Second Visit to the Culm

[grhe]

Back to the Culm for a few hours on a Friday afternoon. It was colder than I'd expected and a stiff breeze wasn't helping but the river was clear, the fields green and and the swallows swooping so it was looking pretty good. I walked down as far as the house on the left bank and worked my way back upstream.

I couldn't see anything at all rising and most of the visible fly life was sparse and terrestrial. I was using a grey duster in the hope of raising a fish before having to tie on a nymph. It was a couple of hours before I saw a rising fish but when I did it was worth the wait. I was fishing a lefthand pool and had swapped the grey duster for one of Pete Tyjas' old sh1thammers, mainly because it had a hi-vis post and it was easier to see in the rather dull conditions. There were one or two fish making confident, splashy rises and I persisted until I hooked one of them. Lovely 9" fish in great condition. It must have been an aggressive take as I had to get out the Farrah forceps to unhook it.

Great to get the first fish of the season on a dry. Unless we get an Indian summer, I can't see this season being any better than last year. It's almost June now and still as cold as March.

[Pete Tyjas]

Nice report GRHE and pleased to see the old Sh!thammer is doing the business!

[yeoman]

Hi John,

Nice catch! Generally, the old klink style of fly take a bit of beating,especially smallish ones.

Ben

[mojo]

Fished the Culm today, Black Knats, Hawthorns, LDO's, Medium Olives and Mayflies had the fish looking up, took most of the fish on Black Klink, also 2 on mayfly, plus broken on the mayfly by a fish I couldn't stop. 13 in all, a couple of 6" fish the rest larger fish unto 13". All in good condition, must be all those worms that have been washed in during the floods. All in all a cracking day!

[yeoman]

I was up there on Sunday,had similar experience to you ,Mo,minus the Hawthorns.Given the amount of fly about I would have expected a few more rising fish,but as you say they are all in cracking condition.

[rubble]

Nice going chaps. What time of day seems to be working for you? I found the Taw 8am to 12 ish quite active on Sunday but it looked much more quiet when I walked back down from the top.

[yeoman]

Mid day at the moment.