On June 18th Steve Rajeef was at Forrest Hills where he demonstrated his distance and accuracy casting skills, which have won him various world titles.  The afternoon, organised by G-Loomis and Shimano Felindre, included the chance to try out equipment.

With the lake finally thawing, the last few days have seen a few people out and their efforts have been rewarded with plenty of fish caught. Sinking lines seem to be effective with montanas and damsel nymphs most successful.

The warmer weather of the last month has led to a number of hatches on the fly fishing lake and river. A common sight around the lake is of spiders’ webs filled with Caenis fly. These are small and difficult to imitate but are also known as the “Angler’s curse” as trout are not easily persuaded to take the artificial with so much natural around.

Stonefly (or hardwinged fly) have not hatched yet but are due to emerge from their larval state from mid-April through to June. The photo shows a stonefly larva in the River Conder at Forrest Hills.

This photo shows a currently hatched imago (the final adult phase of its lifecycle) of an upwinged fly. It could be the ‘Olive Upright’ or ‘Yellow May’ although the latter is more common in limestone areas. They live for only a day or so in this stage. It is in their prior stage as a dun (having just emerged in its winged state) that the flies are popular with trout and therefore are a common imitative pattern.

Anything ‘green’ seems to be catching at the moment including dark and light olive dun patterns.