weekend grayling search

With a lack of fishing recently I decided to take Friday off work and have a day fishing for the grayling and headed up to perthshire to do a bit of trotting. The river was running high but clear so I was hopeful that I might pick up a Grayling or two. Fishable spots on the stretch were fairly limited with the high water but  I was in a good run where Col and I have encountered grayling before in similar conditions. Unfortunately It wasn't to be today though, plenty of out of season trout throughout the day but no grayling for my efforts, never mind a couple of steak bridies from the local butcher shop for the journey home to end an enjoyable day.

I still had plenty of bait left over from Friday so on Sunday I headed west to a river i haven't fished for a good while now, my plan was to fish its lower reaches where Ive had a couple of good grayling days in the past,  when I got there and peered over the bridge though it looked disappointingly dirty so I jumped back in the car and travelled to the rivers upper reaches where I found it  running clear and at a good height.

a hard frost on the ground today

 I've never fished this stretch before so I had a wee wonder downstream until I found a pool that I liked the look of with a nice pace and depth. After a few trots down I had a  trout before I got talking to an angler on the opposite bank, as it turns out  we knew each other from a forum, Paul knows this river like the back of his hand and pleasingly he told me the pool I was fishing was a reliable one for grayling  although  I would be better fishing it from the other bank.  I crossed over to join him and after a while I connected with a fish,  this time it turned out to be a grayling ,  just a wee one but I was pleased to finally get of the mark!

I dropped a better fish from the same spot before landing a nice grayling of a pound and a half

 a few trots down later and the float went in the same area again, felt like another good fish  but it shed the hook. They wised up after that, but by now I was beginning to feel the cold in my feet so called it a day contented  with a couple of hard won grayling,  a big thanks to Paul for his expert advice, can't wait to get back on this river next weekend.

Winter Account Open

Not been doing much fishing of recent , mainly due to the weather , work and other matters. A few hours this afternoon allowed for a shot at the grayling burn, no question about it the grayling have been notable by their absence this year, the last two visits I have resulted in a grayling lost at the net each time.

This afternoon the burn looked great plenty water and good clarity, in fact the silt seems to have been flushed away in the high water, the water though was cold, and last nights hard frost was still evident throughout the afternoon .

 I set up Nz style first with a size 14 blister bug under a dirty Polly, but after searching a nice looking bit in the first pool I decided to up the size of the glitter bug to a size 10 , with immediate result.

A grayling a real sight for sore eyes, and for once it didn't come off  at the net.

I continued upstream for a few pools with renewed optimism, but apart from a hat trick of out of season browns that found a liking for the nymph , no more grayling were forth coming. still theres always next time.