Flies and Stuff

why is fishing so important?

2012-01-30T09:03:00.000Z

re-reading John Gierach's "Even Brook Trout get the blues" for the umpteenth time I was reminded of this great line from Robert Traver:

... And finally, not because I regard fishing as being so terribly important, but because I suspect that so many of the other concerns of men are equally unimportant and not nearly so much fun.”
― Robert Traver

A low Lambourn

2011-12-24T14:15:00.000Z

My mate Jacques and I fished the Lambourn in Newbury yesterday. This is a very pretty little chalkstream with a good population of Grayling. we fished the Donnington Grove beat, which flows past a golf course so there were a lot balls in the water... I didn't get used to that.

The water was extremely low, really worrying given we're in mid winter and in a drought.

We were looking for grayling and we did find some but they were extremely difficult: maybe because of the low water, maybe because there were huge amounts of stocked browns everywhere. It was difficult to keep the fly clear of stockies in some areas.

Eventually I got a grayling to play ball. He was right against a bed of cress on the bank, nosing about in the silt. We had seen the odd redd, with some wild browns managing to spawn in amongst the stockies so i decided to try a small egg pattern... as the silt cleared from his nose he saw the egg coming downstream at him and he lunged forward and had it!

The river had a good head of wild fish so it made no sense to stock at all, especially some of the leviathans we saw charging up and down the river freaking out the wild trout and grayling.

a bit surreal but a good day anyway...

Drake film awards 2011

2011-10-08T16:40:00.001+01:00

You have to watch this selection of movies from the Drake awards, they are all brilliant!

The Wylye Monster

2011-10-03T09:44:00.000+01:00

The River Wylye is spectacular and the seven and a bit miles under the custodianship of The Wilton Fly Fishing Club must be the best of the best. I have fished the club waters 3 times in 3 years: twice mid winter for grayling and then last Friday, 30 September, to experience the river in the warmer months. On each occasion I have been the guest of Tom Davis, River Manager for the club and Director of the Wessex Chalk Stream and Rivers Trust.

I left home in rural Kent early and met Tom at his house at nine in the morning and already the thermometer was nudging twenty degrees. When we got to the water Tom wanted to position me on a shady beat in the hope shaded fish would be more active given the heat and low water. As it turns out I never got as far as the shade…

The beat Tom suggested was not only attractive due to the shade but also because a few weeks earlier Adrian, the River Keeper, had seen something remarkable from the bridge at the bottom of the beat: Adrian had noticed a grayling lying perpendicular to the current in the tail of the pool. Fish don’t hold at right angles to the current. A moment later he realized why the fish was in this strange position. The grayling was in the jaws of a very large Brown Trout. He thought it probably weighed at least four pounds (the trout, not the grayling). When Tom told me this story I was quite amazed, could the Wylye have browns big enough to predate on adult grayling?!

Tom advised I enter the river immediately below the bridge and work my way up and into the shade. Off I went. I rigged up while keeping out of sight of the water and slipped into the river below the bridge. I worked upstream very slowly. There was no shortage of grayling willing to inhale my #18 tungsten bead biot nymph suspended under a small emerger. Sight fishing to grayling within four or five meters of my feet was so absorbing I had moved only about 50 meters in an hour and a half, still in the pool that flows under the bridge. I got to a slightly deeper hole in the pool with a lot of aquatic weed waving in the current about a meter below the surface.

What was that in front of the weed? I caught a glimpse of a fishy flank, a very long flank. Then I saw the fish. It was truly massive. Was it a salmon? Must be. I thought I’d better not disturb it. Salmon numbers are growing in a poor state in the Avon drainage and I didn’t want to agitate the fish, already probably stressed from the low water level. I started to take a step forward to work around the fish quietly when the sun caught the fish’s flank again: I thought “that’s no salmon, that’s a %^&$£@ brown trout!”. With my heart pounding in my ears I shifted back downstream a step or two. I drifted the tiny nymph past the fish’s nose three times with the fish completely ignoring it. “OK, time to go big” I thought. Did I mention my tippet was of 7X? That’s a 2.4lb breaking strain. I decided to stay with the thin tippet; the four weight Hardy Zenith should be quite capable of absorbing any shocks and protecting the tippet. That’s assuming I can get the fish to eat a fly. I tied on my extended body Mayfly nymph (imitating the big E. danica nymph).

