~Tony Riley discussing the finer points of casting~

Cumbria Fishing Festival a Success:

With the weather behaving itself the Cumbria Fishing Festival has been an outstanding success over the last week as many events were fully booked. Tony Riley and myself ran a couple of well attended stillwater courses, ending our week at Farleton View fishery yesterday. Baking temperatures made for some tough fishing but all in all the day was excellent as thousands of damselfly decided to emerger. This proved a tremendous help when discussing the life cycle of such insects to keen fishermen.

Paul~

~Damsel shucks were evident on nearly every reed stem~

~Olive Upright Dun, a close relation of the March Brown~

Bonny Scotland:

Be it the Clyde, Deveron, Don or Tweed, all these Scottish rivers play host to some of our most important upwinged flies-Olive Uprights and their close cousin the March Brown. We're now in the prime period for Olive Upright activity and a recent trip to Scotland didn't disappoint. In fact, it seems I'm spending more time north of the Border than in my home county just now. That said, with bumper hatches of fly, who could blame me! The good thing about Olive Uprights is that hatches are generally sustained, lasting up to several hours for a time. With excellent dry fly sport in the offing, we managed to winkle out some prized trout.

Paul~

~Richard Tong displays a fine Scottish trout taken on a CdC olive~

~Spots the size of pennies, what more could you ask for?~

~A March Brown dun pictured only days ago~

March Browns in May?

A visit to the north of Scotland this week saw flurries of March Browns. Amazing stuff really, as you'd generally experience hatches of this wonderful upwinged species during March and early April. One can only surmise that harsh winter weather delayed hatches by some weeks. In fact the branches of many trees up there are still looking bare with buds only just on the cusp of bursting open. Southern Scotland is currently enjoying bumper hatches of Grannom. And again these early season sedges can usually be seen in the third to fourth week of April. You won't hear me complain though, as such activity seems to have brought up some quality trout!

Paul~

~Grannom find their way onto an angler's waders during egg laying~

~Grannom littering the surface brought up the trout~

~An Olive Upright all tangled up~

Olive Uprights Put On a Good Show:

Whilst spring hatches of Large Dark Olives brought up a few fish, at best these could be described as sparse. Even the March Brown hatches were short lived, albeit intense. Thankfully, Olive Uprights have just begun to show in the North and so far we've been treated to sustained hatches lasting from late morning and well into the afternoon. With these encouraging trout onto the fin for several hours the dry fly fishing has been second to none. Better still, Iron Blue Duns have joined in too, making for lengthy spells of activity. These small dark coloured upwinged flies are instantly recognisable by their inky black livery. Let's hope such hatches last for a couple of weeks yet. Though in honesty, these chilly Nor'easterly winds aren't helping matters. When will those westerly air flows return?

Paul~

~This bruiser was sipping down Upright duns at the head of a pool~

~In Scotland, large stoneflies continue to emerge~