Mayfly season

Published on 19-05-2008 by Dr Paul Beckett

Now is the season of the mayfly – its arrival depends basically on various weather conditions: rainfall, water temperature and hours of sunshine. The resulting information isn’t always completely accurate, and entomologists and meteorologists can never agree on quite how these factors affect it, but between mid-May and the beginning of June the mayfly appears after two years in larval form underwater and spends only a day or two basking in the spring sunshine. This period is known as “Duffer’s fortnight” because as the mayfly appears so all the trout rush for a good feed and the fishing becomes easy enough for any amateur fisherman!