Thursday & Friday

I had booked a couple of afternoons off on Thursday and Friday to hopefully take in the mayfly however things don't always go according to plan especially this year the season is behind schedule. I went down to the hut by Beeley and was hoping that the mayfly may be up. I must admit that Derek had been previously during the week and told me that there were not many about. True enough there were the odd ones around but the fish were not on to them. I started off at the pool by the hit and winkled out a couple of browns to my usual grey-olive parachute. There were loads of fly about swarms of black gnats, yellow mays, some olives,  unbelievable. Derek turned up so we went down to one of our favourite pools, I worked my way up but even though there was tons of fly about there were not many rises possibly due to the blazing sun. I changed fly to a griffiths gnat and then took another couple of browns. At the head of the pool there were several fish head and tailing but couldn't see to what. On went the gnat again and I hit 1 brown  but it soon became detached so moral victory! I persevered and did land a last brown before heading home.

I went out again in the evening down to the works again but how 2 nights can be so different. I really struggled to land anything, I changed fly too many times to count but could not get the fish to take. It was those head and tail rises again! I eventually went down to a size 22 or 24 small black para and landed a brown. I called it a day by 2100 as the damp seeping through my waders got to me!

On Friday again I went down to the hut but it was even hotter today. I was met by hordes of gnats again but today the fish were definitely taking shelter from the sun. It was just too hot for fish and fishing. Mayfly were appearing very intermittently but still not enough to encourage the fish into taking mood. I did manage to get a couple of browns before calling time around 4.

In the evening I went down to the cricket pitch hoping to find an evening rise to something. I walked all the way down to Mary's Bower were several fish were rising. Again loads of gnat about so on went the griffiths gnat. I covered several fish before attaching to a decent brown. I noticed some spinners about so switched to my rusty spinner and landed a couple more browns. I went back up to the cricket pitch and now it was past 2130 and only a few fish were showing but to what? I covered several with the rusty but nothing so as the gnat were still about I went back to the GG and rose a couple of the head and tailers which soon let go, maybe that's what they have been taking all along. Before calling time I did land a last brown to the gnat.

Interesting to note that over this week so far I have only landed 1 rainbow, strange.