Bring on the Southerlies!!

Well at last it looks like the winds may be a changing and its about time! For what seems like ages now the wind has been continuously dominated from an easterly direction. The snow was bad up the country and even down here we woke up to a light covering of snow 3 mornings in a row. The water is still freezing and last Good Friday while trying out some New Zealand style nymphing, well, I may aswell have been piddling against the wind! I would usually have a few spring sea trout picked up by now but they have yet to start running the river. Still there are signs of some fresh salmon running, more so the last couple of days. The rise in temperatures over the weekend will see more lads out and hopefully some fish being caught, as long as we don't get too much rain. I'd be out this evening now with the winds easing a tad, only I have a head cold kicking in!
Tied some flies a few evenings ago, Ally's and Parks. Having tied a few with just finn raccoon I found that too much of the time I was getting the dreaded tail wrap. No use in throwing a fly out and it not swimming properly, only wasting time which is of the essence at this time of the year and every cast has to count. Now I have started to tie in a light bunch of bucktail prior to tying in the finn raccoon and the results have been great with the tail wrap now eliminated, yet I have still kept the great movement of the finn raccoon. Below is an Ally's Shrimp tied on a size 6 single Daiichi 2421 multi use salmon hook and the Park is tied on a size 10 Ken Sawada SD1 low water hook. The tails may look bulky and fluffy but in the water they thin out and really come to life.

This is a great time of year to see otters in the day time. In the last 2 weeks I have seen no less than 8 individual otters, the last 6 as pairs and all at different parts of the river. Managed to get a couple of shots.