Dove at Mayfield

After deciding to gamble on the weather clearing up I drove my way to Ashbourne. Arriving at Mayfield, the skies cleared the wind dropped and the sun shone through, creating a glorious sunny Autumn afternoon. After my ritual of hanging my nose over the bridge to spy the fish below I noticed the water was low, but full of anticipation I quickly made my way upstream to the wier. I looked downstream over the riffle towards the bridge and with this river who needs to catch fish to enjoy the day.

My brother chose trotting and I the flyrod and although I would be on a hiding to nothing I prefered the challenge. I managed a nice grayling on a pink bug but nymphing didn't bring much success but as things warmed up the fish quickly began rising. On close inspection I could clearly make out what the fish were taking, Large Dark Olives pictured below. These LDO's were being slurped down like hot chocolate on a cold night. There was also the odd needle fly being swallowed, pictured below.

I tried hard to match the hatch as the fish were hammering them down like there was no tomorrow. I found some joy with a Tups and a Greenwell Glory but only managed a couple more fish. As always with grayling fishing the frustration was immense but like a dog with a bone I whipped through most flies in my box. Trapped in concentration the afternoon flew by, I was in the zone and the next minute the light was fading and time to go. Needless to say my brother had many lovely fish like the one below.
I enjoyed losing todays battle to the Grayling and to my Brother ASBO (nickname) but I haven't lost the war, theres always next time.