I was fishing a twenty foot leader and with the fish a few meters from me I flicked the duo rig (emerger dry still part of the rig) a few meters ahead of the fish with barely any flyline out of the tip of my rod. Luckily I was right on target with the fly sinking fast enough to make contact with the fish’s mouth shortly. It was around this point where everything went into slow motion. The fish opened its mouth and slowly closed it on my nymph. The fish at the fly! I lifted the rod tip, quite slowly I recall. When I saw the fly just peaking out the side of the fish’s mouth I breathed a sigh of relief because the tippet wasn’t going to be working against the fish’s teeth: A profound bit of luck second only to having spotted the fish without spooking it. The fish swam toward the far bank and the game was on. It never ran far nor managed to bore into weed or mud. The rod allowed me to maintain remarkable pressure considering the very thin tippet. I moved into the pool, waist deep, to avoid the fish getting into some reeds. I am six foot ten inches tall, the pool was deeper than I thought! As I got to waist depth the fish turned and swam at my groin at full speed. I emptied my lungs as my left family jewel took the brunt of the blow!

After about fifteen minutes I landed the fish in a net that was hopelessly too small. One of those delicate things designed to cradle typical wild brownies and grayling. It flopped out twice without breaking the tippet or ejecting the fly (more luck). I moved the fish quickly to the safety of some grass on the bank where I could measure and photograph. It measured somewhere between 28 and 29 inches. It was difficult to keep the fish still while measuring. I moved quickly and then focused on reviving the fish. After about ten minutes of gentle resuscitation in the shallows coupled to more photographs of the fish in the water it was off into the depths, slowly but confidently.

And then reality sank in and a broad smile spread across my face and my heart slowed to normal as I imagined meeting Tom at the rendezvous point in 45 minutes and saying “remember that large brown you mentioned…?”.

Thanks Tom. Any spare guest tickets going?

The Wilton Club do a magnificent job of managing this piece of the Wylye and fish like this are clear evidence of what a wild fishery can produce if done properly.

Extended body CDC upright adult

2011-09-17T15:12:00.001+01:00

I've been playing around with this pattern for a while now. It presents very gently on the water,is extremely buoyant without the need for floatant treatments and seems to be very effective. Even though the body is of CDC it is remarkably robust: I fished this LDO/BWO version (#14) on a small Welsh stream last Spring and it was still in tact after a dozen sharp-toothed wild brownies.

so how do I tie it?

I like to use light wire emerger hooks, maximum gape, minimum shank.

First you select a large CDC feather, appropriately coloured for the abdomen. Hold the feather by the tip and stroke the fibres toward the butt. The fibres at the tip become the tail fibres. Tie the feather in such that you have the right abdomen length to match the natural. Trim the centre of the tip, leaving 1-3 tail fibres on either side.

Tie in a length of Tiemco Aero wing or other buoyant wining material, angled three quarters backward.

Using a split thread technique create a dubbing loop of long CDC fibres to match the legs and wing colours of the natural. I have used one natural and one olive feather here.

Trim the wing to about abdomen length. Trim the underside and neaten, just a little, it works better when a little untidy.

I tie them to imitate a range of uprights from the big E. Danica in #10's through to little #16's. I've not tried smaller, yet.

Have fun and let me know how you go.

edit: I couldn't resist trying this pattern on a smaller hook, so here's an LDO/BWO on a #18 Varivas 2200...

Thoughts on my Hardy Zenith 9' 4wt

2011-09-15T12:20:00.002+01:00

I've always had good use of a quick actioned 9' 4wt rod: initially for larger streams and rivers and occasionally for stillwaters. I was really excited about getting my hands on a 4wt Zenith after casting 10 and 12 wt prototypes back in February with Steve Peterson, marketing manager at Hardy. I cast the 12 wt for 30mins, backing out the tip on every cast and it felt like a 10wt!! the 10 felt lighter and more effective than my 8wt Loomis GLX which has been my favourite saltwater stick for over 10 years... not an easy rod to beat.

I've had my 4wt Zenith for most of the summer but hardly fished it because I've been "in the shrubbery" with my 3 and 2 wts in the little streams around Kent. So with a full 6 days of fishing on the huge San River in Poland last week I got an opportunity to really play with this new rod.

so how was it?

I loved it! yes i know everyone is saying that about the Sintrix range... but I put the media hype and other (very positive) opinions aside and just focussed on fishing with the thing.

It is very light and very responsive. all without being too stiff. it loaded long and short casts equally well and with flawless leader turnover, which is impressive considering on most days I was fishing 18 - 24 foot leaders, sometimes in duo manner, normally to 6 or 7X.

