 In this vlog I'm sharing a rod during Duffer's fortnight with my old work colleague and long-standing friend Mark. The Mayfly are out in numbers. We've had to go a few hours in on the river Piddle and follow that with a longer session on the Friday fishing the river through. I've also got a very dodgy home-tied Mayfly collection that I'm keen to put to the test. So very briefly these are my river flyers. I've got my nymphs up here which is the larval stage of flyers. I've got present tail nymphs down at the bottom, gold-ribbed hairs here and in this box the huge budgerigar sized things for Duffer's fortnight. Then these are the small ones who've got large dark olives at the top, other little olives at the top. All the sedge patterns, when things get tough so we've got sparkle mats and some very small sedges. As he did all the travelling I let him have the rod for most of our late Thursday afternoon on the river Piddle. True to character, Mark was so enchanted by the first pull, he flopped it to a froth for a good hour. He wanted to stay, I wanted to move on. The joys and compromises of sharing the rod quickly came home to us both. He got his fish though and we were happy. Well done, good stuff. My gentlemanliness faltered momentarily and I got my fish, a good one. I smugly resumed my role as chaperone. I think we may have seen a fish move. My excitement prompted me to come out with a barrage of condescendingly useful tips and suggestions from my good friend. He said nothing and settled on the fact that at least my turn had been short when he had the rod back in his hand. That was that. Beer, late dinner and sleep followed. It's 70 mile per hour winds while he gusts into 2025. That cliff face gives us a little bit of shelter. Very nice. Mostly synthetic, isn't it? All of its synthetic materials. And those wings make the line spin, so using like five, six pound line. Did you say you got a little micro swivel came with it? Oh, it's plastic. Yeah. A plastic swivel. Right, that makes sense. These flood muddows are lovely, sparrows, sparrows, grass snakes, all sorts. Watch your steps. There's the odd hole here or there. So it's not like your typical chalk stream. It's not always clear, coloured bottom. In the trees, bit of cover. So the fly that I'm going to start off with is this creation. So this is the novice fly fisherman. Well, he's certainly got the length. I wasn't exactly committed, but then I wasn't exactly ready for it. Solitary fishing benefits my well-being. The best pleasures in life are nearly always the ones that we choose to share. One deal. I hadn't seen anything rise. I didn't actually know whether we'd get any rises, to be honest. No. Chewing the fat while laughing at our little dramas. Like bad casting, lost fish. Or getting a face full of nettles while avoiding an unintended swim. Do you think you need to move over or over? I'll take a couple of steps. I don't want to get too close to it. Oh, my God! What a lump! Then there's the fish. The second day started off very well. Two rises from two fish in the same pool. Actively feeding on mayfly. I'm getting really excited now. It's ridiculous. And that was quite close, wasn't it? About the time as my fly line must have gone over that fish. Well, it looked like he charged it from the side, came at it from my side. One more crack at it. Further up and then change the fly or let it rest, change the fly. Can I have a cast here then? Yeah, absolutely. So I'm going to use one of my home tide. The bigger, the uglier and the more ridiculous the better. I'm going to go for that one. Which will make a mess of my lead, no doubt, but it's huge. And Mark's going in for the dirty steal. There you go, and he's in. And he's out. Bad. Justice. Oh dear, special branch. And lucky. Disfaithful behaviour, but I should have known better. Paul ruined, we moved up. After the exciting start, it became increasingly challenging. Fish didn't want to show, and those that did would glance, inspect, splash or shy from the fly. Alright, Mark has given up on this little stretch. I reckon there's a fish lying just there. Whoa, that's a tiny one. I think these big fly patterns definitely need a thicker tapered lead to turn them over. Yeah, it's sinking nicely under the surface as well. Did you put mud on it or zinc? The more it gets twisted the less it sinks. Paul is now, so he came through that pool. Two or three fish topped. He came up into here and they just stopped. Makes you wonder if they had that domino effect of spooking one. And it just ricochets