What's So Facinating About Willow Flowers

Nothing was rising, nor was the any sign of insect life when got to the river. As I'd been late arriving I sat and had a cuppa and sandwich while watching the river for a while. I'd just about made up my mind to fish a team of three when I spotted a small flotilla of uprights drift under the trees on the far bank. While nothing was rising to them I thought it might be worth having another wander as I really wanted to fish dry fly. Around the corner I spotted  a rise and as I got closer I could see a decent trout  in the shallows. The first cast fell short, but the second was nearly perfect. The fish headed straight towards my fly, passing underneath it before rising to a spent willow catkin. I tried several different sized foam duns, but all it seemed to rise to were spent willow catkins and other flotsam. I picked a couple out of the river, but couldn't see what the fascination was. Having seen this before I'd always suspected there to be aphids or something on them, but I'd never seen anything when I'd inspected them. The trout just seem to enjoy nosing them about.

Just as I decided to leave it alone for a while it was spooked by a moorhen shooting out of the undergrowth. The next fish I found rising took a fancy to a olive emerger the moment it hit the water. A nice fish of 14" soon graced the net. It was now I discovered I didn't have my phone. Having released it I popped back to the car to find my phone and keys on the parcel shelf, on display to the world for the best part of an hour and a half. Oops. As I got back to the river I came across another angler who said that there had been quite a decent hatch between half ten and half eleven, before I'd arrived. He'd managed a couple of nine inch fish, but had had a hell of a time hitting the takes. These he has hooked seemed fall of with remarkable ease. As I'd had days like that, I had a lot of sympathy for him. As he was on the afternoon shift he was about to leave, but showed me where the hatches had taken place. At one spot fish were still rising. From the top of the bank we could see why he'd had problems hitting the takes. There was a huge shoal of six inch dace rising to everything and often missing. Another phenomenon I'd suffered.

Where the path went back to his car a couple of trout were rising to little black beasties. A size eighteen IOBO produced a take which quickly came adrift. Then another that stayed on a little bit longer. I changed to a size 14 knotted midge, but couldn't get the next take to stick to that either. The next fish was a different matter altogether. Clearly something quite large. It turned out to be a rather scruffy chub around three to four pound. I fished on for another half hour with out any luck. By now the wind had got up and dark clouds were appearing on the horizon. As I got near the car it started to spit a bit. By the time I'd crossed the road it had stopped.

We really need some rain as the rivers are looking a bit thin already. At this time of year they really shouldn't be. My guess is, it's going to chuck it down second week of June. Flooding the rivers for the start of the coarse season. The lack of insect life is also worrying. Whether this is due to last years drought or part of the general decline of insect life it isn't good.