First Grannom

[diawl bach]

Saw my first grannom of the year yesterday, 12.45 at the confluence of the Cych and the Teifi. Followed its flight into the field,saw it at close quarters, popped my hat over it but as is their wont it had lost itself in the vegetation before I could photograph it.

Anyone seen one earlier than this, say 12.44 Sunday? Not a competition but a little bit of phenology to look back on in later years.

 

[oldbull]

Not seen any yet; by my reckoning that's about 3 weeks early when compared to a ‘normal’ season on the Teifi.

 

[jada0406]

Hi', Lada,
Saw my first aquatic flies yesterday, a sparse trickle of about 18 or 20 March brown duns, from 1-40pm till 2-0pm. I was just lucky in deciding to have my picnic lunch on the bank, in the sunshine, but sheltering from a cold wind blowing off Cross Fell and its neighbours in the Pennines. The first Eden flies to date; but no LDOs when I left at3-30pm.
Better day today, but the river is still too high for my liking; was over 3feet on Saturday, now down to 21 inches, where I sat yesterday, according to the EA.
Hope to see both species today, as a bit of cloud about and little or no wind, but a chance of light rain. Yum-yum. cheers, TC

 

[diawl bach]

The grannom are hatching in their thousands on the Teifi this weekend, once the sun came out on Saturday 4th April the hatch began, later than last year.

They're weak fliers and although we're a couple of hundred yards from the river the wind carries them to the cottage - the car has a resident grannom currently.

 

[diawl bach]

Saw my first grannom yesterday by a local brook, the Nant Morw. The warm weather which saw temperatures of around 16 degrees must have brought it out along with the bees and ladybirds which were on the wing.

A lovely spring day, plenty of snowdrops still flowering giving way to celandines, the brook looks as though it's been polished.

 

[trout_obsessive]

Saw my first grannom of the year yesterday, 12.45 at the confluence of the Cych and the Teifi. Followed its flight into the field,saw it at close quarters, popped my hat over it but as is their wont it had lost itself in the vegetation before I could photograph it.

Anyone seen one earlier than this, say 12.44 Sunday? Not a competition but a little bit of phenology to look back on in later years.

My part of the Test (Hampshire) doesn't open until May 1st and I haven't looked. But we get them on the Avon above Salisbury about now but that doesn't open until April 15th.

Quickly followed by the Hawthorn, which isn't a river fly at all, but lots of them fall in.

I'm not a 'purist'. Early season I use imitations of those two but that's it. Once the Hawthorn has vanished I only ever bother with the Iron Blue most of the time, or the Black Gnat if there are black flies about. If they don't work I try a whitish one. Except for the brief Mayfly season I don't use anything else.

May be of interest to you. I mostly fish near Stockbridge, Hampshire. A long time ago sheep were transported from Wales to London via Stockbridge. Now the estate has an arrangement with some Welsh farmers who bring their sheep down to take advantage of our earlier lush grass. So in a way it's keeping the old tradition going.

There used to be a sign on a house in Stockbridge in Welsh offering bed & breakfast to the sheep drovers. It was there for 100 years plus. Sadly the new owners of the house have painted it over.

 

[johnclayton]

On the Rivers Ribble and Hodder large dark olives have been hatching in decent numbers most days, I have been on the river four times since the start of the season twice doing river maintenance and have fished twice as well.
I have seen one sedge fly [although don't know what] a few needle flies and a couple of midge species.
In recent years we have started having substantial hatches of grannom on both rivers and can hatch in their thousands, they tend to hatch in mid April so are a few weeks away.
Have caught a few trout and some o. o. s grayling on dry fly and wet fly but is still fairly cold in Lancashire, friends report very few LDO's on Cumbrian Derwent and only a few trout caught on nymph, so season must be a bit late starting.
Saw my first butterflies last week all small tortoise shells on a number of days when the sun was out.
Quite a lot of grayling were caught on upper Ribble at Paythorne during late February most on dry flies and emergers as hatches of LDO's had already started with decent numbers starting around lunchtime.

JohnClayton

 

[diawl bach]

That painted wording means "Good beer and" TO, not sure what the following word might be, thanks for illustrating the interesting connection to Wales which you have in Hampshire.
I've spent the day setting posts and have a less knackering day in the rain to look forward to tomorrow when I nail up the stock fence to keep the sheep off some trees I've recently planted.

The grass is just beginning to look like it'll sustain some grazing although we have to reseed near to the river following the winter floods. The tump I've dug through was a huge root ball to a tree that we winched out over ten years ago, I was expecting to have to cut through it with a mattock but the years had reduced it to earth.

Saw my first lake olives this week and a couple of (prob) overwintered red admirals but no tortoiseshells here as yet JC, the Graun had an interesting article on butterflies earlier in the week, the demise blamed on climate changebut while I agree with that view to some extent I think we ignore pesticide impacts at our peril.

Not much hatching today but some trout were rising to something in the Teifi, didn't make enough time to take a close look.

