All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go

Some of the targets I've set myself as an angler I achieved quite quickly. Others, like catching a 20+ pike on a lure have yet to be realised. As has catching a trout on dry fly from the stretch of river I fished today. I've caught them on dry in the upper reaches, where most of the fishing is controlled by ancient clubs with exorbitant entry fees and/or mile long waiting lists. I've caught them on this lower stretch on wets, nymphs, worms, minnows, spinners, plugs, even luncheon meat, but never on dry fly.

So when an acquaintance, who'd been working near the river, told me he'd seen fish taking mayfly I thought I may be in with a chance of breaking my duck. Mainly a still water fly angler, my acquaintance was also keen to have a go. So we agreed to meet up at the river late afternoon, when he'd seen the feeding trout.

I tied up a few generic hair wing mayflies to add to my usual collection of river flies just in case.

He was already at the river when I arrived and, not surprisingly, reported a lack of insects as sod's law had predicted. We tackled up and had a sit on the bank looking for a sign. As non was forth coming we decided to have wander upstream looking for action. Non was seen, despite the occasional flurry of insects nothing seemed to be feeding on the surface. We covered nearly a mile and a half of river casting flies big and small at likely, and unlikely, spots before returning to the cars. While supping a cuppa we finally saw a rise. My acquaintance had a cast at it with a F-fly, which clearly terrified the fish as we didn't see it again.

We called it a day, as it was getting too dark to see the fly and arranged to have another go next week.