…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.