Opening Day 2007

HI John ,

My brother and I fished around Whitfield hatches today having a great day in the process, much better than last year. The river looked superb, clean with lots of the right type of weed, the wind abated throughout the day so that come tea time it wasn’t a hampering factor, using aftm 2 lines we managed two fish 10 and 11 inches respectively, a handful of juveniles and one tiny Grayling, no parr in evidence.

The morning wind and lack of rising fish dictated weighted nymphs, however my brothers decision to put on a greenwells in the afternoon resulted in a small fish that was rising just below the hatches. Pretty sure we saw otter tracks further upstream imagine a big domestic cats pad with five visible claws, how was your day ?

Brg
Nick

I started the season up on the Cerne in the hope to avoid the rather nasty easterly wind. Unfortunately it was blowing downstream and it was an achievement to get the fly on the water!

Only caught two very small parr; but I did bump into the lady from the CEH planting salmon fry, she will come back in the summer to electro fish them out and micro tag them.
Adam had the same idea as me and walked down to the bottom of the beat to fish back up. As I was leaving Dave & Robin came along for a quick chat.

Parked up at Loders Garage lay-by to fish up from the bridge and caught a few small trout on a nymph.

Riverkeeper John came along and he was going up to Whitfield to try out his new 3 weight.

The sun came out and the warmth must have stirred the grannom, because a small hatch started. So I switched to a dry fly and cast to a rising fish – it was a small grayling and almost immediately I had another. Walked up around the bend and a decent trout rise tucked next to the bank. I cast my GRHE Muller and a trout sucked it in – at last a bend in the rod! It wasn’t big but beautifully coloured highlighted by the spring sun. I managed another two trout before the wind forced me back to the car..

The GRHE Muller is based on a fly designed by Jeremy Lucas. His has a parachute hackle tied round a CDC post and is a right fiddle to tie. So I adapted it by just having a rabbit fur hackle. Seems to work as well as the original and I find easier to tie!