Tuesday evening, Durnford. I wanted to wade so was glad to
secure the disc for beat 2. I had feared that this year I would (again) miss
the peak of the Mayfly but hoped that this evening would see me hitting the
sweetspot. I was loaded for bear and as I strolled down to the start of the
beat it was gratifying to see a lot of duns on the wing. The weather was pretty
much perfect and the water was in fine fettle. In short I was anticipating a great
evening of fishing.
Getting into the water I managed to resist the temptation to
start fishing straight away and spent a few minutes just observing. Any rises
that I observed were sporadic and did not appear to be to any of the Mayfly. I
started fishing with a pretty standard Mayfly dun pattern but other than a few
swirls this fly did not receive any interest. I must admit that I really am no
kind of an entomologist but what the trout were taking was small. Scaling down
my approach I replaced the dun with a sparsely tied CDC emerger and was soon in
business.
From this point the fishing could be described as technical.
However I am not, yet, a complete tosser so I will refrain from that. However
it would be accurate to describe the fish as being locked into a certain size
and attitude of the fly, unwilling to move from station and intolerant of drag.
Ultimately I ended up with three fish, all of a similar stamp, and got
absolutely smashed by a fish feeding in the crease of a ripple, all of three
inches deep. Screamed off upstream at a rate of knots and then shed the hook.
So I didn’t make hay at the height of the Mayfly, but in
reflection, I think I probably had a more challenging, and ultimately
satisfying evening than I thought I was going to have.
