Satisfaction

First trip of the season down to Salisbury on Friday. The intention was to fish the Bourne at Laverstock but all the indications from the SADAC website where that the beat was pretty weedy. On arrival this was certainly my finding. Even though there were fishable spots in the beat I really was not in the mood to spend the day struggling to get the fly in the water. Apparently the EA do not consent to weedcuts in the Bourne. I have to admit that I do wonder what the impact of predators may be on shoals of fish tucked into what little open water is available.

So I then trekked over to the Avon at Durrington and made my way to the wading section of the beat. No particular activity was immediately apparent but it is remarkable what will be revealed to the angler willing to spend a few minutes doing nothing particular than observing and thinking. A trickle of hatching olives were enough to keep the fish looking up and careful observation revealed fish intercepting the emerging insects. So on with the CDC Emerger and time to get into position to cast at a feeding fish. To be entirely frank the session that finished was the very epitome of chalkstream dry fly fishing that I am sure I am not alone in dreaming about during the close season. I had inspections, refusals, fish coming short to the fly and a few long distance releases. The absolute cream of the afternoon were the two wild fish that came towards the end of the session. Both required a decent cast and a drag free drift. And on each occasion I was rewarded with the sight of the fish spotting and intercepting my artificial.

I have to admit that I wrapped up the afternoon pretty shortly after that as I could not envisage it getting any better. I think I have now ‘grown up’ to the point that fishing is no longer a numbers game and it is more about the challenge of catching the fish that I want in the way I wanted it.

In terms of the fly it was the CDC Emerger in size 14 all the way. Looking at the naturals a size 16 would have been better; that was certainly my thought when a couple of trout came short or refused the fly. I have no defence though, I have always been a lazy tyer.

Mayfly....

…..just! I was able to free up a little time on Friday afternoon so was able to fish the last day of May with the chance of seeing a ‘proper’ Mayfly hatch. I had noticed the odd dun on my previous visit but not something I would describe as a hatch. I thought to myself that it would be good, given the slow start that we have had this year, to experience a Mayfly hatch in May.

Mid afternoon saw a few duns coming off in a trickle but no real interest from the trout. I was scouting up and down the river trying to find some fish ‘working’ the hatch and was perched on the side of the bank peering intently upstream when I heard the distinctive sound of a fast slashy rise from the riffle immediately behind me. Now I know that I have written before that I have ignored riffles in the past but I did not need a second invitation on this occasion and crept away from the bank and slipped back into the river a little way downstream and began to cast the fly up into the riffle. The fly was making its third journey back down towards me when it was simply engulfed and I was attached to something muscular and angry. After a couple of hairy moments 13 inches of trout were in the net and returned in short order. And from this point on the session turned the corner and I was able to fish up to the top of the beat spotting rising trout working into position and trying to get some response from each. A lot of fun and a fair few fish were brought to hand and one or two I will have to return to another time. In terms of fly I the CDC & Elk in size 12 was a passable imitation of the dun but I would have liked a larger pattern in, say a size 10, with a a pheasant tail fibres as a tail. But I have not afforded myself this degree of latitude this year! But I think it would be fair to say that the sport on the afternoon did not suffer as a consequence of my artificial constraint.