It's a Spring Thing

There's always something sweet about the first good session on the river for the year. The first dry fly catch, to see the trout rising again, not to mention first time of the year you go home without numb limbs.

Today it was The River at Wiggaton. Fining down and beautifully clear when we arrived- hawthornes and dark olives spotted early on got our hopes up- and we weren't let down. We usually split up and compare results later, but brother and myself happily shared the beat and still caught well today.

I hasten to add that aside from perhaps three little trout taken to dries (esp. a good sized hawthorne) nymphs took the lions share of the fish, presented new Zealand style, with our own GRHE patterns doing as well as anything. Had forgotten just how well these little trout fight! They love to leap clear of the water and time after time, our brook wands bent double before we were surprised at the modest size of these fit little fish. We took over 20 trout to half a pound, plus three grayling between us- all carefully returned. Is there any better way to spend a spring afternoon than on a beautiful Devon stream?