SEDGE FLY

This will excite the Fly fishers amongst you. I've just had a large Caddis or Sedge Fly land on my 5th floor office window at the Thames in Reading.

Sedge flies look like moths, in fact they are related, but have stiff hairs on their wings rather than scales. They only live in clean water, which says a lot for the Thames these days I suppose, at least at Caversham.

The first Sedges to hatch in the year are the "Grannoms", in April, a big day for Fly-Fishermen, who rush to tie a suitable imitation fly onto their lines!

Sedge/Caddis flies can be recognised by their VERY long antennae, (sometimes twice the length of their body) and the fact they hold their wings like a ridge-tent along their backs when at rest.

I assume this hatch has been brought on by this wonderful weather. I do know of 2 Pipistrelle Bats, patrolling around this part of the Thames and office - (see earlier post), and each bat can eat up to 3000 flies/moths a night. This Sedge Fly had better watch out!

NB. (23/04/07) Just got to work by walking along the river at lunchtime. The weather is still very warm after 2 weeks of sunshine, but this morning we've had our first rain - it's very overcast and damp.

Anyway, the point of this is that there was a HUGE Sedgefly hatch on the river today - 1,000s of dark Sedgeflies dancing on the surface of the river at around 2pm.