In recent years I have read much about the decline of insect life in the chalkstreams of southern England. Here in north-west England there have been some changes in aquatic fly populations. For instance, the hatches of large dark olives in spring do not seem as large as they were in the 1970s and 1980s. On the other hand, we have seen massive (and massive is no over-hype) increases of grannom, which bring up the trout as much – if not more so – than the large dark.

One large collapse of fly life occurred on the upper Aire some years ago when sheep-dip invisibly and invidiously got into the river and wiped out our Mayfly hatch as well as other upwings, stoneflies and caddisflies. I more or less gave up the Aire, other than for the occasional visit per year, for it was disheartening to sit by the river when flies ought to have been on the water and see none, and hardly a rising trout. However over the last couple of years the river has recovered well. We have Mayfly, though this year the hatch was in May and very early June, whereas in the 1980s the hatch began at the end of May and continued strongly through to July. We have had some tremendous evenings with sedge. Stoneflies are back in force. And … on the 26th we walked one beat of the river with Tim Jacklin of The Wild Trout Trust. I didn’t have time to look carefully at the hatch, but did so a couple of days later, when I took the rod and celebrated the end of the trout season. There were: large dark olives (autumn hatch), autumn duns, pale wateries, a few blue-winged olives and, best of all, a nice trickle of iron blues, a fly that has much declined in many areas. Also on and over the water were five sedge (caddis) species and two species of stoneflies. I caught nine trout, seven only 6-9in long, but one15½in in length. Just imagine what it will be like when we get a bit more cover for the fish!

Earlier in September I visited another Aire beat and caught six fish on my dry CdC. One was a largish grayling, three small brown trout, and two bigger trout, one 18in in length and in tip-top condition. On the afternoon of the 26th, after we had left Tim and the Aire, three of us dropped in on one of our middle Ribble beats and were surprised to find that river 1ft 7in above summer level. Surprised, for we had had only a shower the previous night back at home. Two others were packing in, having not seen a salmon all day. My pals fished for salmon, I fished for trout, and we saw quite a large movement of salmon. All were red/brown fish, most grilse and they would not look at a fly as they leapt their way upstream. What surprised me, and gratified me being armed with trout gear, was the amount of fly life over the high water, and the number of trout and grayling feeding on surface flies along the creases between fast and slower water only a yard or so from my bank. My best fish here was a grayling 14in in length. But why did I say, ‘best’? All the trout and grayling we catch are ‘best’!

Salmon-wise, most of the month has been one of high water on the Cumbrian Derwent (well over 4ft up on the 8th) and a hopping Ribble/Hodder. I had a Ribble fish that was in the 10-12lb class on September, and that was it. But I didn’t fish as hard as I usually do, for on the 17th we visited Harrogate autumn flower show and saw the new world record onion close to (and what an ugly onion it was). The Saturday before that (10th) was my own gardeners’ association show, where my cucumber won first place, the prize being a red card and £1.60!