Prepare for the mayfly carnival
There is a little time yet before the magic mayfly time which anglers call the
“Duffers’ Fortnight” because the trout are supposed to be easy
to catch during this time.
Given the right weather and some expertise and experience it truly can be the
best time of the whole year for fly fishing, but you do need to know what you
are doing, and have access to the good waters.
We lucky Derbyshire fly fishers have fairly regular hatches of two kinds of mayfly.
There are the smaller E. Vulgata and the big E. Danica species.
The best of the fishing is on our world famous rivers including Wye, Derwent,
Dove, Manifold, Lathkil and Noe.
However, some of our stillwaters have mayfly hatches too including the trout lakes
at the Barlow fishery and also Alton Manor Farm.
The actual timing of the appearance of the mayflies, and the taking of them by
trout, is fairly predicatable most years.
The flies start to appear in late May and by the end of that month fish take them
well after being almost afraid of them before the hatches get well under way.
However, the best of the fishing is usually between the 5th and the 12th of June
with the 8th, my favourite day.
Some fisheries in the north of Derbyshire tend to have earlier hatches of mayfly
and the Barlow lakes are in this class. There are several different dressings
for artificial mayflies. I like my mayflies dressed quite large and I recommend
two different patterns.
There is the so called “Spent Gnat” type for immitating the spent
flies and the big, single upright hair winged Wulff mayfly.
For many years when I was unfortunate in having to waste fishing time working
for a living, I always took a holiday at mayfly time. This in addition to fishing
every day in April too by the way. If you should be lucky enough to be by the
river Wye downstream of the bridge in Bakewell in the evening when the mayfly
carnival is at its height you will see an amazing sight.