The Ure, Aphids and a lucky break....

As I wrote last time I have found at this time of year with all the fly life on the wing that it becomes confusing as to what the fish are switched on to.  Well the other evening was exactly like that .  I went to the Ure for an evening ,  the river looked fine, a little on the low side but running clear and clean and there was plenty hatching I always have a wander along the banks to check out what is on the wing and just get a feel for the river and to try and see where the fish are rising .  

The fish were rising, not in huge numbers but when you stood and studied a length of river you started to see rising fish ,  the fish seemed to be in the faster smooth glides the faster riffles seemed to have little surface activity.   but they looked just right for the spider approach and I would give the method a try for a while.  A close examination of a few back eddies revealed little fly debris there was this mayfly and a few olives but little else.

On the wing were a few Mayfly some Yellow mays lots of olives and even the odd sedge , there was also clouds of small stuff midges and the like.

So I started large and floated a mayfly dun over a group of rising fish the lack of response generated a switch to a yellow may , followed by an Olive then progressively smaller through CDC F Fly,  IOBO humpy and small JT Olive .. All met with a singular lack of interest ,  So I enrolled the Americans to help, the Adams is a pattern I have always liked and have found in small sizes 18 and 20 is a superb general imitator of just about everything .  It also a fly which even in small sizes is very visible. This brought my first success of the evening actually the nice trout at the top .

My early success with the Adams probably ended up costing me as I persevered to long and should have realised that fish was just a lucky break.  During the next hour I switched to fishing spiders mainly because I like the method and have not used it much this season,  There are a couple of stretches of the river that I love using the spiders both across and upstream.  Tonight I quickly realised this was not the the approach.  As I changed back to the dries I had to use my reading specs which I have hung round my neck putting them on I was aware of a big speck on them as I examined the speck it turned out to be a green fly, an aphid.   The first I had seen.  Smiling realisation dawned and a switch to a small greenfly imitation in an 18, third cast and a fish.  The next hour or two resulted in about 6 or 7 more ...  Some small wildies up to about 8 oz and a few larger fish like the one above.

I wonder how long I would have persevered with the Adams had I not seen that lone Green fly.  I saw no evidence of any more during the whole evening I reckon they were just coming from the bankside trees...
We all need a lucky break once in a while....