Mohican Mayfly

I’ve managed to get out a few times over the last couple of weeks to make the most of the mayfly hatch when it finally got going. One of the most striking observations of the river is how the conditions are in stark contrast to last year; the flows are continually strong and high and weed growth very prolific. The river looks in fantastic condition but never seemed to loose some slight colour.

Because of the conditions, sight fishing with a nymph has been nigh on impossible when no rising fish were encountered, so it has just been a case of covering greater distances in order to find the odd rising fish and 90% have been taken on the dry. My favourite pattern is an Oliver Edwards ‘Mohican Mayfly’ which I use almost exclusively unless a fish is being particularly fussy. During a couple of evening sessions with Dave R we have come across steadily rising fish that have completely ignored mayfly and olive patterns despite there being plenty of fly on the water. In these cases it has been necessary to go down to a size 18 or even 20 CDC emerger in order to get a take.

Hatches seem to be picking up now with various olives including yellow may duns and some good hatches of sedge have also been seen. Overall I think the season so far has been quite challenging due to less rising fish but I did manage to land my first 2lb’er last week and my last session produced 5 fish with 4 over a pound including 1 stockie (along with several more lost fish) but I had to walk a few miles to find them!

In the coming months we hopefully won’t have a repeat of last year’s floods and it will be nice to see the river settle and fine down a little.

Kind regards,
Hoot