday session at 19 inches (49cm)

A close second on Good Friday measured 17 inches (43cm)

The wild March weather had put paid to any plans I'd had to fish our Northern Lakes. So my first outing of the season was a guided session for Stephen and Graham. Ullswater had a lot to live up to; Stephen's first go at the lake in 2014 saw him have a tremendous day, it was on top form and produced fish for him on most drifts. This year wasn't quite as good. Our spells of adverse weather during late March had dumped a fair amount of snow on the lakeland fells and the subsequent melt has meant that water temperatures are very low, so the fishing has been a bit slower than normal. Having said that; both fished well and caught, and missed fish in flurries of activity throughout the day....

Stephen with an Ullswater trout

We were starting to get decent spells of April sunshine but the bitterly cold winds were carried over from March and even though we were seeing hatches of fly on most days, the fish were often slow to respond to the surface fly. This was the case for David's visit. We had a cold upstream blast throughout the day; we got our daily trickle of Olives, but very few fish showed any interest. They were still feeding though and good presentation of a team of spiders paid dividends for David....


A short period of cloudier weather towards the middle of the month provided the opportunity for my first solo outing of the season on my favourite water. It turned out to be a wild day on Ullswater, but I managed to find shelter and a few productive drifts. My efforts were rewarded with fish responding positively to my 'Ullswater' or 'Glister muddler' dibbled through the wave.


The cloud remained for Paul's first venture out onto the lake. We could have done with a touch more wind at times, but we got enough to get a few good drifts - and a few fish....


The sunshine was back for Len's day. We were out to look at casting, and fishing techniques, and we were hunting Rainbows. After  a morning casting session it was time to fish. The sunshine had pushed the fish down in the water, but a variety of different density lines, and flies, and retrieve rates ensured that Len had steady sport throughout the afternoon....