Otley Show photo gallery: Sunshine spectacular as thousands turn out for first event of the season

By the middle of the day, sheep pens were roofed with umbrellas and tarpaulins, the tunnels for ferret racing had to be watered to cool them down, the hairy Highland cattle were grumpily wishing they were up to the shoulders in mud and the beer tent had a queue a fashionable nightclub would envy.

Show secretary Janet Raw said afterwards: "It doesn't always rain, but we have had a lot of indifferent weather and this year's sunshine was great for the show, although slightly stressful for some of the stock. We had a lot of new visitors in a total gate of 16-17,000."

Robert Smith, of Bradford, demonstrating fly-tying on behalf of the Salmon and Trout Association, had men in jackets made of pockets leaning over his shoulder all day to ask questions about his bobbin holder (a new invention by famed Swiss toolmaker Marc Petitjean), his vice (a Waldren from Leicester, 200 off the shelf or 500 customised) or his knots.

There is a north-south divide of fly fishermen, with a different calendar of lures, and Otley has been one of the northern HQs for 400 years, said the association's Yorkshire chairman, Country Week columnist Stephen Cheetham. Otley still has one of the few remaining specialists in fly-tying kit – Wharfedale Angling Classics.

Mr Smith, an ex-bricklayer, can tie a dozen flies an hour and would expect to sell them for 1 or 2 each if he was selling. Most shop flies come from Kenya and sell at 47p or so. No factory has yet perfected the art.

Also getting attention was a stall offering 18 different kinds of mushroom – all from the UK, via Autumn Harvest of Rotherham, set up by Jane Baldi and Italian husband Adriano. They grow some in sheds; buy some in from another farmer, in Manchester; go foraging for wild crops; and dry what they cannot sell fresh at farmers' markets and Fodder of Harrogate.

Another new idea in the trade stands was the Barbecue House – a 5,000 circular hut with cooker and chimney built in, for garden parties in the rain. Robert Hall, of Darley, near Harrogate, has been importing them from Scandinavia for 18 months.