Sometimes I am astonished by the Eden. This fish was caught last Friday, among a catch of five fish in 12 casts on the Appleby waters. I just hit the ‘purple patch’ of the day as I arrived, on waters that had not been fished since the last flood.
Double nymph on a leader-only rig is working well, probably better than any other approach. My favoured nymph combination is a Czech-style (leggy) PTN on the dropper, 40cm up the tippet from a hare fur bug with 2.7 mm copper tungsten on point (which you can see in the mouth of the fish). I am using a 12-strand furled horse hair section (well greased with red tin Mucilin) in place of the usual braided nylon mono of a presentation leader-to-hand on the inevitable Greys Streamflex XF2 10′ 2-weight. Tom Speak, who is probably even more tuned into the northern river-scape than I am at the moment has been varying between a Czech nymph set up on a Marryat 10′ 3-weight and a double nymph, Euro-rig on an XF2 11′ 3-weight, for astonishing results on both the Welsh Dee and the Eden.
The courses for the coming season are now updated on that page, so please have a look and get in touch if you are interested in these.