Despite stiff north and east winds and bright sunshine during the first week of April, good hatches of large darks, brook duns and olive uprights have got the trout to the surface feeding. Although with the cool breeze the hatch lasting for around an hour or so early afternoon, then suddenly switching off, going sub surface with nymphs, the fish were still showing an interest. A few sea trout starting to arrive now, fishing around the high tide times, they are willing to take flies intended for trout.
The 13th with the threat of rain, a few fish came in and were caught upstream of us, there are a lot of fish in the estuary, the next rise will see them enter the river.
We did have some heavy rain on the 14th, with the ground being so dry did not put an inch on river levels. There have been two salmon caught at twenty pounds in Carlisle and one big fish lost, these fish are more than likely entering the river during dark and finding the deeper sections to lay up.
Wind directions have been all over the place this week, easterly, northerly and on the 17th south westerly, unstable conditions of air pressure and temperature not good for consistent sport with the trout although the grannom and large dark's have made a much improved hatch than last season. The wind direction came from the east from the 18th until the 26th, this time along with high pressure, the fish were very reluctant to take anything, on the day of the 26th the wind swung from the west in the afternoon and the fishing just lit up after a blank morning with many brown and sea trout up to two pounds taking nymphs. Yellow sallies, brook dun, sedges and Danica mayfly now on the go along with all the LDO and Uprights, add to that Hawthorn fly and black Gnats....!
The forecast remains dry for the foreseeable and warming up, we are at eight inches below summer level at present, I cannot see many salmon coming in just yet, so enjoy the trout fishing and the sunshine!.
