I wonder if i could I draw upon some local and experienced insight ?

My local water is the upper kennet and typically the mays are later than elsewhere ie last week in may first week June

Over the last couple of years I have taken a rod on the test around the 31st may with very mixed results

Last year we were spot on but this week because of the warmer spring the hatch had pretty much finished

I apreciate of course that nature is not robotic but I am wondering if any local anglers with many years experience are able to comment on which week is typically the safest bet to catch the hatch ?

I know what you mean - I fish a fair bit up on Hampshire/Berkshire border, and it's always somewhat later than the more southerly streams. Also, last year in Hampshire generally it was a little later all round than in previous times.

As for a reliable week for the Test. . . . . . I think that I would have to defer to some of our more experienced members, but if were a betting man, and had to book early, then I'd take the third week in May . . . .


Aidan

Agreed, last year I did the late May Bank Holiday and never seen anything like that hatch but this year was a different story as saw the main hatch very early May/early April.

I don't think you can really say a safe bet week due to how much conditions can affect a hatch, and not just temperature of course, but somewhere mid-May would be average I think from memory.

A.

31st May can be very much on the cusp for the Test.Location on the river can also make a difference.Mid May period is a better bet but again very much gauged by the weather.Last year I fished the Nadder in Wiltshire above Wilton on June 4th and it was unbelievable.This year it was virtually over a week ago.

JP

This year, the 2nd week of may was the peak, definately a short season, only really a week, but extreme conditions change things, last year the 3rd week was the peak.
peter

seems most hampshire wiltshire berkshire same with the climatic weather, but nature is never is perfect, i think the avons all but finished and so low now, unless we get some decent rain later season might be not so good. the thames is the same.

In my limited Test and Kennet experience I would normally say that if I were trying to get the perfect week on the Test I'd go for the 3rd week in May on the basis that the hatch would be building up, at its peak or starting to fade but that there would be some fly, on the Kennet I'd say the same of the last week in May or even the first week in June.

On the South Wales rivers the peak is normally around 21st May to 28th May, sometimes into early June, depending on the weather earlier in the year but this year it was all but over by the end of the month. Most places this season seem to have been two to three weeks earlier than normal and for the first time for many years it was properly called "mayfly".

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“There is no more lovely country than Monmouthshire in early spring. Nowhere do the larks sing quite so passionately, as if somehow inspired by the Welsh themselves. There is a blackbird on every thorn and a cock chaffinch, a twink as they call him there, on every bush...... It moved me profoundly. I had been spared to see another spring, and I thank God for it.”

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