Suffering With The Wind

While I would describe the weather as a tad windy, that nice Sir Francis Beaufort described it as a Moderate Breeze, which raises dust and loose paper; small branches moved. Either way the wind is a problem when fluff chucking with a light line. A combination of high banks and a gusty wind on a narrow river does make it a fun day Rarely was the wind across the river, it was mainly straight upstream or straight downstream. An upstream wind tends to straighten the cast out a bit too much and downstream the leader doesn't straighten out enough. No matter which way it was blowing what insect life there was was lifted straight into the grass or trees.

The upstream end of the stretch was virtually devoid of fly life and I didn't see one rise as I walked up and down. On the middle length the occasional large dark olive was seen being wiped away off the water very quickly. There was also the occasional damsel fly about. I did however see the occasional fish rising. As there was two or three fish rising together I assumed they were either grayling or dace. This proved to be the case when I put a small parachute duster on and it was engulfed by a dace. Strange thing with dace and flies, you either miss the take or they swallow them rarely do you lip hook them.

For the evening I fished the lower stretch which, apart from the the horses, seemed almost lifeless. There was a few more insects about, but nothing seemed to be rising even when the wind dropped a bit. eventually I did spot a fish rising occasionally close to the bank. The current here was complicated and trying to get a drag free drift proved a bit problematic. By changing banks I was able to get a better drift. After three or four cast I had a take only to drag the fly out of it's mouth in excitement.  Despite sitting and watching for a while it never rose again. I spent the last hour casting a likely looking spots to no avail.

The dace always seem to appear around the beginning of June, the disappear come the start of the coarse season. They can become a real menace in a decent mayfly hatch, beating the trout to the fly. The hatches on here aren't prolific, but this year they're been really bad. A non-angling friend that lives nearby has said the same thing. He can go over it several times a day and walks his dog along one stretch a couple of times a week.