When I am reading my own reports from past mayfly seasons I wonder what was wrong this year?
The cold and wet spring probably played its part, as the vegetation was also somewhat delayed. The first true hatches of mayflies occured around 1. June, and here and there a fish rose to the surface. Day by day I hoped that the number of mayflies would increase, as this is the usual course of action. And I did catch some good fish, but at no point did I witness the carpets of myflies on the water and the clusters hanging from the vegetation like grapes. 
The hatch usually started in the late afternoon around five. And for a short time, trout rose here and there. But since there was no continuous flow of mayflies, the fish did not rise in a regular pattern. You had to be lucky to see a larger fish rising, as there could be fifteen minutes or more in between rises.
Since I had taken a few days off from work, I spent quite some time at the water, walked and observed a lot. This allowed me to catch one or the other big brown, but the really big ones, above 22″, which usually appear at the surface during the peak of mayfly season were not to be seen – simply because there was no peak of the season.
But besides mayflies, there were other insects swarming in the evenings. Especially large caddis occured in good numbers and probably the biggest fish I hooked during mayfly-season, I hooked on a caddis late in the evening. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to land it, so I can only judge by the power the fish showed during the fight.
So all in all, mayfly season was very short and very atypical. But it still was fun, and probably fishing is so very addictive because there simply is no general recipe which always works, the challenge is always different.
Here are some impressions (click for larger view):
