Handy Walkway

I managed to have my first day on the DFC water on Friday and was quite surprised to find the river in very strong flow and carrying a fair bit of colour. Another more pleasant surprise was to observe a very good grannom hatch; it was absolutely swarming with them!

Shortly after arrival I saw a fish rising steadily and after a few attempts landed the first fish of the day. I was using a deer hair sedge and managed to tempt several more fish on the same fly. The grannom was so prolific that my waders were covered in females at the water line and they were crawling down under water to deposit their eggs, using my legs as a handy walkway! (Sorry for quality of photo).

Grannom

The hatch continued fairly consistently throughout the afternoon and early evening although I did swap to a CDC sedge pattern later in the day when fish became very fussy. In all, I had around a dozen fish, all on the dry. None were of any great size but all healthy looking wild fish up to around the ¾ pound mark. I did see some larger fish rising late evening but were unable to tempt them; it wasn’t until a little while after that I realised the fish had switched to feeding on something very small and unidentified and after a change of fly managed to land the last fish of the day on a tiny CDC emerger.

All in all a very pleasant day with nice weather and I really appreciated the new stiles and bridges as I am nursing a bad back at present! Looking forward to the season ahead.

Regards,
Hoot.

River Frome