Whilst the south and east of England started the month in severe drought conditions, here in the north-west we had enough rain to keep the rivers clear of blanketweed and to bring in a few salmon and a good run of sea trout. But save for the weekend of 18-19th, when the air temperature reached 27°C, a cool breeze has been dominant, keeping afternoon temperatures in the range 15-20C. On the 12th it was even cooler.

A small party of us spent the afternoon looking at a beat of the Aire and talking of improvements we might carry out to better the trout fishing. Then, at 5pm, Alan, Chris, Ken and I headed a few miles downstream to another beat. Before we fished, stoves and Kelly kettle were used to provide sustainance in the form of fried sausage and bacon rolls and wood-smoked tea. As we enjoyed this simple repast, the wind freshened and the temperature fell. When we finally headed to the water, I was wearing windproof trousers and a couple of fleeces plus a jacket. The other three yomped off toward the bottom of the long beat, whereas I elected to fish the nearer pools on the basis that if no fish were rising there, they wouldn’t be rising anywhere!

By 6.30pm I had seen no flies hatching and no trout rising, and my fingers were getting very cold. Then, in the lee of a huge willow a trout rose with a loud ‘splash’. Clearly it had taken some beetle or fly that had been dislodged from the tree by the cold wind and landed on the water. I cast, with great difficulty as far as accuracy was concerned, my black beetle imitation (a size 12 Jassid) and the trout took boldly. It was a lovely wild, brown trout in the pound to pound-and-a-half class, with yellow belly and big red spots... a typical wild Aire brownie. By 7.45 I had three other trout, all smaller than the first, but I had had enough. Happily, so had Alan and Ken, for they were then marching back upstream. We drove off at 8pm with the air temperature 10.5°C.

Six days later I was back on the Aire in much milder conditions. What a contrast, with lots of sedges flying in swarms under the overhanging trees and bushes, and with blue-winged olives, medium olives, yellow May (really June!) duns and the first pale wateries hatching. In the four hours to dark, trout rose everywhere and I caught and returned 12 – the largest probably in excess of 2lb; I also had two large grayling.

Today I very rarely fish anything other than dry fly simply because I prefer and enjoy that style of catching trout. But the weather is so important!

I expected the first sea trout to be in the river by the end of May but, as usual, it was early June when they did arrive in the Hodder. And with the river hopping to and fro above summer level, and with the almost constant colour (a deep peat tinge) in the water, day time fishing was fine. And the lesson from this June’s sea trouting .... be prepared to change tactics widely; do not neglect the old flies.

Our club chairman, Brian, brought the latter to the forefront when, in water that some old-hands would protest, "But that is spinning water!", he caught a lovely fish of about 4lb on a small Mallard & Claret. In the past I caught a lot of sea trout on things like Teal, Blue & Silver, Peter Ross, Soldier Palmer, Dark Mackerel and Mallard Claret, especially at dusk or when the river was up and coloured, but in the last couple of summers I have been trying ‘new’ flies that are certainly not more effective. And to reinforce the point, I had a session the following day after Brian had his nice sea trout and hooked four: one on Mallard & Claret, three on the good old Butcher (size 10). Earlier, in identical conditions, using a 3in Snake Fly, I had a fish one afternoon and had two on-and-off another afternoon.

Finally, Yvonne reached the age of 60 on the 29th, and to celebrate I booked us into chef Nigel Howarth’s Northcote Manor. Friends said that it was typical of me, for I could fish on the 29th, go to Northcote for the night, and then fish on the 30th, as Northcote is only a few minutes from the Hodder. As if I would! We drove up to Northcote on the afternoon of 29th and enjoyed its outstanding ‘haute cuisine’ of the five-course gourmet dinner, each course with a glass of wine that was selecetd to match the food. It was a wonderful experience, for I had seen Nigel and his head chef, Lisa Allen, cooking on TV and, whilst I love great food and enjoy cooking, that sort of cheffy-food is beyond me. The following morning, after a fantastic breakfast we did head to the river, finding it almost at summer level and with all the colour gone.

We started on one beat, but after an hour I felt another offered the best chances, especially as a big hatch of flies had started. So we moved upstream a couple of miles to a bigger, deeper pool. Wet fly was out, save for the streamiest water, so because grayling and tiny brownies were rising to the hatch I turned to a lighter rod and dry fly. The dry fly? A size 10 well-hackled Brown Sedge. I had one grayling of close to the 2lb class. Then a fish took but threw the hook ... I reckon it was a sea trout. Finally, I hooked a fish that turned out to be a sea trout of just under 2lb. It was pristine silver, which just goes to show that sea trout do not need to be stale to take a dry fly. Thus ended the last day of June 2011.