Thursday 31 May 2018

Warmer Times and Low Water

Richard into 1 of Several
The month of May did see the weather conditions gradually warming up at last, which included some hot and muggy days at times too, along with very low water conditions. Despite the sunshine we were also plagued by those persistent east winds again that unfortunately tend to hold those better fishing days at bay. That said though, we did eventually manage some good results regardless of the ever returning east wind situation and we did encounter both trout and Salmon along the way.

"If you search hard enough there is always a nice fish to be found hiding somewhere along the way" 

One of two fresh Salmon caught by David
There was a spell over a couple of days when we connected with four salmon, two of which parted company after a touch of "Heave Ho" between angler and fish, and two of which the guys managed to land. Around the same period another couple of very good fish (salmon) unfortunately won the day after a tussle on the lower river, an area where fish tend to hold up when the river becomes low, as was the case by the end of May. However there has been fish constantly showing down there and a touch of fresh water wouldn't go a miss just to liven them up a bit, although being a tidal beat we tend to get new fish arriving all the time and too much water sees them passing through the beat.

Another from the pocket water
The Trout fishing picked up a bit too as we moved further into May, although many of our fish were to be found in pocket water with upstream Nymphing tactics, a method we often keep for those very hot difficult summer days when trout head for those little oxygenated gems. 

That said, we did get some fish on the dry too as the fly life gradually improved throughout the month, with sparse hatches of Iron Blues in attendance along with a few Brook Duns and falls of spinners later in the evening. 

Mayfly
There were a few Hawthorn flies being blown onto the water at times too, but with not much interest from the trout I'm afraid, at least in the areas we were fishing anyway. However, what was very noticeable was the increase in the amount of Mayflies (Ephemera Danica) in attendance with trickle hatches of these large beautiful insects coming off on a regular basis throughout the month, "great to see", but again not a great deal of interest from the trout, although we did see one or two taken with intent.

"Looking forward to what June has in store"!