 |
| A rod well bent on a Klinkhammer |
Several more spring salmon have been caught and returned to the Eden since my last post, which bodes well for the river, but as water levels have now dropped considerably, so too have spring salmon catches, as you would expect. However, the trout fishing is now beginning to improve and the signs look good for the Eden trout angler.
Improving temperatures over the Easter bank holiday period have certainly helped our cause, and with the odd Large Dark Olive still in attendance we managed to tempt a few more trout to our ever faithful dries, the Klinkhammer and the Adams, but only for short spells from around mid day to 1:30pm.
 |
| A net full of Grannom |
The wind still has an easterly element to it though, and if you happened to be out of the sun (especially Easter Friday) it was quite cool, but when the sun decided to make an appearance, the higher temperatures certainly contributed toward some very substantial Grannom hatches along the river, and as these temperatures improved further, (making for a much more pleasant fishing experience I might add) by Easter Monday, they were in their millions.
 |
| coming to the net on a Nymph |
Unfortunately (in my experience) the trout can be very difficult to tempt at this stage of the Grannom's life cycle, and because there is so much aerial activity it is very tempting to put something on the surface to attract the fish, but during this time the trout are often feeding below the surface on the pupal stage of the Grannom hatch, and the only thing that may give you any consistency with catches is a nymph presentation (often weighted). However, the fish may have already gorged themselves on this pupal stage prior to this snow storm of sedges occurring, and therefore the opportunity may have already gone, but nevertheless, you can still pick up the odd fish on this method during this period.
 |
| On the CDC Caddis |
That said, there is nothing wrong with trying a few things that may be contrary to popular belief, remember, these are wild creatures, and they don't read the same books as we do, therefore I am (and always will be) an advocate of self discovery. Finding things out for yourself (in my opinion) will always give you a better insight into what is actually going on over a given day, when temperatures, pressure changes, weather conditions and river height can all be factors of how the fish will react. Whilst adopting this approach, on one particular run, we did manage to raise a few fish to a small CDC sedge, but only for a short spell of around 15 minutes before they switched off again, but well worht ringing the changes as it got us a couple of additional fish.
With a few sessions now in the pipeline and more activity from the trout as temperatures improve, I am now looking forward to some more positive results over the next few weeks, especially now that we are managing to tempt a few more fish to our flies, which I have to say is very satisfying.
