Flaming June?

What on earth is happening to our weather?! Some flaming June!

1. Rivers and sea trout: for the last fortnight the rivers have not seen a settled summer level. In fact a week last Friday we had such an enormous thunderstorm that if it had occurred in London it would have made the headlines. 57mm (about 2 1/4 inches) or rain fell in the north Manchester - Ribble Valley region including chez-moi. At 3am the next day the Ribble was over two metres up where the M6 motorway crosses at Preston. The sea trout have run and others remain with their mouths firmly closed. What makes it worse is the cold winds that we have had, especially in the evening (see 2).

2. The reservoir: Last year when the water was closed through Foot-and-mouth we stocked with a large number of miniscule brown trout; this year we have stocked with 25cm-plus fish which are marked. A fortnight ago the hatches were well under way and we were all catching lots of small and growing fish as well as the larger newly stocked ones. But the last week or so it has been so cold the hatches have been sparse (sedges and midges) and the fishing slow. Interestingly, the chill wind seems to have affected the bigger fish more than the smaller ones. For instance, one afternoon I had seven lovely tiddlers that had reached about 25cm and one of our marked stockies. The week earlier I had only one small one and several newer stockies.

3. River trout and grayling: The hatches of blue-winged olives and medium olives have been phenomenal on the three rivers I have visited during the past fortnight. Besides these I have seen caenis, yellow mays, some late brook duns and some early pale wateries. And the fish have responded. But only until about 7pm when the chill wind has stopped everything. I have been leaving the river so early that I have managed a pint on my way home, including - one evening - finding myself drinkling ale in the middle of something called a carryoakie...or something like that! Just a lot of noise.
Normally the evening rise turns me into a semi-teetotaller.

4. Distributions change....remember the appearance of turkey bown duns I mentioned a few weeks ago? Well, my horsey-mad sister-in-law Gillian announced she had found a stag-beetle here in Lancashire. Not common in Lancashire...in fact, I have never seen one in the county.

5. Two weeks in Sweden coming up. I'm back mid July and I will give you the highlights then.

Tight lines to you all.

Malcolm Greenhalgh

READ MALCOLM GREENHALGH'S NEW SERIES ON RIVER FISHING IN FLY-FISHING and FLY-TYING EVERY ISSUE. SUBSCRIBE NOW!