Mayfly Day
Today I set out from Lower Bockhampton to fish the complete length of the Club’s water!
(Photo: Bryan Clark)
I started early at just after 9am and I was blessed with blue skies, along with a comfortable temperature. There were a few mayfly about and my first fish rose and sucked in the fly. This is when it all went wrong – I can now say for certain that the willow revetment is excellent cover for trout and that’s where the fish dived into and was lost… (October 2006)
I continued up and caught a few stock fish, which are easily recognisable because of the blue dyed spot on their bellies. It wasn’t until I was above Loud’s Mill that I started to get into our wonderful wild trout.
The temperature had now changed from comfortable to very hot and the mayfly decided not to hatch, the action slowed right down.
Thankfully there were plenty of pale wateries that kept the fish looking and a well placed fly would bring a trout to take.
It was now very warm as made my way along the Wrackle and bumped into Jim, who was having a good day… (Jim’s report below)
My day was going better than the farmers!
I finished my walk up to Gascoyne Bridge where my wife drove me back down to my car – a good day, but it was so so hot!!
A cautious approach that involved crawling through the mud and keeping myself very low allowed me to get a mayfly in the right spot and success on the third cast. As you can see from the photo it is a beautiful wild fish that went safely back into the river.
As I made to go off to another pool, much to my surprise, another bow wave appeared in the same spot where a second large trout was also giving the minnows a hard time. However, the second fish proved to be much more difficult to approach and whenever I got into casting range it was off upstream at a rate of knots and into the deep water.
Apart from the excitement on the Wrackle and watching the Landrover dig itself into the mud it was a rather quiet day with few mayfly about and not so many fish rising. Perhaps it was just too hot and bright and it will be better in the evening. I enjoyed our chat by the river bank.
The Club
The Club is a private one, founded in 1877, of approximately sixty-four members and six Town Rod subscribers. The Club’s waters consist of about 12 miles of wild brown trout & grayling fishing in the main River Frome, River Cerne and River Piddle, together with attendant carriers and side streams. The waters extend both above and below the town of Dorchester and the Club employs a part-time keeper.
