An encouraging blank

[Vagabond]

Today, I thought it might be mullet time on one of my Southern rivers, so it was a case of make with the #5 fly outfit and down to the estuary. I fished the tide up.

 

I say "fished" - it was more "watched the tide up" as apart from a few "chuck and chance it" casts the rod remained idle much of the time. Why? - because nary a mullet could be seen, that's why. All the places that usually harbour mullet were fishless. Nor were there any feeding marks in their regular haunts.

 

Fly fishing for mullet is hard enough, but as the Scots ghillie said "Its wuss when they're no there"

 

I would have expected mullet up the estuary by now - are they late because of the cold April/May (until today - I fished in shirt sleeves) or was it just a bad day ? Answers please, on an informative post....

 

Now for the encouraging bits - the only fish I saw was a "rope" of elvers spotted just before the tide started to make, working upstream in the slack and shallow water along the margin. Now these too seem very late - I can't remember exact dates, but I'm sure I've seen them in April (and farther upstream than this) in previous years. Any comments anyone ? (BTW just give dates of elver runs, don't mention the name of the river).

 

Well, late or not, there were a fair few hundred elvers on their way, so it looks as if the eel conservation industry will have to postpone their prophesies of doom for a while.

 

The second encouraging bit was a horde of THOUSANDS of Painted Lady butterflies coming in on the stiff southerly breeze, We have had some in the garden this week (see pic below) but this was something else. There has been comment about the scarcity of the Vanessa group of butterflies generally, and certainly Small Tortoiseshells seem scarce this year, as do Red Admirals, but its gonna be Painted Ladies everywhere (Down! Chesters)

Edited May 29, 2009 by Vagabond

[The Flying Tench]

Well it's too early to say for red admirals, surely, but great to hear about the painted ladies. But by the sound of it these were not ones which had bred in UK but had flown over from france? Actually I should have thought it was quite early for all the reds, but by coincidence I saw a painted lady this morning out of the bedroom window as I was getting up - let us hope there are many more.

 

Really good news about the elvers, of course.

[Vagabond]

Well it's too early to say for red admirals, surely,

 

Well, its too early for the main crop (ie the second brood), but in spring we usually see a few of the overwintered Vanessa group, that is Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell and (admittedly less common than the other two) Red Admiral. They seem to like my garden shed as winter quarters. We have seen none of those three this year - neither overwintering in the shed, nor flying about this spring, unlike previous years. Last year was marked by a conspicuous absence of Vanessas on our Buddleia patch, which must be related to the dearth of survivors through this last winter.

 

The Painted Ladies are immigrants of course (have never seen one overwintering here), and the first immigrant Red Admirals should be here by now. The reason that Red Admirals are very abundant in late summer is because both the over-winterers and the spring arrivals have by then produced a second brood.

[Worms]

I saw my first Painted Lady on Wednesday followed by several on Thursday. Red Admirals have been observed on three occasions this year with the first appearing during a warm day at the end of February! Peacocks were relatively abundant during the same period with scattered sightings through April and May. A flush of Small Tortoiseshells also appeared during April. Apart from the Painted Ladies all these Vanessids were obviously over-wintered insects.

 

Keep those patches of nettles and thistles in the garden!

 

Oh yes, heard my first cuckoo on thursday as well!

Edited May 30, 2009 by Worms

[The Flying Tench]

The Painted Ladies are immigrants of course (have never seen one overwintering here), and the first immigrant Red Admirals should be here by now.

 

I had assumed that the painted ladies bred here, and that these accounted for a fair proportion of the ones we see. Checking the web, though, I see that the caterpillars are around from May to Sept, so I guess they don't hatch till about August (?) and then they all die or emigrate back to Africa. So I guess, as you imply, that most of the ones we see are the immigrants. It mentions in one article that millions came over during th eMay bank holiday!

[lutra]

The timing of the elvers fits roughly with a run i saw on a northwest river a couple of years ago.

 

I had a Painted Lady on my Strawberry patch up here in sunny Lancashire today and i heard a cuckoo both nights i went tench fishing this week.

[coarsefish-torbay]

Been mullet in and around tidal areas down here since at least mid-April (when I got back from India!), but as for being able to catch them...

[arbocop]

 

a horde of THOUSANDS of Painted Lady butterflies coming in on the stiff southerly breeze, We have had some in the garden this week (see pic below) but this was something else. There has been comment about the scarcity of the Vanessa group of butterflies generally, and certainly Small Tortoiseshells seem scarce this year, as do Red Admirals, but its gonna be Painted Ladies everywhere (Down! Chesters)

 

A fair few painted ladies round here - red admirals and small tortoiseshells too. None in hoards though. Brimstones appear in lower numbers than usual.

 

Absolutely loads of damselflies - my garden is full of them. They are eating the aphids from the roses.

Edited June 2, 2009 by arbocop