upstream. I don't think we're sending a bow wave up or anything like that. There's enough water going through. Oh, is it in? Well played. I wasn't expecting that, were you? It's not, because it's about the third time I've put a fly on that spot. It's gone. Brilliant. It's gone, but that's good. That's called long distance unhooking. That is exactly what that was. That's the most technical form of unhooking. It is. I thought I've capped a little fish in, I did. So, over to you Chas. Thanks. That's the best thing about that unhooking fish is that it's by turn. It's your turn, unfortunately. Thank you. I like sharing a rod and showing the pleasures of the rises. Did you see that? That was a big fish, that was. I did feel like Greba did it. Mate, that was a good fish. You can see how wide it spooked, because look how shallow that water is. It's about a foot deep. Yeah. Moving up. Don't blame me. Now I've stood up here and see why I was wasting my time down below. There's three explanations that I hear most frequently for fussy and uncommitted trout rising to a dry fly during mayfly season. Number one, they're full up. Number two, they're wary from being caught. Number three. All the fish we saw topping were on that far bank in shallow water, presumably because that's where ephemera Danica are coming out of the silt, and they're probably eating them as they're emerging. See that rise? You're right on it. Come on, come up for it again. You deserve that fish. That was right on top of the rise, but I think you landed it as it was resettling. More often than not, with all the above in mind, I think it's about the presentation of the fly. A longer leader, landing it gently, avoiding drift and drag in the currents, ensuring the tipping is subsurface. Well go on, you've slapped it silly anyway. You may as well finish the job. Just get up there and catch something. I also wonder if spinner imitations or fly sitting high on the surface film represent a lower energy and nutrition value to the trout. Have a delicate presentation, slow it right down. Get to just kiss the water, like that. Because I think it's a heavy fly that it lands with a splash if you notice. Tricky though, because you have to sort of thump it through the wind, cut through the wind. Yeah, maybe a smaller. Much lower. Yeah, a smaller fly with less drag, less wind resistance will get you all to improve your casting massively. And your presentation. Yeah, exactly. Didn't even take it, just splashing at it. Crack on, Marks. I'm going to change my fly on that note. I'm going to change my fly back to the one that I started off with and take that big budgerigar off. Yeah. I might be in a merger all. After lots of fly changing and discussion about the ethics of whether Mark should put on a nymph or not, I eventually managed to catch a good fish on an oversized parachute creation. But Mark's confidence was waning. Okay, on. The Alter Ego Super Guide re-emerged. Show that fly. We had taken two rods to avoid arguing over choices of fly, but only used one at a time. If you want to have a look at my fly box, you're very welcome. Getting rises on those other. Yeah, but they're slappy rises, aren't they? Go past it if you want. Go past it or go and retrieve it if you want because it's not like we were short on water to fish. Change fly game. Just a little over it. Come on. They've just got their heads down, I reckon. I don't know. Seems a couple of fish topping up there. What are you changing to? Your nymph thing. Really? You want to do that? But you're a disgrace to the country. Yourself, me, you. Seems to be extreme. Stinging it was on my ears. Sun's gone out. Okay, sun's back out. Wind's dropped. Wind's dropped. We need as big fish to rise. Yeah, rub it in. Yeah, you would have thought so, wouldn't you? There you go. Oh, it came off. Tossed about to miss, Bratt. There'll be plenty of other big ones around the corner. Yeah, I've seen plenty of them. And two on the right-hand bank as well. There you go, I've got one right here. They're bloody brilliant, aren't they? That really ought to get a take. Yeah, there you go. Careful. Taking it around the corner. Fish. It's a bruiser. That is an absolute tank. I'll follow him to the net. Well, if I was American, I'd give you a high five. But I'll just say, well done, old chap. Beautiful fish. Well done, Mark. Get your hand down away from the tail. There you go. Lovely. Let's take a bit closer up. Yeah, well done. Let's get back. Really cold now. I guess I ought to warm up and put my Adam's smile on and sort out