Early July 2014 Report

3.5lb Brown Trout

The fishing recently has been very good with some very big brown trout reported, up to 6lb and some big catches. A couple of days ago Philip Bailey, Manu Gonetto and I (all 3 of us members of the UK Italian Casting Team), plus an Australian friend of Philip landed over 70 fish in a day with brown trout to 3lb 5oz & rainbows to 2lb 10oz. Virtually all fell to dry flies ranging from size 20 CdCs to size 12 Caddis. A similar catch was recently made by 4 of our regulars.

Blue Winged Olive Nymph

Hatches have been sparse recently although there are still decent numbers of Agapetus sedge pupae emerging (see last month’s report). Invertebrate numbers are good & there are decent numbers of small Baetis (Olive) nymphs & Seratella (Blue-winged Olive) nymphs in the samples, which bodes well for future hatches.

As usual be prepared to search out rising fish & fish that are actively ‘on the fin’. Use the longest leaders you are happy with (the Italian casting Team use 16’/5m leaders) & the lightest lines you are happy with (I use 2 or 3 weight set ups). Long rods are an advantage due to the high, wide bankside vegetation (I use a 10 or 11’ rod). Also take a big, long-handled landing net.

Grayling are few and far between but one or two huge fish have been seen. Catching them is another matter. They are far harder to tempt than the trout.

Dave Southall