I do lots of my fishing in the evenings and its something that i a very used to now and when most anglers go home for there tea i am arriving knowing what goes on at this magical time of day...
There is usually a lull 2hrs before the light goes and i suppose that's why many choose to go home, i sit around smoking and gazing over the water preparing myself for usually a hours metal action..
All my specimen fishing has learnt me this, when i fished the dove for barbel i would bait the swim all day with hemp ect and watch the huge monsters drift in and out of the weed with no interest whatsoever but when the magic witching hour came the barbel would drop there guard and you could see them absolutely walloping the bait down, at times you could pick the fish out you wanted with ease..
Well this goes for Trout fishing, they too drop there guard and its surprising how close you can get to these fish, i fished with Crewe lad Phil Smith the other week at Dovedale and we saw fish feeding in only inches of water!
Well tonight gave me them same action but different to normal is that we are right in the middle of 'duffers fortnight', the Green Drake is away and its a time when anglers come out from everywhere to get some action, i hear anglers moaning that they only see trout men in mayfly, well to me thats fair enough, some are not as addicted as us and why not go and and catch a few fish when its easy...well this is not my bag, it quite the reverse, i have found Mayfly can be non challenging, i went out the other day and had three fish in three casts! bad casting, drag, they will still hammer your fly...How i have changed (learned) at one time i would hammer the river and come away saying 'i have had 20/30+ fish in a few hours!! well now i would be quite embarrassed to say this, i love it hard (not that way Prior!) something that really gets me thinking, John Tyzack will tell you that i am always asking him Why? What? ect, i like to know what happening and fly fishing though at times can be very easy, it can bite you on the arse and send you home puzzled..
Tonight i fished the upper Dove, on arriving it was obvious that the mayfly were coming off well, every likely pool would have a fish 'searching' for the Drake.. I started to fish and taking fish, i soon had a break when i caught a very small fish to a huge mayfly pattern, this fish will sulk for 4/5 days and will miss out on some good mayfly that it will obviously need..catching these fish must do them no good so its another good reason for me to go siting bigger fish..
I watched in amazement in a deep back eddie, mayfly nymphs swimming to the surface and braking out of there shucks, i could see the whole thing, on entering the surface of the film they would be out of there shucks in around 3 seconds, obviously they are very prone here to feeding trout, one thing that did strike me was the colour of the dun as it just left the water very deep yellow colour, within 30 seconds the dun would change to the colour we all most know, this is something to keep in mind when matching colours...
I also noticed that most of the trout would take the emerging fly preferably to the dun, due to less effort for the fish, there was no splash, just a powerful swirl under the surface, the erratic jump would come when the fish hit the nymph too late and would dive out the water to take mid air!! also i did notice the trout would dive bomb the dun to sink the fly then take it, now i know why i miss lots of takes on certain days...
I had calmed down and wandered the river watching Duns getting nailed all over river, i was in the middle of the best hatch yet and just sat and enjoyed watching them, i have learnt so much by watching trout feeding than actual fishing, i can watch a trout now and know exactly where to place it with different fly patterns, believe me this does make a huge difference..more on this when i get more time...
I decided to take a few 1lbers and moved down to the bottom of the beat, lit a fag and had 30 mins kip on the bank side...I soon come around to see that wonderful orange/red glow of a sun set that photographers dream of, a time where you can take a pic of a lifetime, there were huge mayflys dancing all over the river, yes it was the wonderful mayfly spinner time!!
The fish were onto them big time, the rises had gone from huge slashing dun takes to the boil of a easy prey spinner...
Easy for the fish but a spinner fall is never easy on the angler, drag is a pure no go, patterns need to be very alike as spinners tend to be taken in very slow flat flow so the fish has plenty of time to inspect your fly, this is my kind of fishing, hard....
I selected a new tyed pattern by myself called the LTD Mayfly spinner, its always buzzing to have a new pattern to see how it fishes, my LTD sedge has done wonders for me and i continue to get messages thanking me for doing a step by step on my blog..and some very good comments about this fly which is very nice, Wezzer had some given to him by the quality Crewe angler Tony Slade which was nice to see...
I watched big wild browns taking spinners in a flat calm above a rifle, to present the spinner i was going to have to get in the fast flow behind the fish and get a slack cast in to give me some time before the drag kicked in...my first cast brought me a nice brown of around half a pound, not the fish i wanted which was slightly above...
The orange glow across the river was amazing, spinners were all over the place, not just mayfly but the Sherrys in perfect form...
My heart started to pound as i moved in position for the bigger fish, i could not see it but the bow waves coming while feeding showed a decent fish, the light had nearly gone, it was deadly silent and it was just me against this fish...i blew the water out the cdc wings, ginked up my coypu tails and made a cast well upstream of the fish and waited, will it wont it, i just saw a head pop out as calm as anything and disappear, i waited then bollocked the hook home with a side strike, well the water just erupted, flat calm changed to a bow wave, the fish tore 20 yards of line off, the water was only inches deep and i could see i heading for its home... i thought i am into a fish of a lifetime here with a 2lb tippet...the fish was played back towards me and went straight down the fast rifle pool, i have learnt to lay off the pressure when this happens as you will most certainly lose it if you bully it, laying off the pressure and the fish will find a place beside a stone out of the flow, this happened and i got behind it a swung it into the net...
I was expecting a huge fish from the scrap it gave, but holding the net up the fish weighed a very respectful 1lb 10oz and as wild as they come, a fish almost certainly a hook virgin...the fish was photographed and carefully returned and went down as one of my best fighting fish ever...and to a Mayfly spinner made it all the better...Sweet!!
The LTD Mayfly spinner has done me proud, it will be tested on the Wye tomorrow so will give a update tomoz..i will do a step by step if anyone want to try one, i dont put them on my blog unless i know they are worth it....
PS A note to the my blog followers..
I would like to thank all the lads for the support i get from my blog and the comments many of you leave, i have met so many sounds lads through this and its opened up lots of fishing opportunities for me, its something i do for all to see and i enjoy writing them, all my posts are from my heart and get me in slight bother sometimes but i just cant change the way i am, i will always tell it like it is and honest it what i am about...
Nice one
LTD
Glen
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