The weekend was in deed a story of two completely different days. Saturday saw the fish dour and unresponcive but Sunday was a complete change around with a good hatch of Yellow May Duns which had the fish feeding well.

Mark Waters had a great day catching some 8 fish on on a dry Yellow May Dun.

The average size of the trout caught this year seems to be of a high standard of around a pound with some great fish seen hooked and lost.

I suppose that is why it is called fishing and not catching.

Hatches of Yellow May dun continue together with the start of the May fly. Hatches of Hawthorn are also being blown on to the water.

The evenings are still seeing hatches of Iron Blues and occasional Olives.

Do not be in a hurray to leave the water in the late afternoon should the temperature remain high as fishing a sherry spinner or dry pheasant tail may well reep it's own rewards

The past week also saw a small hatch of March Browns. It is hoped that with the banning of sheep dip that this beautiful fly may well recover to the numbers of previous years. I have been told by a scientist friend of mine that this particular aquatic fly is well able to re-collinate quickly and reach the previous numbers of years gone by.

Lets just pray and hope so.

Thursday saw a rise in the water levels of some 12 inches or more overnight and
this rise soon dropped during the day by several inches. No salmon where seen and the weather played havoc with the casting.

Again throughout the day saw hatches of both Yellow May Duns and May fly which the swifts and other swallows attacked with abandon.

As you looked up in the sky it appeared that the dog fights of the Battle of Britain were again being acted out with these magnificient agile birds acting as the planes.

More rain has again raised river levels which will do no harm at all but will leave the river unfishable until at least Tuesday/Wednesday of this week.
 
Keep me posted.

Tight lines