Following on from last week’s spinner fall, the hatch has shifted noticeably this week towards caddis. As the light drops, sedges have been fluttering off the surface in good numbers on several of our beats, and trout that spent the spring rising steadily to olives are now smashing at these bigger, more energetic naturals with real aggression.
It’s a very different style of fishing to the delicate spinner presentation we talked about last week. Caddis hatches tend to trigger a splashier, more confident take, and a little movement on the retrieve, a gentle twitch rather than a dead drift, can often draw the take you’re after. Worth carrying a range of elk hair caddis and CDC sedge patterns in sizes twelve to sixteen for the next few weeks.
The prolonged dry spell has now started to show in flow levels across a couple of our middle beats across the River Test and Itchen in particular. While chalkstreams draw on groundwater and are naturally more resilient than rain fed rivers, several months without meaningful rainfall inevitably has an effect by midsummer.
Fortunately, water temperatures remain quite a bit cooler than our Wiltshire and Dorset cousins, so whilst fishing has been postponed on some of the more delicate streams, the Test and Itchen soldier on. The main river beats remain in excellent condition and continue to fish well. We’ll keep you updated as the summer progresses!
That’s all from me this week, enjoy the evenings on the water.
Wishing you the very best of luck and the tightest of lines if you’re beside the river in the next few days.
Best wishes,
Jamie Hayes-Pankhurst
Founder & Managing Director
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