Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Out like a lamb ?....

Us fishermen seem to be a superstitious lot, or at least I am. Over the years I've learnt to be wary about being too positive. I used to have a fishing buddy who delighted in predicting how our day was going to pan out before we'd even wet a line - and you could virtually guarantee that nine times out of ten the day wouldn't go as planned....I got to the stage where I used to say 'don't say a word, let's just fish and we'll take what comes'
 

Nowadays if I get tempted to make predictions, phrases like 'Tempting Fate' and 'Kiss of Death' sneak into my thoughts and I rein things in a bit.
Even though I shy away from being overly positive; when it comes to trout and grayling fishing, I'm the eternal optimist - or I try to be. I believe that there's a good population of fish in our rivers, and given the right conditions, they'll be on the lookout for food, then our challenge as anglers is to find them and find out what they want... 

Not long after my last blog I was beginning to wonder if I'd been a bit too positive. As soon as I pressed the button to publish, the weather changed. High pressure hung over our region, we had brilliant sunshine - the anathema of our spring flies - accompanied by icy easterly and westerly winds blasting through Eden. Sport slowed at the end of our first week of the new season, which wasn't what I would have wished for with David due for his first trout session of the year...


David worked hard throughout his day and varying tactics did produce a few chances....

The sunshine and cold winds continued into the second week of the season. Mike and Jason did get the odd spell of cloud on their days in Eden. The duller spells of weather helped to encourage our Spring Olives (Baetis rhodani) and a few March Browns (Rhithrogena germanica) to make a show, but an icy upstream wind plus a slight drop in water temperature - due to a touch of snow melt on our lakeland fells - seemed to deter our trout from showing interest in any surface nibbles. Sub-surface tactics were the order of the day for Mike and Jason, and a few fished were tempted....

Jason is into a fish and reaches for the net

The weather was a touch more conducive to a day on the river by the end of our second week, which boded quite well for Barry's first visit of the year. Large Dark Olives brought a few fish to the surface so the dry fly scored well for Barry and by varying methods throughout the session he had quite a productive day in Eden...



They say that 'March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb' but that certainly isn't the case this year; a spell of very wet and wild weather has meant that the final few days of the month have gone out with a 'roar'. Our rivers are 'up' and gale force winds have prevented any lake sessions.... 

There's plenty to be look forward to in April though. The March Brown hatch that I reported on March 18th didn't materialise into much, so hopefully the main hatch is still to come. The Grannom (Brachycentrus subnubilis) should be making a show and they may be either joined or followed soon after by a few Olive Uprights (Rhithrogena semicolorata) and Iron Blue duns (Alainites muticus). We had some tremendous falls of Black Gnats in the final week of April 2014, so it would be nice if that was the same this year too. And finally, although it occasionally fishes sooner, Ullswater always starts to fish in April and I can't wait to launch the boat...so lots to look forward to....