Every mayfly season there comes a time, when the trouts are so fed up with mayflies, that they ignore even a good evening hatch… other insects become more interesting to the fish… for whatever reason, maybe they simply want some else to taste.
Time to write a summary of this year’s mayfly season:
It began in the first days of June. Mayflies had been hatching for a few days already and by 1st June, you could see an occasional rise of a fish. Walking along the stream I saw a nice brown below an overhanging bush. I crawled through the underwood 15 meters upstream of the point where I had seen the trout and already on the first cast, the trout rose. Surprised I probably reacted too quickly and it took me two more casts to finally hook this beautiful 46cm brown, a wonderful start into mayfly season.
The following two weeks I seeked the water as often as I could. I was twice amidst a massive hatch in a thunderstorm… constantly asking myself if I should risk getting fried by lighting for the chance to hook a good trout? I witnessed beautiful sunsets and evening skies with colors of a full range of orange, pink, violet and blue. During daytime, the blue of the skies and the green of grass and trees was so bright that it seemed almost unreal. I short, it was wonderful.
When my good fried Remo visited me, we probably met the best day of the mayfly season. The entire afternoon, there was a carpet of mayflies on the water, and permanently a fish rose somewhere. But the large brown trouts were still not easy to trick.
Two really good fish, standing over a patch of light ground raised the adrenalin in our blood. Remo tried the first casts, but even a skilled flycaster as him gets shaky knees in sight of such fish. The relatively strong wind did the rest and the fly was in a bush. With a long leader and a self tied mayfly, I managed to hook the smaller one of the two browns (still a very good fish), but the drill did not last long – the leader broke right at the eye of the hook. Probably I had scored it with my forceps while unhooking a previous fish. Shocked about that sudden failure, I dropped into the grass… damn!
I did not see the browns in this spot again, but days later, only some meters downstream a “blop” below a bush betrayed a large trout. I did not see the fish, but it had to be one of the large trouts I had seen with Remo. Several casts later, I had hooked the best fish so far of my mayfly season and a fierce fight was on! But the hooks I use for my flies, a Partridge Klinkhamer, is a truly great hook – from the moment it is set, I hardly lose any fish. And so I was able to land a 52cm brown trout in perfect condition, surely the highlight of this year’s mayfly season. It was an experience hard to beat, and on dryfly I might not be able to catch something bigger this year.
So off to new adventures, I am looking forward to the months to come.