…pretty much describes how the frazzled face looks this morning having spent the last 5 days solid on the river with clients. A veritable mixed bag of visitors: Carsten from Denmark, Steve from Michigan, Seven wonderful guys led by Tom out of London, Harkman from Bosnia and Andrew all the way from Malmesbury just down the road.

A river full of superb brown trout, what they lack in size is made up for in an uncooperative strain of aggression that makes our light line tackle work hard, a truly awesome weeks fishing.

With the water high, a wash with colour and pushing through at pace…

…It did nothing to otherwise deter fish keen to munch on an easy offering ~ Andrew looks pleased.

Rob was the star of the ‘Magnificent 7’ ~ reaching out the fish suddenly looks bigger

With a beating Sun, very little cloud cover and the water at a comfortable 15.6 D/C, all just wanted to stay put if nothing more than to just keep cool. The urge to dunk thy self almost overwhelming.

Jimbo with his first – all be it unfortunately the only grayling from the ‘M7’

An unimpressed resident…

…rooted to the spot for obvious reasons ~ future ranunculi gorgers in the making

Master angler Steve from Michigan ~ he has a passion for wild trout from small rivers back in the States ~ he feels at home. An active TU supporter and exceptional fly fisherman.

Carsten ~ his short line dry fly tactics pulled him in an incredible number of fish on Sunday

Although Mayfly were in abundance they were by no means the focus of the fish over the last 5 days, more fish were taken on a red neck pheasant tail in a #18 than anything else… the fish just not yet quite on the ever increasing hatch. June however should be an absolute fish fest if this keeps up.

Nothing more required than a simple Wulff for those few interested in surface feeding.

Carstens first ever time on a river provides him with an incentive to return

His red letter day will be difficult to match… a few of his finest

I dare not calculate how many miles I’ve walked in the last 5 days back and forth along this river, I should feel fit and not totally f*****d… oh yes that’ll be it ~ an age thing.

I hope your fishing is plentiful and you’re making the most of any mayfly ~ see you on the water.

Having acquired the river and completed the hard bit: that being trimming, strimming and tidying

It was now time for the even harder bit… to fish it, in anticipation I feel this part of the Wylye has barely seen a fly rod, nor the fish an imitation of a fly probably, hopefully – what a challenge!

It’s critical that one’s in the right frame of mind, nowt sorts it out better than a cup ‘o’ tea. Having donned wellies and with rod ready to go it’s now a game of patience… and mines slowly running out

there’s a rise and so to it I go… what remains in my cup tells me there’s a hatch of midge

A few casts of the above ‘F’ fly beneath the upstream canopy and I’m into a fish, surprisingly it’s a grayling… pleased as punch I am… it means some possible winter fishing on here then me thinks.

A pretty we Lady she is

Moving on and being stimulated by more frequent rises, all be it seemingly from the same fish I make some basic numpty errors on otherwise spooky fish by positioning myself too close to the bank to get a clearer view & cast – consequently putting them down.

I decide to go long on the leader, with my new system I’ve changed in mere minutes to 14 feet without affecting the front taper, using my ever faithful 10ft #2 (a length of which I’ve used exclusively now for the last 3 seasons) I stay well back from the edge whilst still very much in touch with the line, leader and more importantly the fish.

The fish rises on a further 3 occasions before I make a covering cast… that’ll do for me as I nail it on the fourth. The #2 weight buckles as the trout sets off downstream, this fish feels far bigger on the rod than off it, I’m tickled pink as it lunges skyward only to fall with a mighty splash… you can’t buy fun like this – it’s like a hard 5lb fish on a #6 weight.

Just gorgeous – a wild trout, bloody livid if you ask me… impressed to be caught it was not

That beautiful blue hue on the gill plate

Alarm bells had obviously sounded across the pond so to speak… following it’s release everything went still, very still. Impatience got the better of me so I thought I’d give a nymph a wetting – I couldn’t resist offering a Red Neck PTN to the current. Changing the leader to a shorter 7 foot length yet again with ease I dropped the fly into the murky depth and drifted the fly some 8ft towards a grassy outcrop on the right bank… a twitch in the line was followed by yet another grayling, a wee bit smaller than the first – like a really care.

She parts company none the worse for wear

Through the interruption and need of another cuppa there is but a brief hatch of Mayfly, does counting half a dozen actually count as a hatch?

None the less I tie on a nice silhouetting Mohican and cast at some casual rises… rises of which are not at the Mayfly I see – what the heck, in for a penny.

In quick time a number of pretty wild’uns come to the fore, pictures of which don’t do them justice.

Today was a great success in many ways… the water has got fish in it and nice ones at that, my new leader system worked a treat, and the #3 hi-vis Barrio line I recently dyed at the tip didn’t mess with my head, nor did it seem to have an impact on the fish… now onto reading currents with it.

The 10 foot dyed tip is inconspicuous… a result

I’ve yet to hear of any significant Mayfly hatches as yet from friends and colleagues, the water temperatures are still cold… for me I think June will be the killer month, May is pretty much written off already, I hope however it’s not so for you ~ enjoy your fishing regardless.