Mayfly on the Ure

I am told that the Ure doesnt have much of a mayfly hatch,, Well I beg to differ.  There is a cracking hatch going on at the moment.  Due to various reasons my fishing activities have been curtailed this week due to dodgy health .  But the significant other half gave me permission to venture forth today well she did drive.  God bless those fishermans wives out there,.. Anyway I went to the Ure today and even though it was blowing fairly briskly today the river was at her magnificent best.  The kingfishers and wagtails were out in force and I was serenaded by a curlew, surely there is no more plaintiff sound than its call. 

Best fish of the day

A typical Ure brownie

After parking and having a cuppa I inspected  the river it looked beautiful with an abundant mayfly hatch in progress.   I fished for about 5 hours and landed many fish .  They were rising to the mayfly and seemed to be taking anything. There were fish leaping out of the river taking the spinners and others were just lazily mopping up the spent fly in the back eddies,  The mayfly hatch is well under way now and now the wind has dropped the fish are taking them instead of them been blown across the fields.


The river is at its summer level now

It was a day when bad anglers become good and good anglers can get bored ,  perhaps thats a little harsh but it does make one ask yourself what exactly is a good days fishing.

Surely it is simply not measured by the size of the bag?,  There are days when I hanker for the free rising fish that the mayfly brings but to have such abundance all the time? I think it would ruin us.  To me a good day is a few fish , but the fish must have come from endeavour and outwitting them.. Perhaps that is why I Love the challenge that river fishing for wild trout gives us..  Anyway it was a beautiful day and it gave me some lovely fish ,  Lets hope my next trip out is as good.

The fly that did the deed looking well chewed

Most of the fish that I caught were taking spinners , however the big battle scarred fish was taking spent flies tight under the bank.  Its fascinating studying the rise forms of feeding fish.  Its something that I have taken much more notice of in the last few years.  Well the big brownie in the top picture was positioned in a little back eddy tight under the bank and he was taking spent flies that were drifting into the eddy.  The disturbance he made was very small but you could definately see his big old neb just breaking the surface.   A book I picked up a while ago has been a fascinating read on this very subject and can recomend it. " in the ring of the rise " by Marinaro.. 


Today was a day when everyone wanted a bit of action



Mill pool,,,,