Mayfly on the Wye

We arranged the trip this year to see if we could co-incide with the mayfly season. As the year is running a bit late and with a cool wind there was a small mayfly hatch but they were not pre-occupied yet. There were a few fly about in the morning, Iron blue dun, dark olives and a few small buzzers. I started on a hares ear on the bottom and it was slow going. I did manage to catch one from underneath a tree and a nice brownie. That was enough to relax up and thought i would then fish dry fly all day. I walked around looking for fish rising however they seems to be all on different things so couldn't find a method. I had one on a black klink and anothe on a fark olive but it was fairly slow. Around 4 o'clock the mayfly started to come off so i thought i would sit around and see if they cam on. I tried to catch a few but seemed to be too slow as they fluttered up to the top of the trees. I noticed one drifting down and caught it in my net. It couldn't escape from its case properly so i freed it and let it dry out but it would never fly.

There was the occasional splashy rise so I put on a Grey Duster and persevered. It was floating down great and i saw a fish very slowley saunter up to the surface and sip it in, i struck and a great Mayfly caught brownie, just what i was after.

Barclays National 2016

Two days on draycote and it was in great form. Loads of fish around but you still neee to be doing the right thing to catch them. Clearing were on top form and won the day finding the bigger fish with 3 at around 5lb. nine foot down on the buzzers and a bung did the trick but techniques varies with daiwls, and emergers as well as the blob accounting for a good number. Everyone bar one had their 4 fish limit which was a great average for the day.