I caught some good grayling and browns and always felt the rod had the sensitivity to allow me to "give the fish some Welly" without compromising the tippett.

I would very much like to see a 10 or even 11ft version for a 3wt line. this would make me very happy indeed!

Well done to Howard Croston and the whole Hardy team, an exceptional bit of tackle!

Polish Grayling!

2011-09-14T11:54:00.002+01:00

I was on the River San in Poland last week with a great bunch of guys. Thanks Jeremy and Wojtek!

biggest grayling and most challenging river fishing I have ever done, I will definitely be back.

see the album on the right of this page for more photos.

looking forward to autumn!
Keith

my biggest grayling?

2011-06-04T09:50:00.001+01:00

a few weeks ago Garth, Jacques and I spent a few days on the upper Wye in Wales. We got some good grayling and browns in spite of the very low river. The low clear conditions made for careful approaches and thin tippets... nothing wrong with that!

One evening, around 8pm, as the pub was calling, Garth and I spotted a steady riser: the fish was about 10 yards away, downstream, in about 6 inches of water over gravel. It was my turn... after about 20 or 30 drifts the fish ate my #16 CDC emerger. I think it was my biggest grayling, pushing 2lbs. now note that the fish might look smaller in the picture because I am 6'10" with big hands so all fish look small in my hands, really :-)

the fish jumped as Garth took the pic...

striper in New England

2010-09-28T08:14:00.004+01:00

I was in the Boston (waltham) office week before last. With mid september normally being peak striper season i decided to hook up with a few friends for some time north of Boston and then down on Cape Cod.

I'd never caught striper before, although I dreamt of catching them for decades, so even though the locals said the fishing was slow I was very happy with my few schoolies up to about 24".

SIM Festival at Castel di Sangro in Italy

2010-06-22T20:35:00.006+01:00

What a weekend!

For a few years some friends have been telling me that if there is one show in the world you want to be invited to demonstrate fly patterns at it's the SIM Festival. Finally I got the invite and the dates worked.

The show is held in an ancient building that also houses the Italian museum of flyfishing which in itself is amazing. I did two tours of it on saturday and again sunday to take in all the fly patterns, paintings and tackle.

The Sangro river and one of its tributaries flow through town and is full of brown and rainbow trout... it was crystal clear and apparently a little low when I fished it (I thought it was perfect) .... and both are stuffed with fish... and they're classified "reserva" so no fishing is allowed in town... apparently late at night the old men of the town do throw spinners at some of the submarines we saw swimming around in gin clear water engulfing chunks of bread fed to them by villagers.

I left England on Thursday afternoon, flew to Rome and then spent 3.5hrs being driven by Lionello to Castel di Sangro. Lionello speaks nearly no English and my Italian sucks a lot... I used google translate to help me with the key phrases such as "let's buy a couple of beers at the next filling station we pass".... thanks Lionello!

I had Friday to myself as the Festival kicked off on Friday night. I got a lift about a kilometer downstream of town and then I walked down a farm track alongside the river for 20minutes until I was well away from the worn paths.... then I bush whacked my way into the river and strung up. It was beautiful, I caught and landed at least a dozen fish in 3 hours ranging up to about 18 inches. I lost two massive fish (at least 4lbs each) that both ploughed into tree roots in under cut banks. I saw a further monster but could not get a cast to it. what a morning!

walking up to the bridge in town for my pickup to take me to lunch I noticed this picture lying on the fisherman's path on the river bank... why would someone be carrying this fishing??? worrying. disturbing. a few hundred meters upstream I disturbed a couple having sex! obviously summer in the mountains makes the locals a little frisky.

Dales in a shirt that only he could carry off!

"The tiers!"

the "award ceremony" where certificates were handed out and participants thanked. I was a little taller than the average Italian and went down on my knees to fit into the photographs. Oswaldo, in the centre, organiser of the show and leader of the SIM flyfishing school and on the right Chris Reeves from England.

and then the wine kicked in!

What a great festival and weekend... next year I'm going for a week and I'll hike the Sangro until my feet bleed!

ciao!
Keith

great fishing on the Usk

2010-06-02T09:04:00.007+01:00

I spent a few days in Wales last week fishing with my friend Mark Lloyd of the Angling Trust and Fish Legal (boy those guys do great work fighting for our rivers, lakes and sea fishing).

the fishing started with a bang on friday noon when I stepped into the water on the Meadow Bridge beat on the Usk... caddis (I think they were Welshman's Button) were present in huge clouds of what looked like egg laying females, not sure. Also, yellow mayfly, mayfly (E. Danica) and small black gnats were all hatching.

