It´s not quite summertime yet and it may be a little early yet for the cotton to be high, but fish are certainly jumping. On the way back from fishing on Saturday, I came across some gypsy barbel on the Guadalhorce who treated me to to a fine display of their aerial acrobatics.
The fish seem to leap to feed on the weed and algae growing on the wall of the weir and they are only able to do this if river flows are adequate. We have seen them do this on several occasions now and it is a lot of fun to watch them. It is odd that such proficient jumpers almost never take to the air when caught on a fly.
I made a short film (1 minute and 4 seconds) of the barbel jumping which can be seen below. I also took a few photos too, none of which was particularly great and I have attached what was probably the best of them.
It was interesting to note that the jumping only took place in the early evening. There was not a jumper to be seen when I passed the same spot earlier, at about three in the afternoon.
The fish graze on the sides of the weir as they are being swept into the turbulent water below.
The fish didn´t want anything to do with the nymphs I offered them but I came across some fish taking dries on the far bank. I switched to dry fly and things looked up. In the end I had three and lost a couple more.
fishydreams 