What an amazing month we’ve had: beautiful weather, fantastic fishing and record numbers of fish caught! The hatches have been prolific and the fish have been notably bigger than in previous years, with plenty of exciting dry fly action throughout the month.
Plenty of returns in the teens and a handful in the 20’s and 30’s even with all the beautiful sunny days we’ve enjoyed. Overall we had 357 brown trout caught and safely returned in May. To put that in perspective, we had a total of 374 fish in the whole of 2023.
We’ve definitely seen an increase in anglers over the past couple of years, but the beats are still lightly fished compared to most waters and a beat will continue to see good returns even when fished several days in a row.
The river is in excellent health and is teaming with life both under and above the surface. Maybe that’s why the fish have been getting so big! We’ve regularly been seeing fish 10-12″ and larger and had three fish over 15″, the largest being a whopping (for us) 18″.
May Flies & Fishing
The warm weather brought about a lot of hatches throughout the month, sometime so thick, we could hardly see through them.
If you’ve been following our new Tom vs Matt series of articles, you’ll know that Tom committed to dry flies and certainly seemed to make the right choice.
Mayfly patterns accounted for a good majority of the fish caught. Olives, browns and calico colours in particular did well in sizes 14 and 12, depending on the hatch. At any given time however there would be evidence of multiple hatches and egg laying and it was often difficult to find the right fly. But if you found it quickly, the fishing was spectacular.
Our fish are very aggressive and hard fighting for their size and often prone to a good deal of aerobatics, once hooked.
While there were a lot of caddis fly around, the sedge patterns were only successful on a couple of occasions, but perhaps June will see a change there.
Despite all the insects, there were many occasions when there was very little rising. In these situations, if you couldn’t find an enticing May to bring them up, a Stimulator fly would often bring a fish to the surface.
Nymphs and other wet flies did still have a place, especially when nothing was showing. Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ears and Pheasant Tail Nymphs probably accounted for most of the fish not caught on a dry, with olive patterns following behind. Strangely black nymphs (and black dries) were not nearly as effective as they have been in previous years, and only accounted for a handful of fish.
Despite the overall success of the month, we have had some decidedly tough days on the water. Sometimes this could be put down to a weather shift but more often, conditions seemed perfect but the fish just wouldn’t cooperate. We had a few blanks as well as inconsistent days when one beat would return 25 fish day and on another beat, only one or two. But whatever the catch result, every day in May was a joy to be on the river.
Over the course of the month, we’ve gone from seeing the trees in bud, to a lush, verdant canopy. Along the banks there has been a lot of growth and while we continue to cut back the overhanging branches, the blackberry bushes and nettles are a nuisance if you plan to do any bank scrambling, so it’s not a bad idea to carry pair of light gloves.
Buglife
There’s been a profusion of life under rocks, in the water and in the air. From alders and sedges, mayfly, stonefly, midges, fry and minnows, scud and of course damsels, we’ve been seeing more of everything than previously, giving us great hope for the health of the river system, and a wealth of food for the fish.
But it was the mayflies that seemed to capture most of their attention and there was a wide range of colours and sizes above the water, as well as in the nymphs we were seeing.
There are also lots of insects on the trees and while Tom and I rarely fish terrestrials, we came across a wonderful video from Fulling Mill with Paul Proctor. It’s a great video, over an hour long on waters very similar to ours, and definitely worth watching. In it he was fishing his APT (All Purpose Terrestrial) fly, so we tied it up and gave it a go. The fish were probably so spoiled for choice that the timing wasn’t great, but we caught a few and will keep a few in the fly box for later in the year.
We hope that you get the chance to join us for some fishing. Fishing can be added to any stay on an ad hoc basis and we have two packages. Our Fishing Break is a Dinner Bed & Breakfast package that includes fishing for £159/night, while our Ultimate Fishing Package combines a stay in our Luxury Treehouse with fishing. Both can be booked online or by contacting the hotel.
May Fly Fishing Gallery
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