Devon may not always rank highly with fly anglers when it comes to mayfly hatches but Pete Tyjas talks a little about what can happen if you find yourself on the right river at this time of year
If you were to close your eyes and think of a mayfly hatch the chances are that you’ll be standing on a chalkstream somewhere with a large flotilla of newly hatch Eph Danica duns floating down the river and every now and again one disappears in a boil from a large brown trout.
To many of us up and down the country it may well be a different scene. Where I am based in Devon my local river, the Taw, gets a mayfly hatch. It isn’t the sort of hatch that I have described above but there are enough that the fish will actively hunt them down knowing that a protein packed fly like the Danica is worth chasing down but not enough that my fly will be lost in a cast of hundreds.
Our hatch starts in earnest in early May and lasts until mid-June. It is led by the yellow mays which don’t seem to get any real interest from the trout but shortly after this the big guys start hatching. Some years the fish will rise to them quickly, I have guided on the 1st May and risen fish to a may fly pattern but this year, for example, the fish have taken a little more time to take notice of them and I feel sure some of this has been down to conditions.
As with the chalkstreams, the cream of the fishing is at the end of May and early June. To me, the interesting thing is how the trout suddenly turn off of the mayflies and switch either back to midges or on to caddis and BWOs. This is despite me watching good numbers of mayfly duns travel down the river unmolested in mid-June. Perhaps you can have too much of a good thing?
Each year I find there will be a “hot” pattern. The well proven flies used upcountry do work but if I notice a tell-tale splashy rise I’ll cover it once or maybe twice and then make a change. This will often pay dividends and being flexible will catch you more fish. I know it sounds obvious but a change up and if I am searching the water I'll keep changing patterns too.
When fishing, I prefer to fish the slacker, slower stretches of water where the banks are silty, the perfect habitat for mayfly nymphs and scan the river for flies on the water or rises. If I see nothing I will still work the water and find imparting movement into my fly can sometimes be just too much for a trout to ignore and draw it to the surface. It is a tactic I’ll use when fishing similar water with a normal dry too. I prefer to use the rod tip to dance the fly as stripping the line by hand can sometimes drown the fly.
Big flies and the smaller fish we have in Devon means that your hook up rate may not always be as good as normal. I tend to fish a size 10 dry and it can often be too big for a six inch trout. The smaller trout will often try and drown the fly to try and make it more manageable for them to eat. This time of year though, is the time when the bigger fish will show themselves. By bigger I mean anything in the 12 to 19 inch range. Granted, on some rivers that may seem small but to anyone fishing in the Westcountry that is a good fish, no matter what river you are standing in.
At this time of year I have had novice anglers standing beside me and they have been making casts at sizeable trout happily rising to mayfly and not worrying about the excited newcomer standing just opposite looking to land their fly in just the right spot. When it happens and the fish takes I know we will now have a new disciple to fly fishing. The smiles after the release of the fish say it all.
The timing of our mayfly hatch also coincides with the arrival of sea trout on the beats we fish. I have watched sea trout take mayfly either because they are feeding or are inquisitive, or are perhaps a little territorial. I have my suspicions which it may be but it doesn’t really matter. They are taking mays and they are good fun to try and catch.
I don’t believe the downstream skated fly works particularly well for sea trout during daylight hours. Careful wading and an upstream presentation give me a chance to get to the fish without them being alarmed and again, the twitch can be added too. Just last week we had a guest have a large sea trout inhale the mayfly and break the 5lb tippet like cotton. This has happened a few times but not many as most of the sea trout we catch this way are in the 1lb to 3lb range but every now and again even the biggest fish can’t help itself.
Many of the rivers in the Westcountry enjoy a mayfly hatch with varying degrees of success. I know one river where some years the hatch happens but there just aren’t quite enough of them for the fish to really pay enough notice but this year has been the opposite and a friend of mine fished a beat I know and fished a Wulff all day and caught a bunch of good fish.
There lots of beats available on a day ticket basis via places like the Westcountry Rivers Trust and many fishing clubs have day tickets available to the travelling angler as the do the fishing hotels.
Devon may not be the mayfly capital of the UK but it is a neat little hatch that is fun to fish and when the fish rises and you strike you don’t know what you might be attached to!
More info on Westcountry Passport HERE