Hatches May 09

As expected rivers are just hitting their stride during the last 10 days in terms of more consistent hatch activity. With a multitude of stone flies, olives of one species or another and many other tiny upwing flies and midges bursting forth, matching size, approximate colour and perhaps more importantly behavior beats exact match the hatch imitation and a long string of latin names!

Stillwaters are bursting with buzzers, the largest I've seen so would match a size 8 hook perfectly though most have been around a size 12 with colouration varying from water to water, it pays to sample your lakes and any trout retained. Main colorations have been black with an orange tint and a sooty dark olive with prominent silver banding. I mentioned last month sees a very early hawthorn, well the lakes at Loynton are now seeing large numbers, many hitting the water during recent blustery conditions.

I've also seen the odd early crane fly on several lakes and the Wye, numbers of these will only increase as spring moves on and trout will start to take notice of them particularly during windy conditions.

Looking to May, olive hatches will build strength on lake and river, while at some point during this month Mayfly will start to hatch, dates varying from water to water. Be sure to catch our Mayfly Madness newsletter out at the beginning of May for further details of the Mayfly and fishing opportunities.

May brings more than Mayfly though with fish snacking on tiny upwing species, gnats and midges both between mayfly hatches and at times in preference to Mayflies. Be sure not to see what you want to see, instead watch feeding trout carefully before deciding what to throw at them.

Tight Lines

Steve

Cool Posts April 09

You can tell it's spring when the number of posts go down. Simply put, we've gone fishing!

Top post this month goes to a gem of a new find on the subject of fly photography, with plenty of info for those of us with non specialised macro equipment. Check it out over at Fly Art Studio.

Best Fishes

Steve

Spring Open Weekend at Orvis Loynton

Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th April sees the spring 09 open weekend for Loynton Trout Fishery and the onsite Orvis Store.

With fly fishing demonstrations, whiskey tasting, the chance to test and buy the lastest kit, plus talk with fishery staff and go fishing, make these dates for your diary.

Details and directions for the fishery here.

Steve

April 09 Newsletter

Our April newsletter was released to subscribers yesterday. You can view it here.

Like the content? Want to get the latest news monthly? Click through to the main website and sign up on any page, it's free!

Have an idea to improve the newsletter? Great, we would love to here it! Simply click on comments at the end of this post and let us know your thoughts.

Best Fishes

Steve

Hatches April 2009

I can take plenty more days like yesterday, gentle breeze, warm sunshine and fly fishing or at least teaching people how to. Does life get any better?

Yes is the answer, fly life is bursting forth, bringing increasing opportunities for imitative fishing. To celebrate this we start a new monthly series, "Hatches" as a practical anglers guide to some key fly species trout will find at the surface during the year.

Yesterday we were treated to sporadic midge hatches through the day at Loynton Fisheries and while most action occurred subsurface to midge pupa, sufficient surface activity was apparent for sport with emmergers.

I even noticed a single lonely hawthorn fly, the first of the year. On stillwaters during April, look out for increasing midge hatches and later the month, numbers of hawthorn flies, plus pond and lake olives.

On rivers the main interest for trout at the surface comes from larger dark olives, with some stone flies and later in the month medium olives. Once trout get back into the swing of surface feeding they will often also rise during the hatches of tiny midge and terrestrials such as beetles and again hawthorns.

Have some major hatches on your waters not noted above? Let everyone know in comments!

Happy Fishing

Steve