Mayfly Tombola - 2 Spents & A Dun

by Richard Fieldhouse

 

The fish up here in North Yorkshire are now starting to confidently take the hatching Mayfly - at last!

P.S. If you like the mayfly image above as much as we do, see the end of this email for our 'Tombola' giveaway.

I've found it best to fish from around 6pm into the dusk - so only a few hours - but recently the sport has been good, and can only get better.

This is the time of day when "spent" mayfly patterns are king.

As a quick reminder - the majority of Mayflies only live for one day. During this time they:

  1. Hatch
  2. Mature into an adult
  3. Mate; and
  4. Die
It's the ones that have had their fun and gone to the river in the sky that we are trying to imitate on an evening. When a mayfly expires they float on the water with their wings outstretched, as below:

TOP TIP: Reducing Leader Twist - when fishing with flies which have large wings - like Mayflies, this will induce twist in your leader (there's nothing you can really do to stop it). The majority of Mayfly patterns (especially the spent ones) have wings which act just like helicopter rotor blades and spin when you cast them. The best way to combat this is to:

  • Reduce the length of your leader
  • Increase the diameter of your leader
Try shortening the overall length of your tapered leader to around 6ft and step up your tippet diameter - use 3X or 4X. Once the fish really switch on to the Mayfly they become indifferent to your tippet, so step it up where you can.
To that end, we are focussing this week's email on a couple of 'spent' patterns which you may find useful in the coming weeks:

Spent Male Mayfly

If you see spinners dancing above you, pay very close attention to the water for softly rising fish, and look for dead spinners caught in small pockets of dead water behind rocks or debris. If you find any, pick them up so you can get a good idea of their size and colour and then select an appropriate pattern.

 Spent Hackled Mayfly

 

Slightly darker in colour to the spinner, some mayflies die as soon as they hatch. These are an easy target for trout, sometimes they actively target these in preference to the hatching flies. In which case these are the go-to flies.A classic mayfly imitation, super buoyant and tied to exacting standards. This pattern imitates those mayflies which die hatching or after mating. One of the most effective Mayfly imitations when spinners are on the water.

Baz's Mayfly

If you arrive at the water a little earlier, then you're going to need a good dun imitation, there are no better than this one:

I've been reliably informed that the Baz in question is Baz Reece - an outstanding UK Grayling angler and international fly angler (thanks for the info Ben). This is fast becoming a classic mayfly imitation, Fish these as the Mayfly are emerging during the afternoon. This fly is tied with a white body with thin red ribbing, a mohican hackle (for visibility) and the signature tail. One of the most effective Mayfly imitations when spinners are emerging on the water.

Get them while you can, as we did run out last year!

All of our individual Mayfly patterns are available now (from stock) for only £2.25 each - which includes Free Delivery to anywhere - in our Eco-Friendly packaging.

Go on, you know you want to!

Mayfly Tombola

I hope you like the header image from this email as much as I do - we had an artist in the USA design it for us (Ryan Keene). We love it so much we've had some really lovely coasters produced - from aluminium.

We've been thinking of a way to let all our loyal community - yes, that's you - get hold of one, and then the penny dropped when I was at our local fete! Let's do it like a tombola, but instead of picking a raffle ticket that ends in either a '5' or a '0' - and winning a jar of marmalade which you will pass on to next year's raffle - let's do something a little odd. So here's the deal:

  • Just place an order with us (doesn't matter how much for - we're good like that).
  • If your order number ends in an odd number, then we will add one to your order for free.
  • If you'd prefer not to receive one, then check the box on your basket to not receive any freebies.
  • That's it.

We've only around 100 of these (I've kept a few for home), so they will only last us a day or so. This virtual tombola will run from the time you receive this email until we run out of coasters.

Have fun out there!

 

 

 

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