After such a hot bright day yesterday I took a wander up the River Devon, thinking there would be lots of activity. In fact there was but it was mostly small trout and despite the abundance of flies on the water, from midges to very large Mayflies of some sort, I could not get any real idea of what they were taking.
A fish rises but fails to connect with a large dry fly
I never spotted any large upwings being taken and tried various small hackled dries that got no response. I tried a bg hairy Danica type Mayfly pattern and that still got nothing, then in a corner of my box I found another large bushy brown Mayfly pattern of sorts that I decided to try. There were lots of big flies of a similar shape and colour at the section I stopped at- a new bit for me, with a small burn entering the river.
dusk on the Devon
Almost right away a fish rose to the fly but never took it, and so it was to be, I think this happened 4-5 times to different fish and even after cutting back the bottom of the hackle to get it sitting lower, I still never managed an actual take.
I must have tried a dozen different patterns in all from huge to tiny and never had a thing. But it was a stunning evening to be out, and still felt I had a better night that Englebert Humperdinck!
Today I headed out for a two hour session this afternoon at Pendreich. I knew it would be hard in the bright sun but never banked othe strong wind blowing into the North bank from the South East, not the 20 odd people swimming at spots I would have like to have tried fishing. Despite a lack of time my only option was to take the boat but I never saw a fish move; had not so much as a sniff of interest.
Tried wets and buzzers on floating and sinking lines before giving up.
It’s been a while since I had a fish up there now, not been so good for me this year.
