Grayling Blues

[John Bailey]

The facts are simple. The upper Wye has been in good grayling nick for a decent while, and four visits have produced one fish of a few ounces that came adrift close to the bank. This is disappointing after my summer exploits with albeit smaller grayling on the French leader technique I was trying to come to grips with. What to do after blank days? Do you accept them as being part of the game? Is a blank only taking you a day nearer to eventual success? Do you simply smell the roses, and know it is fishing not catching? Do you analyse where you might have gone wrong and think of solutions? Do you take a balanced view, and do all of those things?

Perhaps I am simply not as good as I think I am? Always possible, this, for any of us. However, I have fished in company as well as alone, and two of my companions have three pound ladies to their credit so aren’t dummies.

Simons Clark and Ratcliffe enjoy the January afternoon​

Am I more at home on smaller rivers? Perhaps I have been more successful on chalk streams, but I have done well on rivers like the Tay and Tweed, so I’m not afraid of going big.

Have I hobbled my chances by concentrating on trotting rather than going fly-only? Over forty five years of grayling addiction, my success rate is roughly equal on bait and fly alike. My thinking is that the float allows quicker exploration than the fly, and location is core.

Have I concentrated overly on the long, stony glides? Well, these have always served me best over the years, but I’ll accept that I have only fished comfortably out to mid-river so far, and much of the deeper stuff has always appeared to be on the far bank. And the periods spent on slower, deeper holes and eddies have not produced either.





Have I not had faith to fish good-looking water long enough? If you are not getting interest, it is always tempting to move down and search new water. I should know that grayling, big ones especially, can be slow to switch on, and that saturation of a swim you have confidence in can pay off.

Have I not fed enough bait? Or too much? Has the recent cold been too abrupt, even for grayling? Has the stretch not got the fish I thought it had? Grayling beats can be red-hot one year, ice-cold the next. Should I have tried my luck on the Arrow, or one of the smaller rivers, and “got my eye in” as it were? Or would that be simply putting off the moment the Wye has to be faced?

Am I overthinking things? It only needs a few fish, and confidence in a stretch will grow and with that, more success will follow. Perhaps I should wait ’till air temperatures are 8 degrees rather than zero, fish steadily but without pressure, and relax into the whole session more. And of course, appreciate just how wonderful it is to be out on a wonderful river in this most wonderful part of the year.

Simply gorgeous!​

The post Grayling Blues first appeared on FishingMagic Magazine.

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[John Aston]

Over the last few years on my grayling river I've eventually learned that deep (anything over 4 ft ) glides are often a waste of time , despite almost every article ever written about grayling wittering on that grayling move to them when the water gets cold .

What I have found , firstly by accident and then by design, is that even in bone cold weather, grayling can be active in very shallow (12" - 18" ) , pacey water . I do bug sampling and what I have learned from that is that grayling food - caddis and heptagenids especially - are found in biggest numbers in shallow , well oxygenated rifles and runs . It feels odd when trotting a 4 AAA Loafer to have the float only inches above the hook length , but only until it disappears.

One minor quibble - you refer to your chums not being dummies as they've had threes . I am sure they are good anglers but you can only catch what's there. On my Pennine rivers , any grayling of a pound or more is notable and you could fish a lifetime and not see a two . I've fished on these rivers for 40 years and my PB remains a fluke 1-13 . with only a handful of 1-8 plus fish . On my Moors river , which I started fishing much more recently I don't even weigh them unless they look two -ish . Am I a better angler , a grayling master , because I've now caught over 40 two pound plus fish ? Nope .

 

[fishface1]

Good points.

On the southern chalk streams you wouldn’t weigh them unless they look like they are near or over 3, but I bet you’ve caught more grayling than I have, and are a better grayling fisher.

Interestingly, my biggest have come from those deep glides you mention. The “shoal” fish definitely have a preference for the shallow, streamy runs.

 

[John Aston]

The other thing which infuriates is that so many grayling anglers don't weigh fish, but blithely talk about the two or even three pound fish they have caught. If weight is important enough to mention, or even boast about, then they should bloody well weigh the fish instead of making a weight up. And nobody has ever said - 'I caught a big , grayling , it was easily 2-14 '. Nope, it's always 'a three' , always a rounded up number .

Some will say it doesn't matter - well it does to me !

 

[sam vimes]

Fishing rivers in a similar area to Grayson, I can only agree with both his posts.

It's absolutely fair to say that I know nothing about the Wye. However, if I were to rely on my fairly extensive grayling experience elsewhere, I'd want to fish below the riffle in the last pic of the OP. Like Grayson, I catch far more fish in 6" to 24" of fast broken and turbulent water than I ever do in slow, steady and deeper glides. I generally avoid such swims until there's a good foot or more of extra water in the river. At that point I'll fish the nearside crease where fish hide out of the rampaging main flow.