the tippet material. I'm using some Fuller's clay with a tiny dab of washing up liquid in it. It helps to sink the first few inches after the fly. And the other thing I like to do when a fly gets drowned like this is to give it a good old squeeze in it and undo mushroom. You can knack of the hackle a little bit, but if you try and air dry a big fly like that by swishing it back and forth like you do the little flies, you just get end up with a load of line twist, which makes for poor presentation. Well, I just got out of the water because I was getting cold and in that time my phone has run out of memory, so I couldn't record, and Mark has just caught three fish in a trot when I have my little drink, including this one. That's a cracker. Well played. Look how fat it is as well. Pretty heavy. Well done. What was the take like? Fish. Yeah. I took you into the... I thought you were going to lose it at one stage, actually. Wicked. Nice to see you smiling. Glad you didn't go home. Yeah. A maheken. A maheken. It's not one I tied myself, but available from... They're actually called maheken. Yeah. So next up, I'm going to fish an Adam's fly. Oh, am I? It's going to come off. Lots of fingers. No, no, that's fine. I've had my fix in our car. I've fished for three minutes. I'll let you carry on again. Cheeky bugger. When are you going home? I'll change to the Adams. There's a lovely wild eat, and I need to get it back. Where do you go home? About an hour. About an hour, okay. Good. Good then. So does that give you some sort of priority, does it? Because you're going home in an hour. Well, you know, you could... Well, you think I'm staying on till nine. You know what's going to happen. Lots of fish. I know. I don't know why. Right, well, I'd better go. This is a glassy pool, isn't it? Classy, glassy pool, yeah. Oh, that was a fish. What do I move it for? Not interested. It's a bit better. The thing is, I think the actual roll cast spooks fish. Do you reckon that fish is actually that close to the bank still, or is it just moving around loads? No. It didn't look like a particularly big fish, did it? No. It could have even been a mayfly coming off the water. The ripple is so small. Well, if it was a pool where you'd think you'd get a fish, it'd be under here, wouldn't you? Mmm. Well, there ain't nothing out that natural. Do you want to have a crack on the... underneath the next overhanging tree? Come on, guys. It is where that fish topped, isn't it? There you go. It's on. Nice fish as well. It needs your net. Staying deep. Getting quick. Yeah. That one's going down, River. Good gun. I need a bigger net. Well, it's gone then. That's the biggest of the day. That's probably my best ever while. That's probably my best ever while brownie. Brilliant. Right, now you can fish for as long as you like. That's the biggest while brown trout I've caught. Biggest while brown trout I've seen. Cracking fish over the moon with this. That for a while, fish. I think my best brownie. Wicked. Just getting back. I would kiss it, but... That's a beautiful fish, mate. Wicked. Cheers. The fishing today has been great because there's been plenty of water to cast to. The piddle yesterday was probably difficult because the gaps between the renunculus weed were quite narrow. Mark has to go home, but he's going to carry on fishing until he reaches that bush. I'm not sure I could share a rod with just anyone. They would have to put up with me for starters. I'm a stickler for rules to the point of being a bore. I also don't like obsessing this about sizes of fish, numbers of fish, or fear of blanking. I'm not very good at just staying quiet either and keeping my opinions to myself. Cast here, cast there, look behind that bush, look for the crease, change of flight. I have good fishing friends who I would never dream of sharing a rod with and one or two friends who I've vowed never to share a rod with again. Sometimes it just doesn't work. You need to have similar outlooks to your fishing. It's a bit like sharing a boat, especially when it comes to making joint decisions. I've fished with Mark for a couple of decades now and used to work with him. And although we've disagreed when having to make joint decisions, we've always got on. And our foibles come as no surprise. I can't wait to get in the warmth. Really cold. Cheers for coming down. It's really good to me. It turned out alright, didn't it? I was really nervous. Well sometimes it can be too nice, can't it be too nice? Well thanks goes out to Mark for another great moment shared.