Not so delightful if you were ever as slow as I was this evening in working out what on Earth the fish had suddenly turned their attention to. All the fish mind, all of them! There were no stragglers carrying on with the Blue Winged Olives they'd been swallowing all afternoon and delivering some great Sport for your happy blogger. The fly would drift over a nice trout perfectly and up it would come only to eat something two inches away from my fly.
At one point I had a fish rise to one of the knots in my leader! Whatever the real thing was it was small, not too small though as the rise was to the first knot that joins the 0.4mm diameter monofilament to the first part of the mid-section that I make out of 0.3mm diameter monofilament!!! Maybe we worry to much about whether fish are put off by strong tippets? I put on my favourite small fly for fish eating smuts or aphids. Sturdy's Fancy on a size 20 hook. Nothing took it but the rises were still being enthusiastically made. Henry was getting impatient for some excitement.
Then it came to me like a blow! The weather was not very nice. Cold winds and intermittent squally showers between periods of delightful but weak sunshine.
Concentrate! Ah yes, I bet some of these little flies are Iron Blue Duns and I bet the fish are eating those and eschewing all others. On with the fake. Cast again. Slurp! Aha, the rod is heaved over, Henry is up on his toes and wagging his tail, all is well with the world and God is in his Heaven!
Sport was very brisk indeed where only half an hour before it had not been possible to buy a rise. In no time at all there were three more McNabs, to add to the one managed earlier before the Derbyshire Wye's epicures had changed their diet for a few hours,
Strolling back up river towards home we managed to catch one more grayling and then my reel, which I had been struggling with for the last three hours, fell apart, signalling time to go in for supper...
Regular Rod
Then it came to me like a blow! The weather was not very nice. Cold winds and intermittent squally showers between periods of delightful but weak sunshine. 
Sport was very brisk indeed where only half an hour before it had not been possible to buy a rise. In no time at all there were three more McNabs, to add to the one managed earlier before the Derbyshire Wye's epicures had changed their diet for a few hours, 
Nice day you had. Like your flies, especially the imitation of the Iron Blue Dun. Looks very good!
ReplyDeleteRegards,
M.O.
Iron Blue Dun sounds a fine name for a cold weather fly if that's what you imply.
ReplyDeleteHi Beryl
DeleteI believe the fly gets its name from the distinctive colour of its wings that look like dark blued iron or steel, a sort of gun barrel colour. It certainly seems to put in its appearances when the weather is cold or even quite harsh. Maybe that's an evolved thing? There are certainly fewer airborne predators under such conditions so maybe the Iron Blue Duns we have today are descendants of the flies that were lucky enough to make a go of life out of water during less clement weather?
You are right the name fits well.
RR
Iron Blue Dun also sounds like the name of a good beer, but I digress. Good going in figuring out what they were eating.
ReplyDeleteThese Iron Blues were in residence when I visited the Wye a couple of weeks ago, although the trout were showing little interest. They are very small but rather easy to catch. Beautiful little creatures. Thanks RR - interesting reading as always.
ReplyDelete...and of course I meant the Iron Blues are small and easy to catch...the trout are most definitely not... at least in my experience ;-)
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