Dance of the spinners

Monday, 5 June 2023 at 21:50

A day as a lucky guest on the beautiful River Lathkill in Derbyshire, where the mayfly was in full swing. The dale was looking very lovely but the hot, bright weather did us no favours. We did release a handful of little wild trout, all of sensible sizes (9-11 inches), but we might have done better to fish into the evening. When we left,  I took a quick shot of one glide of the Lathkill where the mayfly spinners were beginning to dance. They show up in the image as dots or  smudges. Strangely, when flies hatch or return to the water in profusion the fishing can be particularly tricky: during the short mayfly season,  the trout can and do become sated and lazy and will only accept the most fastidiously-presented artificial....or (more usually) won't accept it.

Compare and contrast...

Monday, 5 June 2023 at 21:42

...the tying and efficacy of scruffy CDC Mayfly patterns (leftmost row) with the spectacular preening of the Mohican (right of image). The Mohican looks lovely, floats beautifully, is immensely attractive to trout but is a poor hooker and holder of fish. I experimented (again) with the pattern today: rose three, hooked three, brought none to hand. (I also think the size 10 I was offering today was a bit big for what were generally rather little wild trout.) Compare with the scruffy CDC May, tied with an upright plume of yellowish CDC wound around with another, beige or grey CDC feather, parachute style and with its abdomen tied to fish just under the film. Total today: three fish risen, three brought to hand. That's not at all conclusive - but the success of the CDC May (Itchen, Test, Lathkill, Nidd, several other waters....) is beginning to seem suggestive.