Not weighing fish is also a huge bugbear of mine. I've not been lucky enough to catch a grayling exceeding 1lb 12oz from either of my usual main river haunts in decades. The best I've managed was 1lb 15oz from one of the tributary becks. That's not to say bigger fish don't exist, I know they do. However, the way some talk, I must be doing something incredibly wrong in not catching 2lb+ fish every week. I've even heard a few claims of fish nudging towards 4lb. Unfortunately, I'm absolutely convinced that where I'm going wrong is that I actually weigh fish. Lots of folks are estimating very badly. The marginally better ones are measuring the length of their fish and using length to weight conversion tables. Sadly, these may be reasonably accurate for plump southern chalkstream fish, but they are a long way out when it comes to long, lean Dales fish.

 

[Mark Wintle]

I fish, occasionally, the club stretches of the lower Frome. I've had a few (weighed accurately) fish over 2lbs to 2-10. Genuine 3lbers turn up on a long cycle of 7 - 10 years but are rare. The Frome monsters come from those who have secured fishing on hardly fished trout water nearer Dorchester and they're not hard to catch, no great skills needed.

One observation of grayling is that where they are fished for hard they can get cute due to their exceptional eyesight and need fine gear to fool them. I once fished for a shoal of a dozen (8oz to a pound) on the Hants. Avon; first five were easy (stick float and casters) but once those caught fish returned to the shoal the whole shoal became very discerning, easily spotting the bait with a hook attached, though a switch from an 18 to a 22 fooled them. That said their memories are short and that same shoal was probably easy a day later.

 

[fishface1]

Agreed Mark.

My biggest came from one of those deep trout stretches, on a tups indispensable.

Also had plenty of big ones from the Test when Ringwood AC had a stretch.

 

[John Bailey]

Grayling Blues

Good to receive a reply to my piece on the stubborn Wye grayling stocks, and my present failures with them. Location is such an issue on the Wye, and I have that feeling a quest would have been better started in autumn when bites might have been more forthcoming. At the very least, a period of extreme cold, such as we are still experiencing here in the West, is not an ideal time to pioneer a large, generally uncharted river.

But no matter. As stated, if the Wye produces, that is excellent, but if she does not, that’s acceptable – at least for a sustainable period. There is so much grandeur attached to the whole valley that a day spent there is never remotely wasted. Mind you, I’d agree there is no doubt that success does make for a far brighter drive home, especially if the distance is tiresome.

I’m torn on the subject of approach. Fly might be more purist, but the history of trotting for grayling is a long and noble one. Especially in the North of England. Maestros like TK Wilson, Arthur Oglesby and Reg Righyni regularly took grayling on a float at distances well in excess of fifty yards, and that takes some doing, at least by me! Indeed, the equally legendary Terry Thomas once saw Righyni hook and land a grayling at a measured hundred yards. My God, do I even have that much line on my reel?

Talking of these men makes me wonder just how good we in truth are today, and whether we have half-forgotten about skill sets that our predecessors excelled in. When I sat down to draw up a list of the most extraordinary fly casters I have seen at work, most it seemed to me have passed on. Or is that sheer nostalgia I wonder...?

Float or fly... it’s exquisite stuff!​

 

[fishface1]

He must have been using a hell of a float to be able to see it at 100yards!!!

 

[peter crabtree]

When we used to have regular fish ins here on FM we used to go the wonderful river Itchen near Southampton airport. Double maggot trotted in a few feet of water would bring grayling, virtually one a bung..
My local chalk stream, the river Chess which is just 9 miles in length used to produce some beauties but they have thinned out in recent years..Shame as it has some nice free stretches with one at the bottom of my road, Mostly trout and chub these days..

 

[sam vimes]

I’m torn on the subject of approach. Fly might be more purist, but the history of trotting for grayling is a long and noble one. Especially in the North of England. Maestros like TK Wilson, Arthur Oglesby and Reg Righyni regularly took grayling on a float at distances well in excess of fifty yards, and that takes some doing, at least by me! Indeed, the equally legendary Terry Thomas once saw Righyni hook and land a grayling at a measured hundred yards. My God, do I even have that much line on my reel?

The bigger Dales rivers are often quite accommodating when it comes to long trotting. Many stretches having no defined pegs and few anglers helps immensely in this regard. I know that I had a bit of a shock when I joined up and started fishing the occasional match on more southerly rivers. I distinctly remember fishing the Warwickshire Avon somewhere near Evesham. I got a shock on my first trot when I'd barely allowed the float to travel more than ten yards and got an aggrieved shout from the unseen angler pegged below me. I'd never encountered such tight pegging on a river before. I now appreciate why many anglers think you are barmy when you tell them you are trotting anything over 25 yards. Tell 99% of anglers that you've trotted up to 100 yards and they'll invariably think you are lying. You certainly can't do so with piddly little stick floats, any old rod and less than perfect light conditions.

