Hi Ben
Excellent idea. I would be very interested in reading how others faired.
This was my third year fishing the Don and I have mainly been a lough style angler up to this so I have a lot to learn.
I mostly fished the lower river and in my few forays upriver I had limited success. All my better fish were targeted risers and caught on dry,s.
When fish were not rising I mainly still fished with dry,s and picked up a lot of smaller fish this way, a few decent ones also but none over the lb.
I was fortunate to have some time off early april and every friday off in may so I got to spend a lot of time on the river for these two months. These were by far my best months as far as seeing and occasionally catching the bigger fish.
My entomology and eyesight is pretty rubbish tbh and all I can say is early season it was mainly olives I saw hatching with the occasional march brown and plagues of stoneflys. Never saw a fish taking an adult stonefly even with plenty of them on the water.
I normally fished a two fly set up as I nearly always do on rivers. This helps to cover my lack of entomology and casting ability, gives me a better chance of putting something they like over their heads basically. I also find it helps with drag free drifts, one fly will normally be drag free...
One fly would be a suggestive pattern like a cdc and elk and the other an emerger e.g. a cul de canon which again is about trying to give them something they like. Peter (rabbitanglers) MBE which is on here as a SBS also took a lot of fish including one explosive take where the fish hit it so hard it shot into the air about a foot
one I will remember for a long time.
I dont carry a weigh net or keep a diary(next year) so sizes and quantities are pretty sketchy by now but I would estimate 20 fish over the lb. 10 of those being over 2 lb, 3 of those being about 3lb and 1 around 5lb. I almost never kill fish nowadays so my weight estimates could be well out. Few years ago though I was pretty good at guessing weights
I tried short nymphing quiet a few times and had a few trout on this method, really good fun but bloody hard work and concentration has to be 100%. Didn't have any larger fish on nymphs though. I was trying this to see could I find the larger fish during the summer evenings but I have a feeling I would be better off pulling something much bigger through the pools....
My efforts from june onwards were a lot less than the previous months but I still got out most Saturdays and the odd evening. Still seeing an occasional rise from a big fish but never managed to get any to take. Often I felt that they were salmon or grilse but who knows.
Had one seatrout on a dry early season and two goes at a backend salmon but despite briefly hooking up each time I have yet to land a salmon.
Noel.