Evening Rise Surprise!

2 June 2022 | Sarah

The trout season follows a familiar pattern, during spring, due to chilly conditions we’re restricted to day time fishing with 11am to 3pm being the prime window. However June brings lengthening days and a degree of warmth, which allows those who are bound by office hours to venture out in the evening, confident that trout, and insects will remain active.

If you plan fishing into the evening, it’s important to carry out a daytime reccy to understand the lie of the land.

This rings true whether it’s a stillwater, or river you’re visiting as deep water can occur close in.

Once you’re familiar with your surroundings, you’ll be ready to go.

It’s advisable to prepare two outfits in case of tangles. The last thing you want is to be setting up a new leader as the light fades and trout are going crazy at the surface.

Something else here, is don’t get too cocky by using long leaders. Tapered leaders around the 12ft length are ideal. Remember, trout become much bolder at low light levels, so don’t spook as easily.

If it’s breezy, you’ll be uncertain as to whether a long leader has turned over fully, failing to give you instant contact, which is import as we now rely on feel to detect takes at low light levels.

As for bugs, we can expect to see caddis on stillwaters or rivers and blue-winged olives on rivers. Both species tend to hatch in large numbers as darkness grows and hopefully you’ll experience heightened active in fading light.

Even when using dry flies now (recommended), we can present them on a slightly tensioned line to feel for takes rather than taking pot luck by attempting to see trout take our fly.

A couple of essential tackle items which we should consider include a wading staff that’s vital if you’re fishing rivers and also include a wading belt to prevent water flooding down to your feet/legs if you do take a fall.

Vision Fly Fishing Carbon Wading Staff is a lightweight but durable wading staff. Height adjustable from about 120cm to 143cm to fit all anglers. Bottom part is made from aluminium, so it gives it some weight to stay in bottom. It has a tungsten tip for good grip and a soft shrink tubing to eliminate noise while wading.