Danica time….
It is good to be out on the water in just shirt sleeves again. There have been times where I had wished that I had picked up the heavier fleece rather than the lightweight one to go over my shirt before hitting the river but it feels like those days are behind me. It is great being on the river every day and seeing how things unfold. One of the key features of late have been the emergence of the mayfly.
It is fair to say that we in Devon don’t get the hatches that might be seen on some of the chalkstreams but the last few years there have been enough to get the fish interested in them. Seeing how this hatch develops and how the fish suddenly get locked on to them is really nice to watch and it has been great to tie on a Grey Wulff and throw it at an angry slashy rise and to get the fish to hit it is real fun.
We have had a few days like this and it was nice to have the legend that is Dave from Portland back for another day on the Taw. We were going to head into the moors but the mays were too good to miss. The day started slowly and just got better and better with Dave picking up a number of fish. As we were about to call it a day I noticed a rise that was right up tight to the bank and right underneath a bush. It looked like it was too hard a call but by watching we could see that the fish was picking up newly emerged mayfly duns in a back eddy. The great news about the back eddy was that it meant we could get upstream and make a downstream cast into what was still a tricky spot. I said to Dave to just to go for it and he did just that. All hell broke loose and we had a nice brown in the net!
Last one of the day!
Next day I was guiding Gavin for a couple of days. I was excited to tell him about the mayfly action and we decided to fish a may outright from the off. This worked pretty well and after lunch we headed to our new beat and saw a fish move. Gavin dropped the fly right into the spot and the fish took. I had my suspicions when the fish took off and they were confirmed when I netted a sea trout. It was Gavin’s first sea trout and certainly his first on a Grey Wulff!
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Tags: Fly Fishing Guide Devon, Fly Fishing in Devon, Fly Fishing School, Pete Tyjas