Mayfly

Today I fished under Poundbury. Conditions were absolutely ideal with a light east wind, an overcast sky and plenty of water in the river after the recent rain.

Yesterday I saw no Mayflies down at Bockhampton. Today, on my first sight of the river at the bottom of Poundbury, I saw a large Mayfly emerge from the depths and float majestically downstream. There was no great hatch but the odd Mayfly appeared on the surface every 10 minutes or so. I continued to fish with a small greenwell and by lunchtime I had released quite a few trout including one of over 1lb.

After my sandwich I saw a Mayfly being taken by a trout so I thought that it might be worth trying a Grey Wulff. Although the trout were not rising consistently, casts into likely looking spots where often rewarded with a take. The fish were certainly
keen to sample the Grey Wulff and I soon came to the conclusion that the Mayfly season had started.

I fished until 16.30 and I lost count of the fish that were netted. Although many of them were of no great size, mostly between 7 and 9 inches in length, it was a very absorbing day on the river. No other members were around to enjoy the fun. I was delighted to see a Kingfisher but not so thrilled by the swan that paddled down from time to time. As you can see from the photo, this time I remembered my landing net.

Cheers,
Jim.