With the merry month of May upon us the May Fly are soon to hatch in abundance. There are some that still refer to it as duffers fortnight, with media hype in the game fishing titles how can one not be tempted for tying on a rather large fly made of dyed partridge feathers in pursuit of aggressive brown trout. There is something about that explosive moment on chalk stream around the country when otherwise artificial fly shy trout power themselves through weed and from beneath bank side vegetation in order to consume a large fly.
On a recent visit to Spitalfields Market to catch up with John Andrews of Andrews of Arcadia, there laid out on his table were several boxes and tins containing a fine array of vintage May flies.
Having already acquired several boxes of these flies over the years the purchase of anymore would be frowned upon by Mrs Tales, however I was very tempted to acquire one more box but resisted temptation. They are beautiful things to look at so taking a picture to share with you all will have to suffice. I did though buy a copy of The Lost Diary by Chris Yates which John had on his table, a good read and Mrs Tales can’t frown upon reading matter can she?
Early May has started with a real mixed bag of weather, rain, wind and a dip in temperature. This mixed weather may suppress the annual ballet of these exquisite Emphemorptera, Emphorus meaning ‘short lived’.
For those of you with ease of access to the chalk streams you should see a few days of hatches, so enjoy chucking a bit of fluff.
I did see the first House Martins over the house at first light today so maybe this is a sign that warm days are on their way, an omen yesterday of finding some pressed metal birds for sale at Spitalfields.