The fish were tough but I got a few through the afternoon. I took a little power nap on the bank in the late afternoon, about the time I woke up Mark came down to the river with a couple've pints of Rhymney Export, just the thing to get me setup for an evening's dry fly action...

saturday was a bit of a wash out although we did get the occasional riser along the bank-side bush.

Sunday morning I fished the Grywne Fawr, a tributary of the Usk, for a few hours by myself with my little 5 foot 2 weight Hardy Glass ALN: I love this rod. I've owned it for about 6 weeks and refer to it now as the "feather duster" because it is so light and agile. It took a while to fine tune the leader construction for such a short, soft rod and I've paired it with a Cortland 444 Sylk WF2F which is absolutely miraculous.

after a few hours on the Grywne Fawr I had a chilled out 3 hours drive back to Kent, brain-dumping new fly pattern ideas onto the dictaphone on my mobile.

ahhh.... what a brilliant weekend.

are you going to the spring show?

2010-01-30T08:06:00.003Z

I'll be demonstrating some of my fly patterns at the Spring Show in Lincoln in early March... are you going? I really enjoy this show: catching up with friends, learning new tying techniques and maybe buying a bit of tackle, some feathers or a book or 2!

time to think about summer grayling

2010-01-30T08:01:00.001Z

my login passwords for business systems are starting to reflect the names of european grayling streams.... time to plan another fishing holiday :-)

mouse patterns!

2009-10-27T08:41:00.003Z

one of the best flyfishing short films I've seen... absolutely brilliant photography and editing...

Needle Fly fest

2009-10-27T06:29:00.003Z

A few weeks ago I spent a weekend in Wales with some friends. we fished the Wye on Saturday and Sunday and the Lugg on Monday. The fishing was tough. Saturday afternoon was probably the high point in terms of fish being willing to eat a fly. we had a few fish each fairly quickly to dries and nymphs. as the afternoon drew on I noticed a growing number of needle fly in the air.

I moved to a 2 fly combination of a larger more visible dry as a spotter followed by a small (size 16) needle adult on the point, the results were quite amazing. I missed a lot of takes and connected with quite a few... what was remarkable was how fish were coming out of nowhere to have a go at the needle fly, even in the fastest shallowest water.

my best fish was a 40cm grayling that ate the needle fly 5 times before I managed to connect.

The needle fly pattern I used is extremely simple, consisting of a turkey biot tied facing forward anf then pulled back over a few turns of CDC which are tied in using a split thread technique.

Phil White showed me this pattern while we were both tying at the Spring show this year... thanks Phil!

sunday morning in the meadows

2009-07-19T21:22:00.005+01:00

I nipped out this morning for 2 hours on one of the small tributaries near my house....

loaded with wild brownies and grayling.... and a perch. most were on a small shrimp under a dry (that stream is packed with shrimps) and toward mid day the browns started eating the dry.

the yarn spider makes 'em crazy!

2009-06-29T21:30:00.002+01:00

I spent a few hours on the little kentish chalk stream down the road yesterday evening... good hatch of Danica...

but I didn't fish Danica patterns, I tied on a size 16 yarn spider with olive legs and black yarn "body" at the car before really looking at the water's surface. I only changed flies once (to replace the one I hung in a tree with an exact replica). the fish loved it, 4 browns and a few fat roach all came to the dry like missiles.

i love the yarn spider... tying more tonight!

Look what flew past the kitchen window last night!

2009-05-24T13:39:00.002+01:00

Mr and Mrs Danica are out and about... I need to get on the stream tomorrow morning!! Look at the size of that thing!

spring in the tribs

2009-05-02T15:47:00.004+01:00

Jacques and I got out for a day on a tiny tributary yesterday that flows through crops near my house in Kent. we got a handful of wild browns, grayling and chub on small nymphs and emergers. the hawthorn flies were out in huge numbers with a lot of the dead ones drifting submerged... maybe that's why the fish were pretty difficult.

this weekend at the Spring Flyfishing Show

2009-02-27T13:56:00.002Z

I'm demonstrating a few new fly patterns at the spring show this weekend in Newark, UK. I really enjoy this show, great collection of tyers and other flyfishing fixated folk and there is always a really good turn out of visitors.