 

[diawl bach]

Just checked that wording
From The Stockbridge Pocket Guide-
"The valley here is wide enough to have provided a river crossing since
earliest times and a posting station in Roman times on the road from
Winchester to Sarum. The 'town' (actually little more than a single row
of buildings on each side of the wide main street) grew in importance
when Welsh drovers rested there with their flocks on their way to
various sheep fairs and markets in the South East. A thatched cottage
known as 'Drovers House' has the message in Welsh painted on the
wall: 'Seasoned hay, tasty pastures, good beer, comfortable beds'

 

[johnclayton]

I particularly like the photograph of the fence posts by the river and the post driver next to the figure in the background, the hat on the third post down looks like a Filson tin cloth of which I have two although as yet it is not warm enough in Lancashire to wear one and am still in a windproof hat.
More red admiral butterflies are being seen in the winter moths in the UK although they don't technically hibernate and most butterflies species live as pupae.
The butterflies that do hibernate are the ones normally seen first on the wing on warmish day in March and occasionally February and are the small tortoiseshell, comma, peacock and brimstone and are often quite tatty in appearance.
Am going on the river Aire in North Yorkshire tomorrow and am looking forward to seeing what insects are about although grannom don't occur but may just see some early brook duns as well as LDO's.

JohnClayton

 

[diawl bach]

Thanks John and top marks for spotting the hat, it's a tec wool Tilley which had cooked my swede after a few posts, hope you've had a good day on the Aire.

 

[trout_obsessive]

Just checked that wording
From The Stockbridge Pocket Guide-
"The valley here is wide enough to have provided a river crossing since
earliest times and a posting station in Roman times on the road from
Winchester to Sarum. The 'town' (actually little more than a single row
of buildings on each side of the wide main street) grew in importance
when Welsh drovers rested there with their flocks on their way to
various sheep fairs and markets in the South East. A thatched cottage
known as 'Drovers House' has the message in Welsh painted on the
wall: 'Seasoned hay, tasty pastures, good beer, comfortable beds'

Thank you.

I had seen the full translation somewhere a few years ago but had forgotten it.

It's a lovely area and Stockbridge is a pretty village though maybe a little 'twee', with a couple of expensive 'art' shops and the like.

Here's a often photographed section of the river just upstream from Stockbridge. They are not real eel traps you can see on the walkway to the hut, one of the keepers made them out of welded up iron wire (rather than the real hazel/raffia) as an 'illustration' of how it used to be done for the London eel market, and deliberately placed them near a small 'public' bridge (where the photo was taken from) so they can be seen by passers by. Note the trout weathervane . There's a nice pub 150 yards up the little road. Apparently it used to be the Longstock village school

Or this one, the 'Mayfly' about three miles upstream. The customers feed the trout. So only the 'Cheese and onion crisp fly' works for a mile or so downstream . To the right of the second picture is the mouth of the river Anton tributary where it joins the Test, just downstream from the end of the pub garden. Ducks walk right into the pub bar

 

[diawl bach]

It certainly is a lovely part of the world, I've been through a couple of times en route to visiting my father when he'd retired to the New Forest. My abiding memory of Stockbridge was seeing several hares boxing in one of the village's fields, it's the only time I've been lucky enough to see this behaviour, one of those indelible images.

 

[diawl bach]

Just for the record, a solitary grannom spotted on the Teifi this evening, quite surprised to see it, there's been no sun at all.

 

[JayP]

Loads coming off yesterday on the Ottery but not a single rising fish seen

 

[diawl bach]

Quite early to spot the first couple of grannom appearing from a very coloured River Teifi this morning but there they were fluttering aimlessly around in the lee of a tree.
Yet more heavy rain last night bringing what looks like a large tree into the pool, it's root end giving a passable imitation of a hippo. No chance of pulling that away with a tractor for a while without wrecking the ground.

 

[diawl bach]

Saw my first grannom of the year yesterday, fluttered by me then landed at my feet during a sunny spell while I was working by the Nant Morw. We've had a few hard frosts this week, I was surprised to catch one on the wing.

 

[yeoman]

Interesting, I've seen a lot of LDOs this winter when I've been out Chub/ Grayling fishing, in fact, pretty much every day I've been out if the sun has peeped through for a while.

 

[diawl bach]

I noticed several good hatches of stonefly prior to Christmas, always good to see those, for some reason they settle on the render at the back of the house. The front's painted stone and I've never noticed one there, it must have something to do with the texture or the colour of the walls' surface, light blue render v white stone....
Our rivers in west Wales have a relatively low pH and upwing hatches are sparse through winter, I can count the number of olives I've seen on the fingers of one hand.

 

[Perch@1]

The grannom are hatching in their thousands on the Teifi this weekend, once the sun came out on Saturday 4th April the hatch began, later than last year.

They're weak fliers and although we're a couple of hundred yards from the river the wind carries them to the cottage - the car has a resident grannom currently.

Fly bug life activity Diawel bach I've noticed more recently, now that I'm becoming more tuned into that side of things.

Fish safe and happy, Neil