I have just been watching a small dark olive spinner (male) that is clinging to my kitchen window.  It's only when you have chance to study these tiny creatures at leisure that you can truly appreciate their delicate beauty.  This one is predominately grey with a dark head bright eyes and an orange tip to the abdomen.  the tails are equal to the length of the rest of the body and are such an outstanding feature of the insect that I do wonder just how plausible is the assertion that Roger Fogg makes in his book on wet flies that tails and wings are not important in a dressing.  I know that with his patterns it's movement that really counts, but a trout seeking food and feeding on submerged spent spinners surely has awareness of the overall shape of his food which will be materially affected by the presence of tail and wings?  I leave you to ponder.

I was up at the Tarn at the crack of dawn for a check around.  Son of Simon seems to be working as there was no sign of cormorants.  It was dead calm and the Tarn was mirroring the hills around with barely a distortion.  I should have taken the camera, but stupidly left it on the kitchen table.  There were a few rises as I left although these seemed desultory without any real enthusiasm.  The Tarn fished better last week and seems to be doing well this week.  A great relief after the rather disappointing returns for the start of the month.

Ian