I am not going to demo the realistics as previous, I'm focused more on some new fishing patterns that are working really well for me at the moment and that include some interesting steps forward in technique. a few of the patterns I'll tie this weekend:

a mayfly (danica) nymph pattern that devastated the browns and grayling last summer
the bootlace... a may adult pattern incorporating shoe lace for buoyancy
the yarn spider... the quick to tie, robust, buoyant terrestrial that proved itself in wales in summer 2008
a trout/salmon egg pattern (based on the unreal egg by Jim Pettis) that the grayling can't leave alone in winter

look forward to seeing you there... come and say hi

christmas eve grayling

2008-12-29T18:13:00.005Z

We spent a week in Wales over Christmas: a family holiday of course, not a fishing one... but I did take along a 4 and a 5 weight in case. On a very cold but windless Christmas eve I fished a piece of the River Lugg through the Wye and Usk Foundation: I got a few grayling, one very good one that must have pushed 2.5lbs, and an-out-of-season brown that was pretty good too. The big grayling ate a salmon egg imitation which I know is a bit irreverent, but I hadn't tried eggs for grayling before and it worked a treat with 2 fish in as many casts. The rest of the grayling came to the Bootlace and 1 on a nasty tungsten beaded bug. I am going to demo the egg pattern and the bootlace (as well as the Yarn Spider) at an event in Earlston on the Tweed in January... should raise a few Scottish eyebrows :-)

The Wilton Club stretch of the River Wylye

2008-12-02T20:13:00.005Z

On Saturday I was privileged to fish this amazing Wiltshire chalk stream as a guest of member Tom Davis. Tom and I met at the Spring show in March this year and when we got onto discussing grayling he suggested I should experience the grayling of the Wylye.

we fished a few of the club beats and they all produced grayling and a few out of season browns. The fish came mainly to the nymph in the morning but in the afternoon a good large dark olive hatch came off and we were into them with dries. We got quite a few fish, nothing huge but all were very strong and full of beans.

Tom got fish on a little parachute emerger with an antron trailing shuck and I got mine mainly on my "bootlace" adult olive which is a combination of CDC and, literally, boot lace fibres... the stuff floats like a cork: I discuss this pattern in "Fly tyers of the World Volunme 1".

The Wilton Club has been around for 110 years and on the Wylye for about 100 years, so there is some history! We had lunch next to the river, about 50metres from us was a small, simple fishing hut. Tom told me that Skues had sat in that hut and had caught his last trout just upstream of it in the weir pool. Apparently the hut is featured in the book "Fishing Huts" by Jo Orchard Lisle.

The club does an amazing job of maintaining and rehabilitating the stream. Salmon are spawning on the property which is wonderful. Tom showed me a number of areas where the club was doing various bits of rehabilitative work on the river bed and banks.

Sorry there aren't many photographs, it was really cold and the last thing on my mind was getting out the camera.

what an amazing day's fishing, thanks Tom.

the scottish borders

2008-09-05T12:51:00.002+01:00

we had an amazing few days last week in the Scottish Borders with some very hospitable locals who ensured we were on some of the most beautiful pieces of river I've ever seen.

look at the Scotland August 2008 album on the right to see what we got up to...

The lauder in the Scottish borders

2008-08-27T17:38:00.001+01:00

a few hours on the neighbour's pond...

2008-08-17T07:43:00.007+01:00

I snuck out for a few hours on my neighbour's pond. The weather was perfect for fishing a small stillwater: a bright sky, slight breeze and warm day. With all the rain recently the rowing boat took a while to empty using the rusty old sauce pan but it offered me a few minutes to watch the water.

There were a few unhurried rises, mainly along the fringes of the weed bed: the pond perimeter is almost completely weeded now with little opportunity to fish from the bank. Once on the water I noticed spent large white mayfly that must have emerged early in the morning, also there were quite a few large (#10) midge pupae emerging... I suspended a suitable black midge imitation beneath a large buoyant dry.

1 brown and 4 rainbows later I rowed in to the bank and went home... what a pleasure :-)

Bass fever intensifies

2008-08-06T11:37:00.002+01:00

I've sought the advice of the experts, I think I am starting to get a good grounding for how the bass in the UK operate and what I need to do to catch them on fly (remember I've only been out once before where I got a wee schooly on a clouser).

