Late summer fishing is now upon us with high temperatures and super wary fish although we have had good reports of some superb sport on the dry fly.
The best results are from tactical fishing and really upping your game! Lighter weight rods such as 3 or 4 weights with longer leaders are necessary for gentle presentation and remember to remove leader flash by using mud on your tippets. Take your time before casting to fish and watch closely to see exactly how they are feeding and if you can recognise the flies that they are feeding on. Limit yourself to making one cast and not false casting repeatedly which alerts them to your present. Peel the fly off the water slowly, pick it up and cast once.
Large dark Olives are returning but a lot of insects are in the ‘little black job’ category and difficult to identify. Have a selection of tiny black flies such as CDC f flies, miniature caddis, micro midge, ants and hump back culs.
Sedges are fairly dominant with CDC elk hair sedge, walkers red sedge, retiner sedge, small cream and black sedge all doing well.
If you are catch and release, please try the Fulling Mill tactical range of barbless flies, use strong leaders to bring them to the net quickly, keep them in the water and release them super quick. The warmer water temperature has less dissolved oxygen and fish are taking longer than normal to recover on some of the beats.
If wading, walk as slowly as possible, keep your profile low and watch out for your shadow on the water. Brightly coloured clothing, white shirts and hats are best avoided and shiny articles such as watches or dangling forceps can create flash onto the river alerting fish to your presence.
Several beats allow one rod bookings during the month of August so please get in touch if you would like a day on your own. We have the 29th September available on the Itchen for two rods and also a stunning private beat on the middle Test available for 2 – 4 rods with a guide.
2019 chalkstream dates for corporate days or individual bookings will be starting in October so please send us any requests to secure your dates particularly for any mayfly dates which fly out of the door.
Gilly Bate