Talking of these men makes me wonder just how good we in truth are today, and whether we have half-forgotten about skill sets that our predecessors excelled in. When I sat down to draw up a list of the most extraordinary fly casters I have seen at work, most it seemed to me have passed on. Or is that sheer nostalgia I wonder...?

I don't think so, at least with regards to float fishing on rivers. I see very few people actually doing it and many I do see don't seem particularly proficient, though they may well think exactly the same about me. What has struck me in the last few years is that quite a few fly anglers seem to be dabbling with trotting maggots for grayling. Quite often, this will involve an old or cheap new centrepin. For some reason, centrepins make bait fishing somehow more acceptable to the fly fishing fraternity. I have had the odd silent chuckle seeing a fly angler using a centrepin like a fly reel and mimicking a fly cast.

I don't believe that I'm anywhere near as good as the old boys I used to watch as a kid. However, I believe that I can just about hold my own (when it comes to trotting) with all but the cream of the local match anglers. Almost all of them are now pensioners and their numbers are steadily diminishing.

 

[bullet]

Fishing rivers miles away from Grayson and Sam in Devon/Cornwall, I can only agree with their posts regarding Grayling as well.

 

[John Aston]

I'm no expert but I do a little teach in for game anglers new to trotting on a couple of my club waters . All are keen to learn and most find it much harder than they expect. If they can cast a decent way with a fly line it is understandable that they underestimate how hard it is to cast with the weight of shot . But they struggle to accept that only an underarm flick is often all that is needed - they make theatrical overhead lunges and succeed mainly in tangles - around the rod, back of the reel , you name it . Bit like come coarse anglers do when they try to cast a fly - it is certainly what I did.

Cheap reels - and a cheap centre pin is often more hindrance than help , any old float, often too light but I did once see a wine cork being used by some honking Rupert.

It's easy to get the wrong rod too , as so many cheaper float rods seem designed for hauling carp out of commercials .

But none of us is born with the full suite of angling skills and God knows I've got enough gaps in my skills , even after over 50 years of fishing ....

 

[nottskev]

"I’m torn on the subject of approach. Fly might be more purist, but the history of trotting for grayling is a long and noble one."

I really don't go for this nostalgic upper class stuff. Why is fly "more purist"? There's a tv fishing programme called On the Bank, and a fly-favouring presenter is often featured walking into small rivers, unconcealed and sticking out like a sore thumb, and fishing for grayling with a bunch of fly-type lures on a short line dignified with some pompous name like "French Nymphing" and trotting it from a couple of metres above his waders to a couple below. Nothing wrong with that, but nothing to write home about, is it? Start stamping about in the canal or my local small river and see how many good roach you catch. And what does "noble" mean? And is catching grayling on the float more "noble" than catching chub and dace? Why? In my experience, grayling are relatively rare, but when they are present - I've caught them in the Dee, the Dove, the Derwent, the Don and the Trent - I've found they are onto your bait as fast as those daft trout they tend to live amongst. I like them as a species, and I'm sure lots of anglers have more experience than me of catching them, but I do find they get surrounded in some tosh. They're once, twice, three times a Lady........

 

[bullet]

I've caught thousands of Grayling, both on fly and trotting, and I'm going to stick my neck out here and say, imo, obviously, that they are probably the daftest fresh water fish.
Like fishing for them, though?

 

[sam vimes]

As far as I'm concerned, grayling seem to have been steadily reclaimed by game anglers over the last 20-25 years or so. I remember in my youth that many game anglers were quite dismissive of grayling. The very worst of them would actually advocate culling them (often along with every other "coarse" fish). Over the years, grayling have slowly shifted from being looked down upon as a mere coarse fish to being valued as a game fish. It certainly wasn't ever thus.

 

[bullet]

That's certainly the case, on most "game rivers" they culled regularly until quite recently.

 

[sam vimes]

I've caught thousands of Grayling, both on fly and trotting, and I'm going to stick my neck out here and say, imo, obviously, that they are probably the daftest fresh water fish.
Like fishing for them, though?

I guess it depends on how many trout are present in your water of choice. Where fishing maggots and worms are concerned, I consider trout to be more suicidal than grayling. However, when grayling are really on it, they aren't the biggest challenge. That, and the fact that they'll feed when nothing else will, is a big reason why I spend my winters chasing them. I don't enjoy blanking at any time, but it's even worse when you've frozen your bits off for a few hours.

 

[bullet]

Yep, nothing not to like about fish that can be caught in the coldest of conditions.

 

[nottskev]

Yep, nothing not to like about fish that can be caught in the coldest of conditions.

Absolutely. Grayling have saved many a frosty day for me, too. Lovely little fish. But no need to go on about it like we're treading in the footsteps of some 19c country gentleman, with guff about noble purism.