I shouldn’t complain but the current prolonged spell of good weather has made it difficult for fish and fisherman alike.

 

The searing heat has forced fish to feed hard at dawn and dusk and hide during the daytime. This of course, is when most clients prefer to fish so catches have not been spectacular recently.

 

There have been some excellent Sedge hatches that would normally have fish snatching them from the surface but these skittering flies have been totally ignored.

 

Sedge also known as Caddis flies, are unusual in that they have an additional developmental stage in their life cycle. After completing the larval stage on the riverbed, the larva transforms into a pupa and wriggles it’s way up to the surface. This laboured ascent makes them much easier to pick off than the hyperactive adult Sedge flies so many are eaten by fish before they complete their journey.

 

Last week during a big sedge hatch, a client called Peter put on a flashy, gaudy shrimp like pattern and immediately caught two fish on successive casts.

 

It was either luck or fly fishing brilliance (he will of course, claim the latter) as he had matched the shape, size and colours of an ascending sedge pupa. The blue/green flash looks like the layer of air that many ascending insects use as a buoyancy aid.

 

Another big hatch yesterday had me scouring my fly box for something similar. I had nothing. But wait, what’s this?

 

A couple of weeks ago, I fished with Rivergreen FlyFishing School alumni John M and John A. John M was very excited about a new fly tying material he’d been introduced to and offered me a fly tied using the same material. I recall being rather scathing but eventually and rather begrudgingly, I accepted the offering and placed it in the section of my fly box that is reserved for such abominations.

 

A full day of punishing fishing had produced nothing more than Trout and Salmon Parr until I tied on John M’s ‘abomination’. I took two good Grayling in the last 10 minutes and this fly definitely saved the day.

 

So John M, I am issuing a public apology for the less than kind comments I made about your fly and I have moved it up into the working section of my fly box. Thank you, sir!