First Grayling of the Year!
Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2016 3:26 pm
Hello everyone
For the last few weeks I've been working flat out in my darkroom trying to get on top of a new photography commission from the gallery so combined with the shocking weather I haven't had much chance to celebrate the new year with a trip to the river. But by Thursday I had pretty much completed all I could so with nothing much else to do until the gallery could send me the sizes of the final pictures I was at a bit of a loose end. So I decided to treat myself to days trotting for grayling up in the dale. These days most of my fishing is with the fly so it must have been 10 years since I last trotted for grayling so I was pretty excited to get back into it. The day dawned misty but a weak January sun started to break through the clouds as I tackled up my Priory rod with my Aerial which certainly improved my confidence. Over the years my float collection certainly been pretty neglected and it took a bit of digging through my tackle box to find some hooks, float rubbers and split shot but soon with a small pot of "brandlings" (my local tackle shop informed me they are no longer called that??) I was ready to start.
I was worried to see how the river had changed since the flooding over Christmas, but though a lot of stone and gravel had been shifted the main runs still seemed just as good.
It felt great to feel the centre pin trundling away once again and the old winch still ran smooth as silk.
And after a few runs the floats slipped under I raised the rod expecting it to be another boulder but suddenly the rod curved over into the thumping fight of a grayling!
A new worm, few slight adjustment to the depth of the float and few more trots through and the float shot away again and this time some serious took off down the pool. After a good tussle I had what was to be the biggest grayling of the day. Pushing 16in and good pound and three quarters he was a stunning fish in this prime
I had one more grayling from this pool and then it all went quiet so I moved upstream to a small deep pool the runs behind an island. By now the weather had started to take a turn for the worse and the temperature had started to fall but despite this I managed a few more ladies bringing the days total to 8.
Thanks for reading!
Graham
For the last few weeks I've been working flat out in my darkroom trying to get on top of a new photography commission from the gallery so combined with the shocking weather I haven't had much chance to celebrate the new year with a trip to the river. But by Thursday I had pretty much completed all I could so with nothing much else to do until the gallery could send me the sizes of the final pictures I was at a bit of a loose end. So I decided to treat myself to days trotting for grayling up in the dale. These days most of my fishing is with the fly so it must have been 10 years since I last trotted for grayling so I was pretty excited to get back into it. The day dawned misty but a weak January sun started to break through the clouds as I tackled up my Priory rod with my Aerial which certainly improved my confidence. Over the years my float collection certainly been pretty neglected and it took a bit of digging through my tackle box to find some hooks, float rubbers and split shot but soon with a small pot of "brandlings" (my local tackle shop informed me they are no longer called that??) I was ready to start.
I was worried to see how the river had changed since the flooding over Christmas, but though a lot of stone and gravel had been shifted the main runs still seemed just as good.
It felt great to feel the centre pin trundling away once again and the old winch still ran smooth as silk.
And after a few runs the floats slipped under I raised the rod expecting it to be another boulder but suddenly the rod curved over into the thumping fight of a grayling!
A new worm, few slight adjustment to the depth of the float and few more trots through and the float shot away again and this time some serious took off down the pool. After a good tussle I had what was to be the biggest grayling of the day. Pushing 16in and good pound and three quarters he was a stunning fish in this prime
I had one more grayling from this pool and then it all went quiet so I moved upstream to a small deep pool the runs behind an island. By now the weather had started to take a turn for the worse and the temperature had started to fall but despite this I managed a few more ladies bringing the days total to 8.
Thanks for reading!
Graham