Early
May
Contributed by Brian Kirkwood (09.05.2003)
By the time the Easter break was here, we still had no rain. The river
was in poor condition and beginning to weed up. There were some fish
about, but extremely difficult to get a fly to. I took the odd fish
up to the 26th of April, then we had some rain and by the 4th of May
the river was well up and coloured. As the river freshened up, the
fish spread out and fed very well on some big hatches of medium &
large olives. By May bank holiday there were Alderfly being taken
very readily.
I am writing this as we go into the second week of May and I have
high hopes after 5 good sessions and over 20 fish (best being 1 1/2
lb but all over 12oz and in excellent condition, all returned except
2). Most were caught on a size 14 dry adams but some on a partridge
& yellow or snipe & purple when the fish were not rising.
As a taster, not far downstream of Musgrave Bridge, there is a very
large Brownie (over 4lb?). I had it take an Adams but she broke my
point. Appleby Anglers have stocked the Warcop joint water with good
fish with a blue dye mark on the belly. The swallows are here! There
may also be some mayfly by early June. |