I had a good chat with Austen Goldsmith of UKSaltwaterflies.com who was a huge help. Amongst a lot of advice, Austen also sent me a few of his killer bass patterns. I'll tie up a few more with the materials he uses (like the DNA FFF stuff which just blows me away) before I hit the water hopefully next week. Austen also suggested I buy "Hooked on Bass" by Alan Vaughan and Mike Ladle and focus especially on chapter 5 "shallow rocky shores". That chapter did it for me... I spent the next few hours on Google Earth searching out appropriate pieces of coastline. I reckon I have had my nose up against at least 100miles of coast this past few days via Google earth!

I'll let you know how I go on the water...

a few little sunday afternoon grayling

2008-07-28T13:53:00.006+01:00

Jacques and I had a chilled out few hours looking for grayling on dries and small nymphs...

summer sea bass

2008-07-14T11:02:00.002+01:00

I've only thrown a fly at a sea bass in the UK once, it was last summer in Chichester harbour and I got one small bass... the only fish my party got into that morning. Gale force winds set the tone for the morning. we fished from 5am to 12 noon, howling wind, no fish showing.

At the moment the weather is good in sunny Kent and I am getting pretty fired up about getting in the salt in the next few weeks to look for some bass... I need to research tides and locations, hopefully I'll be posting a few pictures of bass in hand here soon!

The Yarn Spider

2008-06-27T16:51:00.004+01:00

Last summer I was looking for a quick to tie, highly buoyant dry fly that throws a large silhouette on the surface without being bulky. I looked at yarn strike indicator material and reasoned that it is light and bouyant enough to be the basis of a pattern, but what about legs for silhouette? Partridge parachute style would do surely?

If you were at the Spring show in March this year you may have seen me demo this pattern in various colours, it has also been featured in the new publication "Fly tyers of the world".

It takes less than 60 seconds to tie and is really easy. Remember to apply some flexament under the shank where the partridge is hackled around the yarn post to ensure it is protected against those little teeth on wild brownies. A light wire scud/emerger hook is best to keep the point below the surface where it will produce good hook up ratios on trout and especially grayling and yellowfish (for the South African readers) with their sub terminal mouths.

Well we threw the yarn Spider at some wily wild browns on a tributary of the Usk and they wouldn't leave it alone. With a bit of silicone gel flotant applied to the yarn this pattern floats all day after dozens of fish... give it a shot and let me know how you go...

Damsels eating Mayflies!?

2008-06-23T20:23:00.003+01:00

I went out yesterday and there were a lot of large Mayfly coming off in the afternoon, in spite of the heavy winds. We encountered something amazing, damsels attacking mayfly (yes I mean the big Danica) and eating them... I have asked the people at Bug Life to educate us on this behaviour, I'll let you know what I learn...

UPDATE: 27/06/08

The British Dragonfly Society have confirmed that Damsels and Dragons will predate on their own and other species up to almost their own size (no wonder the creature in the movie "alien" was modelled on these nasties) although there are no known reports of them eating E. Danica (until now that is)

2008-06-21T08:01:00.006+01:00

Welcome to Flies and Stuff

Some of you may know me from my blog focussed on the yellowfish of the Vaal River in South Africa. I moved to the UK (Kent) from South Africa about 16 months ago: I've been fishing quite a bit in the UK since arriving, mainly for trout and grayling in Wales, the West Country and around Kent on what are now my home waters.

I have also had a shot at sea bass on the fly with some success: I think Bass are under rated as a fly species in the UK and I look forward to getting to know them better given my proximity to the south coast... and it's summer!

I'm going to blog whatever is on my mind regards flyfishing, flytying and the associated issues of conservation, sustainability etc... I'll try to keep it varied, not to be too serious too often and have fun... please give me feedback and post lots of comments!

thanks for reading...

Mayfly magic

2008-06-15T10:33:00.002+01:00

With all this sunny weather and given that we are in the middle (or maybe the end) of the maylfy season I had to get on the water this week. Boy am I glad I did! Those wild brownies threw caution to the wind and engulfed my mayfly nymph and adult patterns with conviction.

Does anyone know what the typical dates are over which the big Danica mayflies hatch in Southern England? I thought late May to mid June but they seem to still be coming off. Maybe, like so many things in nature, the mayflies don't follow the Roman/human calendar and track instead to the rythms of the seasons: so if the summer is "late" in terms of our human calendar the mays might emerge later into the summer, but on their calendar they are hatching consistently on water temperature or some other indicator of where they are in the progression of the seasons... make sense?

I'll go out tomorow and see if they are still hatching...

UPDATED on 23/06