 It's like no one's been over it for a long time. Yeah, no one's dropped in here this season, that's for sure. Oh, I just spooked a huge fish straight away. That was huge. Anyway, Kit, I've got a new guideline, Fario, CDC, double taper, four-weight line and it's on a four-weight Graze Stream Flex rod, whether to use an eight foot or a six foot. It's that time of year where everything gets quite overgrown and a six foot rod can give you a slight advantage and get the line casting under canopy and under vegetation that I've opted for the eight foot. The leader is a tapered mono leader with a fluorocarbon tippet, which I'll add a little bit of clay too to help get that tippet to sink. The good thing about the fluorocarbon, I've got mixed feelings on it, it's good because it takes on water and it's more prone to sinking for better presentation, but I find that the knots break more readily. That's four pound tippet material as well, there's lots of mayfly coming off the water, but I haven't seen many yet. Let's do a blind cast under that overhanging tree on the opposite bank, it's an old olive that I had on from the other day. There we go, fish on straight away, that's a spot of luck, gone down river. Oh he's off. Barbra's hook, of course. Let's look at these lovely flies that Gaius has tied me, thanks for these guys. You can tell he's an old man, he's calling me Chas, none has called me out since school. Oh there's also some flies that Simon Critchett tied me. Really simple but effective pattern. Still got a little bit of foam on the barb hook, so those need crushing down. Proper pliers to crimp the barb, you're kidding yourself, you can do it with these little pitiful trout forceps, they just haven't got the required crunch, especially on the wider gauge hooks. Thanks for those Simon, I give those a go as well later. I want something quite buoyant because there's quite a lot of water moving through. Looks like he's used moose hair in the tail, not pheasant tail. Look at that, it's that foam body, I think it is. He did mention Oliver Edwards being a design that he was imitating, but that's some lacking hackle underneath, and the idea is to say it sits flatter on the surface, but a big foam body like that's not going to go under, looks like a golden pheasant tail with a bit of fritz thrown in it, for good measure. Yeah, let's try that. Would I make that fly really buoyant, not overly happy with the tail with the fritz on it, I'm honest, because it's separating from the pheasant tail. That's sitting beautifully, it wasn't always going through like that. Next up is a very old fashioned classic pattern, French Partridge. So all these are Mayfly ephemera Danica imitation patterns that I'm using. It folds up on the cast, doesn't tend to create so much line twist. There we go, off. Long distance unhooking, I don't like to actually handle the fish, so by letting them go earlier like that means that minimal damage is caused to them. Good, so it sits much more in the water surface, and it's less buoyant. The fish quite like to sit in the crease and intercept things as they're coming down stream, when they're really on the lunch, they'll actually sit in their most unlikely slack water, just eating the nibs as they come out of the mud. That's the line of them. Come on, let's see if I can take it. There you go. Ah, he's off. The fly is working, it's the angler that's not. This looks a bit more promising actually, but I've still not seen a rising fish. So many Mayfly coming off the water, yet so few rises. Having a nightmare. It's been a funny old spring because the river has been in flood most of April. You would have thought the fish would have settled down, the fly life would have been coming off steadily over the last couple of weeks. Perhaps they've had a thumping from anglers, but it's an excuse really, isn't it? The fish aren't doing much really, so perhaps it's just that time of day, and I should stop giving myself hard time. Right, next up, let's go for one of these emerges. Amazing. No fish arising, to be honest, it's just weird. So relieved to catch one. The other one that took my fly that I fluffed was much, much bigger, but it's still feeding. I think it's tucked itself into the bushes. Yeah, these fish have definitely been fished for, and they're being really cagey. They don't want to take flies off the surface when there's such an abundance of food down below. They definitely seemed more happy with Gaius' emerging pattern than they did with the dry fly patterns. And they're actually chasing this one. I feel like I ought to change it just because that fish has seen it. So, on to the next one. Right, on to Simon's fly, just a very traditional Mayfly pattern. There he goes again after that one. It's after the real Mayfly coming down the river. See that one coming off the water? Not one to know. Well, that's that. Sorry Simon, your fly was sinking too often. Probably because it's quite turbulent water here. Next up is Gaius'. He's cut all the hackle away to make it flat. I might have a look at this. That's 5.30. Maybe it's that sun lowers. The fish might start to be a little bit more gliding. The good thing about these big buoyant flies is you can roll cast. Without drowning the fly. No, he's spooked. That's a tree. I'm really out and making a right fuzz of this. I've got to say, they just have a very cagey rise in the right hand. Sun, buffer. Tight, right? Hey! So with my head wound. All right, next up. Gaius is mohican with a moose hair. All right, sir. I believe how hard I had to work for that fish. But that's what makes it so rewarding. All right, let's get it unhooked and get it back. What a beautiful fish. You too. So it's really just a case of standing here and waiting for a fish to show itself. Missed him. I wasn't expecting him to come up, to be honest. I'll probably just need to fish with a longer leader and a finer tippet. Yeah, let's get out and warm up. That's the fly that did the job. Thank you, Gaius. What an insane amount of fly life. A lot of states all evening. I can't believe how tough it's been. I really thought, you know, Duff has fought my... I've been down here before when it's just... this time of year when it's just a fish of chuck. I don't know if it's been such a cold, slow spring or what. But whether it's been hammered by anglers in the previous couple of weeks, I'm just really struggling. There's loads of mayfights just coming off the surface and no fish are coming up to take them. But isn't it beautiful? It is like being a paradise, isn't it, really?