Traditional wet flies and dry flies bring the rainbows and blue trout to the net

I had two very good days on Friday and Saturday. It was warmer and lots of migrant birds were feeding above the still waters.

I started with small Pheasant Tail Nymphs and they did well. Changing to traditional wet flies tempted rainbows and blue trout.

Then fishing all sorts of dry flies brought lots of trout to my net. Yellow Owls and various CDC patterns had fish coming up as soon as the fly touched the water, Shipman’s Buzzers worked too. Other dry flies, Sedges, Hawthorns, F Flies, Griffiths Gnats and Sedgehogs all produced results.

I caught a number of trout on size 16 foam beetles, which was good fun.

In the final heat of the Big One Competition held at Thrunton Long Crag, the final six anglers who qualified were Lee Abbot with 10 fish, Tony Rowley, Daniel Wilkinson, Keith Foster, Tristan Lincoln and Rory Brotherton.

The final for the competition will be over two days – Saturday, May 18, at Chatton, and the second day will be at Thrunton the following day.

The winner over the two days will receive £3,000.

The rivers rose and coloured up on Saturday but, saying that, a friend fished the Coquet Federation beat around Rothbury and returned 20 trout of various sizes.

More insects including Hawthorn flies have had the trout rising and feeding from the surface.

It’s the time of year when mayflies will be appearing soon and the trout will be gorging themselves, tight lines.